This is a huge issue and should become lots of smaller subissues but for now let's start with this ...
https://www.whosonfirst.org/ - Who’s On First (WOF) is a gazetteer. If you’ve never heard the term “gazetteer” before it’s basically just a big phone book, but a phone book of places rather than people. - https://www.whosonfirst.org/what/. 26m records
This is a huge issue and should become lots of smaller subissues but for now let's start with this ...