On the basis of metonymic cognition, this paper focuses on Chinese names of places in public signs and their English equivalents to reclassify metonymy. Through analysis of the word formation in both languages, it tries to probe into the operative model and explanatory capability that metonymy manifests in place names. It is found that 1) all the names of places in public signs are composed of modifier-head nominal constructions with nouns or adjectives as the modifiers; 2) the constituents of the word structures include exclusive vocabulary and common words. The combination of exclusive words is the result of conceptual and semantic “mixture” which manifests the metonymy between Chinese pronunciation and translated pinyin based on phonetic iconicity; 3) Referential metonymies can be found in some place names composed of common words in the sequence of “Noun 1+ Noun 2” or “adjective + noun” structures in both Chinese and English. No obvious metonymies are found in the other constructions whose English equivalents include “Noun 1+ Noun 2” and “Noun1 of Noun 2” in form.