Exonyms or endonyms?
The UN calls for a reduction of exonyms, as their continued use hinders international communication. The use of endonyms (#076) only is propagated ("Local names Policy"). Advocates of the use of exonyms claim that names are easier to learn or remember when adapted to one's own language, and that it will be easier to connect objects outside one's country to one's history if the relevant exonyms are used.

Nevertheless it should always be clear which names are exonyms and which names are official local names (endonyms). That can be ascertained for instance by always presenting the endonym first. If there is no exonym, than the only name presented must be an endonym.

For which names should we use exonyms?
For most language areas lists have been produced that show the exonyms that are still current for that language. Below an example of a list of exonyms, provided by the Dutch Language Union (Nederlandse Taalunie / look under "Buitenlandse aardrijkskundige namen" in the central column under "Taal") can be found. These exonyms are in use wherever the Dutch language has offical status: Aruba, Belgium (Flanders), Curacao, the Netherlands, St Maarten and Suriname. The column "Dutch" has the Dutch exonyms, the column "Local name " has the endonyms.

Guidelines can be given for the use of exonyms, depending on the name category; for an English school atlas, such guidelines entail the following (examples of the resulting name versions in blue):

But: keep the number of exonyms added in brackets to the endonyms as small as possible.