Names

Feature: Names

Description

To provide details of the name for a feature included in OpenStreetMap.

Tags

name=*

To provide details of the name for a feature included in OpenStreetMap.

Name keys

Key	Value	Element	Comment
name	User defined		The common default name. Notes: For disputed areas, please use the name as displayed on, e.g., street signs for the name tag Put all alternatives into either localized name tags (e.g., name:tr/name:el) or the variants (e.g., loc_name/old_name/alt_name) Do not abbreviate words: abbreviations For details refer to Names#Good_practice.
name:<xx>	User defined		Name in different language; e.g., name:fr=Londres. Note that all key variants below can use a language suffix. See: Multilingual names.
name:left[:<xx>], name:right[:<xx>]	User defined		Used when a way has different names for different sides (e.g., a street that's forming the boundary between two municipalities).
int_name[:<xx>]	User defined		International name. Consider using language specific names instead; e.g., name:en=.... International does not (necessarily) mean English. It is used to give the name transliterated to Latin script in Belarus, Bulgaria, Greece, Kazakhstan and North Macedonia
loc_name[:<xx>]	User defined		Local name.
nat_name[:<xx>]	User defined		National name.
official_name[:<xx>]	User defined		Official name. Useful where there is some elaborate official name, while a different one is a common name typically used. Example: official_name=Principat d'Andorra (where "name" is name=Andorra).
old_name[:<xx>]	User defined		Historical/old name, still in some use.
ref_name[:<xx>]	User defined		Unique, human-readable name of this object in an external data management system.
reg_name[:<xx>]	User defined		Regional name.
short_name[:<xx>]	User defined		Should be a recognizable commonly-used short version of the name, not an altogether different name (use alt_name for that), useful for searching (recognized by Nominatim).
full_name[:<xx>]	User defined
sorting_name[:<xx>]	User defined		Name, used for correct sorting of names — This is only needed when sorting names cannot be based only on their orthography (using the Unicode Collation Algorithm with collation tables tailored by language and script, or when sorted lists of names are including names written in multiple languages and/or scripts) but requires ignoring some parts such as: ignoring leading articles, or lowering the relative importance of first names cited before a last name, ignoring the generic part of a street name when it occurs before the specific name (e.g., in French with "rue", "boulevard", "place", etc.), all of them being ignored at the primary sort level and not easily inferable by a preprocessing algorithm.
alt_name[:<xx>]	User defined		Alternative name by which the feature is known. If there is a name that does not fit in any of the above keys, alt_name can be used; e.g., name=Field Fare Road and alt_name=Fieldfare Road, or name=University Centre and alt_name=Grad Pad. In rare cases, the key is used for multiple semicolon-separated names; e.g. alt_name=name1;name2;name3, but this usage is not preferred.
nickname[:<xx>]	User defined		Nickname (e.g. "Warschauer Allee" for BAB 2 in Germany 3140168 3140168).
proposed:name[:<xx>]	User defined		Proposed / future name for an element.
name_1 , name_2 , ...			Do not use this tag, suffixed name tagging for multiple values is deprecated.
bridge:name[:<xx>]	User defined		Used to specify the name of a bridge where key:name is already used for the road on the bridge.
tunnel:name[:<xx>]	User defined		Used to specify the name of a tunnel where key:name is already used for the road through the tunnel.

This table is a wiki template with a default description in English. Editable here.

Good practice

OSM follows the on the ground principle, which means that street names and other proper names are generally entered as they appear on signs, even if those names deviate from the general spelling rules. Possible exceptions are described in some of the following sections.

If you're wondering why how brands (McDonald's etc) have preset suggestions in iD, Every Door, and other apps, the answer is in the Name Suggestion Index. Here you can add presets for brands so they get uniform spelling and tagging.

Abbreviation (do not)

Main article: Abbreviations

An extreme example of abbreviation: Lake Washington Boulevard Northeast and Main Street

If the name can be spelled without an abbreviation, then don't abbreviate it. Computers can easily shorten words, but not the other way (St. could be Street or Saint).

