A review that could lead to the removal of Canberra place names deemed hurtful may be complicated and awkward work for the committee overseeing the audit.
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ACT Place Names committee co-chair Jeff Brown on Monday said the task would be an unusual one if a Labor MLA's push to seek community views on offensive place names succeeded.
Mr Brown said only two street names had been changed in the national capital's history, and the work would involve contacting everyone who lived on any roads set to be renamed.
The task would also raise questions for people who would have to change their personal contact details, and require updates to electronic maps and records, he told ABC Radio on Monday.
"The names, when you consider them, are not only everyone's records for everyone that particularly lives in a suburb, you've got thousands of people in a suburb, every one of them has probably got a hundred or more authorities and people that have that address," he said.
"Changing names is a very awkward thing, and not only the personal contact records that everyone has, but then you've got all your mapping which these days is digital.
"It's also on printed maps which go back particularly for older suburbs for years, so those records are there and it's very confusing if a name is changed. So normally name changes have to be for a really specific reason.
"The usual principle is place names are enduring and it's got to be recognised at the time the commemoration was made and the information was made available to the committee," he said.
He said while it was unusual for place names to be changed, there were opportunities for further information about people commemorated by them to be reviewed.
The Labor MLA behind the move to review place names, Bec Cody, wants Mr Brown's committee to listen to feedback about those names that are hurtful to people.
Ms Cody said letters she received had expressed pain that Canberra still named places after people who had acted in ways that were criminal, reprehensible and abhorrent.
She declined to identify candidates for name changes, saying she didn't want particular places to become the focus of a community discussion and audit.
If her motion were to pass in November, the ACT Legislative Assembly would ask the territory's Place Names committee to hold a review and advise on any changes needed, recognising "the ongoing hurt caused in the community by the commemoration of villains as heroes".
The committee would report to the ACT government, which would have to approve any changes.
