Cloud Region Naming Conventions — AWS, Azure, and GCP Formats

Cloud Region Naming Convention Guide

Each cloud provider uses a distinct naming convention for their regions. Understanding these patterns helps you quickly decode unfamiliar region codes and avoid configuration errors.

AWS Naming Convention

Format: {continent}-{direction}-{number}

Component	Values	Example
Continent	us, eu, ap, sa, af, me, ca, il	us
Direction	east, west, north, south, central, northeast, southeast	east
Number	Sequential integer	1
Result		us-east-1

AWS uses hyphens between all components, including before the number. This is the most systematic convention.

Azure Naming Convention

Format: {direction}{geography} or {geography}{direction}

Azure's naming is less systematic than AWS:

• eastus, westus, centralus — direction first for US regions
• northeurope, westeurope — direction first for Europe
• japaneast, koreacentral — geography first for Asia
• canadacentral, brazilsouth — geography first for Americas
• No separators or numbers (except eastus2, westus2)

GCP Naming Convention

Format: {continent/country}-{direction}{number}

Component	Values	Example
Continent	us, europe, asia, australia, northamerica, southamerica, me	us
Direction	east, west, north, south, central, northeast, southeast	east
Number	Sequential integer (no hyphen before number)	1
Result		us-east1

GCP is similar to AWS but uses longer continent names (europe vs eu, northamerica vs ca) and omits the hyphen before the number.

Common Confusion Points

1. AWS us-east-1 vs GCP us-east1 — the trailing hyphen before the number
2. Azure northeurope is in Ireland, not Scandinavia
3. Azure westeurope is in the Netherlands, not Western Europe broadly
4. GCP uses northamerica-northeast1 for Canada (not ca-)
5. AWS ap-southeast-1 vs Azure southeastasia — same place (Singapore), very different codes