Proper name spelling

If the name isn't present on any signs, follow the local spelling rules. Make sure that the name is really locally known and you're not inventing or constructing a name. However, signs are not required for a name to exist. Most natural features like woods and lakes do not have signs. In many countries with weaker governments or lower literacy levels, the names of hamlets and streets will not be written down, but can be verified by asking the local people. You can use source:name=* to explicitly indicate how you determined the name of the feature.

If multiple different spellings are used locally, the most common or most correct is preferred. The other spelling can be entered as alt_name=*.

Conflicting signs "Karlstraße"/"Karlstrasse" for the same street. In this case, Karlstraße would be the correct spelling in Germany.

Obvious mistakes (like John-F.-Kennwdy Square) or deviating spellings that only occur because some characters were not transcribed or printed correctly should be replaced with the proper spelling, but within reason. If there is a "Jolin Tsai Street" in an English-speaking country, do not restore the original spelling of the name as something like "蔡依林 Street", but a sign with "GROSSER WEG" in Germany should be turned into name=Großer Weg, which would be considered the correct local spelling, instead of "Grosser Weg", which would be considered incorrect. (The uppercase version of "ß" was only officially adopted in the German language in 2017 and its usage is still optional.)

When old/outdated and new spelling variants are both present, the newer spelling should be used as name=*. Exceptions are possible, for example, if a city or region explicitly prefers the old spelling of a name for historic reasons and any signs with the new spelling are obviously an oversight. Proper names included in street names usually shouldn't be adjusted to new spelling variants.

Avoid including emoji and other special characters that are not pronounced, are decorative, or substitute normal letters (e.g. "♥" used for "heart" or "love", "!" used for "i"). Stylized spellings of trademarks and company names should be adapted to the regular capitalisation and spelling rules, e.g. a sign that reads "TACO 🔔 BELL" would be written as name=Taco Bell. However, do not change spellings/capitalization if it would cause confusion or if the original spelling is much more common in everyday usage.

Not all signs contain names. Descriptive text, alphanumeric IDs, advertising slogans and similar items should not be included in names.

If local signs do not match the data in official publications/databases/directories, the official name can be tagged as official_name=*, but make sure you're allowed to use that data. Note that databases can be outdated, contain mistakes or might have limitations in maximum entry length or allowable characters.

If a sign is obviously in error, use not:name=* to prevent mappers without local knowledge from propagating the error in OpenStreetMap.

In principle, not all special cases and exceptions can be mapped into rules. When still in doubt, use common sense. You may also find the following questions helpful:

• How would you write the name in a mailing address, e.g. when sending a letter?
• How would a navigation system pronounce the name and what name would a user enter to search for the feature?
• How does the name appear in official directories? Are any discrepancies to signs or to proper spelling rules intended or likely mistakes?

Capitalisation

Names are adapted to the local capitalisation rules; title case is generally preferred, but regional rules have preference over general rules. Note that multiple capitalisation styles could be right, so be careful and do not overcorrect. For example, in German both "An der alten Brücke" and "An der Alten Brücke" (meaning "at the old bridge") could be considered correct names. In Flemish, capitalisation of last names gives a hint about the nobility status of the person. Street or company names derived from those last names should copy the same capitalisation. In non-Latin based languages, it's often not even possible to capitalise a name.

Apostrophes

If the street sign has an apostrophe, the OSM data should have an apostrophe. There is no obvious consistency; the London Underground station Barons Court is adjacent to Earl's Court, one with an apostrophe, one without.

Name is the name only

The name=* tag should be restricted to the actual name of the item. The first step is to determine whether the object actually has a name. Anything can be described by its type or category — for example: house, alley, park, pitch, lake, etc. However, not every such object has a proper name. If something does not have a name, do not fill the name=* tag. Any additional information should be included in separate tags to identify its meaning.

