At present, the old provincial names are used in several ways; first, people use them to distinguish the same place names in different places; second, people use them when they do not like to use prefecture names that are taken from a city name or a county name instead of coming up with their own and most prefecture names are settled using such substitution; third, people use old provincial names locally; (a typical example is 'Shinano Province' or 'Shinshu' which are consciously called by people in Nagano Prefecture except in the northern part of Nagano Prefecture where Nagano City is located.)
現代では、離れたところにある同じ地名を区別する際に用いられたり、府県名が郡名や都市名で代用したものが大半であるため、それで呼ぶことを嫌う場合や地域において用いられている（長野県を県庁所在地である長野市が所在する北信地方以外では意識的に「信濃国」或いは「信州」と呼ぶケースが代表的）。