Stephen R Schoening (asker) Mar 11, 2013:

Thanks for discussion Thanks for discussion entries. I didn't think about it until your comments, but yes, there are a lot of differences regionally in the US also for these terms so I agree to use the general terms.

Stuart Hoskins Mar 7, 2013:

Absolutely agree, Scott, what interested me about this question is that Stephen asks whether there is an (American) English translation (equivalent?)

Scott Evan Andrews Mar 7, 2013:

i.e. we must sometimes be commonwealths, N.O. indeed has wards, and my town was the Borough of Mercer, not a town at all legally and not a part or district of any city but a municipality of 1,200...it's necessary to respect that when specifying them, but for what Stephen's searching for, I'd never go anywhere else than "district'...Clarity is king.

Scott Evan Andrews Mar 7, 2013:

right you are Stuart...you know, there are 46 states in the United States of America, and four commonwealths, due to their (our - I'm from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) relationship to common law...I state this just as an example that local customs run deep and terminology is sure to differ, but to make it more generic and understandable, especially something as important as diplomas, birth, marriage and death certificates, I believe the clearest is the best (principle of NRFE - no room for error) , and "municipal district" has come across my desk so many times my concordance search can't even handle it almost...it's the proper term used

Stuart Hoskins Mar 7, 2013:

boroughs and wards I’ve no idea about the administrative units of Ústí in the 1950s, but as Scott suggests, there is more than one “obvod” in the city (currently four – see http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ústí_nad_Labem). If you hadn’t indicated American English, I would have thrown “borough” into the discussion, but according to Wikipedia that’s more UK than US. I remember hearing about the “wards” of New Orleans during the Katrina coverage… Also note that “městská cast” (basically a synonym) has been answered recently (http://www.proz.com/kudoz/czech_to_english/government_politi...