Incorrect use of name=*	Properly selected tags
name=house	building=house
name=Mosque	amenity=place_of_worship, religion=muslim
name=football pitch	leisure=pitch, sport=soccer
name=unnamed street	highway=residential, noname=yes — see section #No name, below
name=alternate summit trail	highway=path, member of a route relation with alternative role

Validators may detect and propose to remove the most obvious and common incorrect names, but undetected ones are also incorrect.

Names with generic terms

However, the examples above do not mean that a name cannot contain a type or describe an object. The official street name East 110th Street should also be recorded in name=*, despite the fact that the word east describes a relative location, and the words 110th and street are a number and a type.

Very often, in addition to the specific part, names also include a generic term. For example, Ho Chi Minh City, should remain intact even though the place is tagged place=city. At the same time, New York City may be correct as the common name for The City of New York, but for a city named Manchester, do not add a descriptive City.

Some objects are actually named The Lake, or The Hill. In such cases adding it as a name is fine. For example, The LakeThe Lake in New York City’s Central ParkCentral Park is tagged with name=The Lake and not a constructed name like Central Park Lake.

Invented and real names

Constructing names is a form of tagging for the renderer. Do not construct names for features by combining the name of an enclosing or nearby feature with a description. For example, an unnamed fountain near the church St Mary Magdalen should not be tagged with name=St Mary Magdalen Fountain. Associated features of a named area should only be tagged with a name when they have a commonly used local name, or some other indication (such as signage) of the feature’s name. If the associated feature is named, it should still not be combined with the related area’s name. A feature named Bevington Fountain within the churchyard of the church St Mary Magdalen should be tagged name=Bevington Fountain, but not name=St Mary Magdalen Bevington Fountain.

However, bear in mind that actual names referencing the location of an object are fine, as long as it is an actual name. For example, St Mary Magdalen Churchyard does include St Mary Magdalen in the name because St Mary Magdalen Churchyard is the graveyard’s actual name.

It is certainly wrong for a mapper to invent a name — for example, for an airstrip. However, most names were invented at some point in history, so if someone invents a name and it catches on and a sizeable group of people refer to the thing by that name, then it’s acceptable to be mapped. For example, in 1950, the town of Hot Springs, New Mexico, officially changed its name to Truth or Consequences after the residents agreed to name it after a popular radio show.

Names are not for descriptions

For descriptions, please use description=*, not the name=*. A name should not contain additional information that is not part of it, such as categories, addresses, ref=* links, owner=* or operator=* data, technical specifications, etc. The name=* is also not intended for explanations of the object’s state, role, or time restrictions. OpenStreetMap terminology or any other notes for mappers should not be part of the name.

The table below provides specific examples where details are not part of the name and should not be included in a feature’s name=* tag:

Incorrect use of name=*	Note
The Royal Albert Hall, London	Do not include the address, city or neighborhood in the name, even if there are multiple objects of the same name.
Lower Hell Hole 1030-002 Dam	Some sources occasionally include an inventory number in the name. Use a separate ref=* tag after confirming this is a mistake.
Hill of Tara, 155 m	Elevation, or other physical parameters have dedicated tags — for height, use the ele=* tag.
closed pub (due for demolition)	Do not describe the object’s state in place of a name. Use description=* or old_name=* with lifecycle prefixes.
Bristlecone Road (seasonal)	Opening hours or seasonal availability should be tagged with opening_hours=* or access:conditional=*.
Multipolygon Alice Holt Forest	Geometry types such as node, way, and multipolygon, as well as technical notes for mappers, are never part of a real-world name.
Mirissa Beach (eastern part)	Do not separately name parts of the same object where they are separate in OpenStreetMap, but not outside of it.

Special cases

Historically, public transit route relations were expected to have name=* set to a description of the route in a rigid format.

