Foreign names will be banned from being used to name new developments in Central China's Henan province, according to a draft regulation issued by the local government.

Foreign names such as Manhattan and Venice have become popular in recent years in some of the local residential communities, the legislative office of Henan provincial government said in a notice issued on Monday.

The office will solicit public opinion on the new regulation in the next two weeks, and local residents can give their opinion to the local government.

Wang Dong, the board chairman of a local real estate developer, said using foreign names in some apartments can be exotic for the local residents.

"There is a residential community called Provence in Zhengzhou, and the bus station was also named after that, which has been accepted by the local people for years," he said,

Regulations issued by the State Council bans the names of State leaders from being used to name places nationwide, but it did not stipulate whether the use of foreign names were allowed or not.