Toronto Ontario Temple
Did you know that the Church uses a (mostly) universal system for naming temples? In October 1999 the Church created a guideline for naming future temples and renaming older ones (Temples renamed to uniform guidelines). The guideline is the name of the nearest major city followed by the name of the country or the US state or Canadian province. For example the Montevideo Uruguay Temple, the Memphis Tennessee Temple in the US, and the Edmonton Alberta Temple in Canada. The Church also renamed most of the older temples. For example the Manti Temple became the Manti Utah Temple, the Arizona Temple became the Mesa Arizona Temple and the Swiss Temple became the Bern Switzerland Temple.
However the following temples are exceptions to the guideline:
For this and future posts the names of temples that are under construction are in Italics and the names of temples that are announced are in Bold.
Salt Lake Temple
The Salt Lake Temple is the only older temple that the Church did not rename. Technically it's name isn't the same as the name the city, which is Salt Lake City or the the same as the name of the Great Salt Lake and most uniquely it doesn’t include the name of the state.
Provo City Center Temple
The Provo City Center Temple is named after part of the city and does not include the name of the state. Salt Lake and Provo City Center are the only temples without the state, province or country in their names.
Columbia River Washington Temple
The Jordan River Utah, Columbia River Washington, Feather River California and Teton River Idaho temples are named after nearby rivers instead of their nearest cities.
Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple
The Mount Timpanogos Utah, Oquirrh Mountain Utah, Deseret Peak Utah and Lone Mountain Nevada temples are named after nearby mountains instead of their nearest cities.
The Gila Valley Arizona Temple
The Gila Valley Arizona, Star Valley Wyoming, Willamette Valley Oregon and Heber Valley Utah temples are named after the valley the temple is in instead of the nearest city.
The Hague Netherlands and The Gila Valley Arizona temples both include "The" in their names.
St. George Utah Temple
The Red Cliffs Utah and Provo Utah Rock Canyon (when it reopens after renovation) temples are named after prominent features of the local landscape.
Colonia Juárez Chihuahua Mexico Temple
The Colonia Juárez Chihuahua Mexico and Hermosillo Sonora Mexico temples include the name of the city, province and country. When the guidelines were introduced the official names of the Merida Yucatan Mexico and Villahermosa Tabasco Mexico temples also included the city, province and country but the Church shortened their names to just the city and country.
Bogota Colombia Temple
Three temples in Latin America are in federal districts, similar to Washington DC. The Church originally renamed these temples the Bogota DC Colombia, Caracas DF Venezuela and Mexico City DF Mexico temples but the Church has since dropped the initials.
Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple
The Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple is named after the historic Mormon settlement instead of the nearest city, which is Omaha.
Manhattan New York Temple
The Manhattan New York Temple is named after the borough of Manhattan, which is part of the city of New York.
Lima Peru Temple
Recently temples have been announced in several cities outside the United States that already have a temple. In each case the name of the first temple in each city follows the standard pattern. The second temple adds the name of a district or neighborhood, but in different places. The name of the Lima Peru Los Olivos Temple includes the city, country then district of the city. The Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple includes the neighborhood first then the city and country. Finally the Mexico City Benemérito Mexico Temple includes the city first then the neighborhood and country. Other temples have names that the Church will probably change as they finalize their locations. They are the São Paulo East Brazil, Santiago West Chile, Buenos Aires City Center Argentina, Houston Texas South and Brisbane Australia South temples.
The Church will probably also change the name of the Russia temple when they choose a specific site for that temple.