Union Pacific Railroad — a name=* which was assigned during the USA’s 2007-8 TIGER import (of roads and rail); the correct value is the name of the Subdivision/Branch/Line and this railroad name is properly the value of operator=* and/or owner=* (there are many other incorrect values besides Union Pacific). It is ok to precede a railroad name with an operator when two or more otherwise-identically named lines in close proximity would create serious confusion. For example, naming CN Joliet Subdivision and UP Joliet Subdivision or BNSF Fort Worth Subdivision and UP Fort Worth Subdivision is sensible. (For now. Even this convention may disappear in the future as operator=* and owner=* become more widespread and avoid such ambiguities).

No name

Streets which have no name can be tagged noname=yes. The idea is to clearly indicate that the street genuinely doesn't have a name. Absence of a name tag is increasingly used to indicate areas which need to be surveyed still.

Multiple names

If a feature has multiple names, try to classify them using rich semantic tags like the ones in the table (like short_name=*, old_name=*, etc.). If none of them works, choose the alt_name=* tag. If there are multiple names that do not fit, alt_name=* can be used with semicolons.

Sometimes name=* itself can contain multiple values separated by semicolons:

• In multilingual regions or localities, multiple names in different languages may be relevant enough to include in name=*. A separator other than a semicolon, such as "/" or "-" (spaced or not), may be customary locally. This is not a substitute for language-specific keys, such as name:en=* for English.
• Some international boundary features (often bodies of water) have multiple values in name=*, so as not to favour one country's preferred name over another's.
• In relatively rare cases, there may be a tie on less prominent features such as points of interest. For example, a single business may go by two names interchangeably and post each name on different sides of the building. Before overloading name=* with multiple values, make sure it is truly a tie and there is not a more structured way to represent the naming situation.

Some renderers turn semicolon delimiters into something more aesthetically pleasing, such as an em dash or line break, but many other data consumers assume only a single value in name=*, so a semicolon could appear verbatim, surprising users.

Left and right names

For way objects, names can differ by side of the object. For example, a street on the boundary between Belgium and the Netherlands can be given the name "Amsterdamsestraat" in Belgium and "Brusselsestraat" in the Netherlands.

This is solved by using the name:left=* and name:right=* tags to name both sides separately (using the direction of the way to determine left and right). The name=* tag can still include both names in order to support different tools.

To avoid confusion with multilingual names, the separator / is preferred above the - .

Example:

• name:left=Amsterdamsestraat
• name:right=Brusselsestraat
• name=Amsterdamsestraat / Brusselsestraat

Note: different left-and-right names doesn't preclude the existence of multilingual names (which also happens more often on country borders). So tags like name:left:fr=* are possible.

Disputed names

If the dispute can not be resolved through discussion, then the simple default rule is whatever name are used by the people on the ground at that location are used. For further information see Disputes#Naming and the Official OpenStreetMap Foundation statement on the project's practices regarding disputed boundaries, borders, names, and descriptions.

Localization

See also: Multilingual names

By now the majority of rendering systems can deal with unicode characters, so you can use the local script for the default name tag. There is no need to use the Latin script.

For adding localized names in different languages, add additional name:code=* tags with a suffix on the name key, where code is a language's ISO 639-1 alpha-2 code (in the second column), or ISO 639-2/T (alpha-3) code (technical/terminologic codes, including possibly codes for macrolanguages, but excepting codes allocated to group of languages, do not use bibliographic codes) if an ISO 639-1 code doesn't exist, or ISO 639-3 (alpha-3) codes (for isolated languages or macrolanguages) otherwise; do not use ISO 639-5 codes allocated for language families.

For example, name:fr=* for the name in French and name:en=* for the name in English. The default name (occupying the 'name' tag without suffix) should be the name in whatever language is used locally.

Here is an example of the usage. All these tags might appear on the same element:

name=Irgendwas        (the default name, used locally)
name:en=Something     (the name in English)
name:el=Κάτι          (the name in Greek)
name:de=Irgendwas     (the name in German)
name:pl=Coś           (the name in Polish)
name:fr=Quelque chose (the name in French)
name:es=Algo          (the name in Spanish)
name:it=Qualcosa      (the name in Italian)
name:ja=何か           (the name in Japanese)
name:ko=아무것          (the name in Korean)
name:ko-Latn=Mweonga  (the name in Romanised Korean)   (conforming to BCP 47 standard. Deprecated: ko_rm)

This leads to a more precise definition of alternative names.

Example of language codes according to the alpha-2 (= two-letter-)code of ISO 639-1:

de  German
pl  Polish
el  Greek
en  English
es  Spanish
fa  Persian
fr  French
it  Italian
ja  Japanese
ko  Korean
ru  Russian
zh-Hans  Simplified Chinese
zh-Hant  Traditional Chinese
ko-Latn  Romanised Korean (conforming to BCP 47 standard. Deprecated: ko_rm)

A short discussion on this language suffixes can be found on the discussion page.

Renderer support: Some rendering systems display these localised names. See Map Internationalization

Import: using osm2pgsql allows users to define new .style files which can include other language's name columns and bring them into the database. In order to render from these columns it is necessary to set up PostGIS views which present these columns as 'name' instead of 'name:languagecode'. An easier alternative might be to use a lua style file to move "name:XX" if it exists to "name". An example is seen in this diary.

Editor support: JOSM builds 1044 and newer support the display of local names. It detects the current system locale and tries to display names in this language first. You can change the order JOSM looks for names in the JOSM expert settings. Example: To display names written in Thai first, even if the current locale is 'en' set the following property:

mappaint.nameOrder=name:th;name:en;int_name;name

Transliteration

Transliteration is the process of taking a name in one language, and changing letters from one script to another. For some languages, this is necessary, particularly those which have multiple orthographies, such as Punjabi or Serbian. Some languages which are typically tagged separately necessarily have a transliterative relationship with one another in most cases; for example, Hindi and Urdu do not differ grammatically or phonetically and tend to contain the same strings in the Devanagari and Perso-Arabic scripts respectively. In most cases, it is not possible to transliterate automatically, so it is advisable to add and review these manually.

Some countries which use an official local language not written in the Latin script (notably in India, Arabic countries, and CJK character using region) have official Romanization or other transliteration schemes which may be tagged with the appropriate tag for the target language code.

When to avoid transliteration

There are many situations where transliteration is generally avoided. Everything with a name could hypothetically be transliterated into language (city names, roads, cafes), but it's not necessarily desirable for every possible transliteration to be mapped. See also Good practice#Map what's on the ground.

Situations where transliterations should be avoided include:

• Bulk import of transliterated names from sources such as Wikipedia.
• "Manufactured" transliterated names which are not in regular use (e.g., adding an Inuktitut transliteration of a small village in Indonesia)
• Names in fictional languages such as Klingon, Tengwar, or Na'vi.
• Brand and shop names which do not have a commonly used transliteration.

Some developers have attempted to demonstrate that mappers do not need to manually translate or transliterate obscure map features' names because fully automated alternatives are available:

• Sven Geggus has demonstrated the principle of rendering with auto-generated transliterations.
• The German OpenStreetMap (Mapnik style) and OpenMapTiles transliterate many scripts to Latin using OSM map l10n functions.

However, these fully automated approaches are fundamentally unreliable. Text can only be properly transliterated if the original source language is known, but name=* does not indicate a language explicitly. Any language-agnostic transliteration tool, such as ICU, is unsuitable for transliterating from some writing systems such as CJK to Latin, because they were designed for collation rather than user display. Machine translation can also be unreliable on very short strings, such as the names of map features, due to a lack of context.

Instead, popular data consumers retrieve manual translations and transliterations from Wikidata. While many of Wikidata's translations come from the same automated tools, they are often more reliable because the original language was fed into the transliterator and users have the opportunity to correct the results.

Language-specific names

name=* contains the common, default name in the local language. name:<lang_code> is used to tag the name in a specified language in cases where the name differs by language, for example name:ru=Москва gives the city's name in Russian (language code ru) while name:en=Moscow gives the English language name (language code en).

In cases where multiple languages are tagged for a name, the local-language name tag should be duplicated with the language-specific sub-key. For example, Moscow is tagged with name=Москва, with the same value as name:ru=Москва. This tagging is important because it ensures that data consumers don't need to infer the local language. Guessing name language based on location is unlikely to always succeed - there are places in Russia where name=* is not in Russian, there are places in USA where correctly mapped name=* is not in English. For example, a tourist-oriented gift shop or a grocery that caters to an immigrant community may be named in a foreign language.

On the other hand, do not tag names that do not exist. An unremarkable village somewhere in Poland might have only one name (recorded in name=*). In all other languages, this village would be called by its Polish name, because it has no other name. Just because all other languages use the Polish name, you should not add name:<lang_code> tags for all other languages containing the Polish name!

Rationale

Tagging both say name=Kraków and name:pl=Kraków is useful for displaying localized names with fallback languages. If someone wants to

• display names in Polish
• in case of Polish name being unavailable, show English name (with "Beijing" being preferred over "北京市")
• otherwise display the default name=*, assuming one exists

In such case the solution would be to

• display name:pl=*
• if it is unavailable display name:en=*
• if both are not present display name=*

But note what would happen if name=* would be in Polish, name:pl=* would be not tagged and name:en=* would be tagged:

• display name:pl=* - skipped, as not present
• if it is unavailable display name:en=* - done!
• if both are not present display name=* - not reached

Alternative would be adding guesses about language of name=* (what is tricky, complicated for many languages and areas impossible, fragile and error-prone).

Or explicitly tagging both name=* and name:<lang_code>.

Local names (loc_name)

loc_name=* is for the name of a feature as it is known locally, but only where this is deemed to be too much of a slang name or otherwise unofficial-sounding. Ordinarily though, the name which local people use is the name we set in the name=* tag! Examples where we have used loc_name=*:

• There is a bridge in Glasgow known as the Squinty Bridge, but its official name is the Clyde Arc. I have never heard anyone calling it that, so the bridge is tagged loc_name=Squinty Bridge name=Clyde Arc.
• In Reading there's Union Street, but it's been known for decades as Smelly Alley on account of the fishmongers that lined it. The loc_name=* is ideal.

The tag nickname=* is also in use for slang names or other obviously unofficial, but widely known names, especially when the slang name is known globally/nationally and not only locally. For example the German "Bundesautobahn 2"[1] has the nickname "Warschauer Allee".

Alternate names (alt_name)

Apply when an alternative name exists (e.g., a street name has different syntax) sometimes even on street signs, although it is not only for street names.

Don't use it for abbreviations and only when one of the other name types don't apply; e.g., reg_name=* or name:xx=* for regional translations.

These alternative names are usually not rendered, but can be used by applications like Nominatim.

Sorting names (sorting_name)

sorting_name=* is a proposed approach to supply an alternate name which systems can use for the purpose of sorting alphabetically. This would be useful for street names in some languages/countries, particularly Russian, where words like "Street" are frequently used as a prefix. This is problematic if you simply sort on the main name=* tag.

Historical names

The date namespace suffix can be used for historical names, e.g., name:1953--1990=Ernst-Thälmann-Straße.

Deprecated tags

The suffixed tags name_1=* and alt_name_1=* should no longer be used for tagging. They are the result of old imports that were not defined very well.

See also

• name:pronunciation=*
• name:etymology=* - The subject commemorated in the name of an element
• Multilingual names
• noname=yes - Used to mark the absence of a name, where something really does not have a name in reality
• strapline=* - Official strapline used in an advertising slogan next to the name, commonly seen on signs
• unnamed=* - Used to mark the absence of a name, when it was verified to have no name defined in reality. Consider using noname=* instead
• Key:description - to describe a feature.
• Tips on renaming a street

External links

• United States Postal Service Official Abbreviations, e.g., street-type abbreviations.
• Falsehoods programmers believe about geography
• Eighth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names