WikiProject Belgium/Conventions/Street names

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Here are some general guidelines about the way streets should be named, as a complement to the Key:name page.

Choosing the right name and dealing with abbreviations

Whereas the usual "ground truth" rule applies, street signs or government databases may contain mistakes or simplifications.

Tag Value
name=* Used for what you find on the street name sign. Should contain the full name for the street, without abbreviations. If the name has been abbreviated on the sign, write the full name.

Example: A street sign where the space is tight and most words are heavily abbreviated may say "Prof. R. Verdeyenstr." but the name in OSM will be "Professor René Verdeyenstraat".

official_name=* Can be used to add an official name, as in government databases, if it's different from the name on the street sign.

Note: When using official_name, also use the corresponding addr:street_official on buildings and POI addresses.

alt_name=* Used for alternate spellings, for colloquial names or spellings which must be available for searches.

For example:

  • Without the first name ("Place Eugène Flagey" becomes "Place Flagey")
  • If street sign has "St-Janstraat" and GRB has "Sint-Janstraat", alt_name could have the abbreviated version.

If the name contains a spelling mistake, you may fix it.

  • Example: The street signs incorrectly spells "Franklin D. Rosevelt"; provided that you did some research to be sure that it is really a typo, you will type "Franklin D. Roosevelt".
  • Example: Some street signs use all-caps signs, without accented characters. "RUE DE L'ECOLE" should be written as "Rue de l'École" in OSM.

Language rules

Monolingual territories

Most municipalities of Belgium have only one official language. The name=* tag must include the name in that language only. If there are official translations, they may be added as name:<lg>=* where <lg>=* is the language code for the other language.

Brussels-Capital Region

The entire Brussels-Capital Region is bilingual. Street names are always written in the two official languages. The convention is "fr - nl". Additional name:fr=* and name:nl=* are mandatory.

Municipalities with facilities

Those are 27 municipalities along the edges of each language area, where a special regime applies for a minority language. In general, street signs use both languages.

The name=* tag on streets should use a bilingual version starting with the primary language, then the "facilities" language. For instance, name=Rue de la Gare - Stationstraat + name:fr=Rue de la Gare + name:nl=Stationstraat.

The streets must use "de - fr" in the following municipalities:

  • Amel
  • Büllingen
  • Burg-Reuland
  • Bütgenbach
  • Eupen
  • Kelmis
  • Lontzen
  • Raeren
  • Sankt Vith

The streets must use "fr - de" in the following municipalities:

  • Malmedy
  • Waimes

The streets must use "fr - nl" in the following municipalities:

  • Comines-Warneton
  • Enghien
  • Flobecq
  • Mouscron

The streets must use "nl - fr" in the following municipalities:

  • Bever
  • Drogenbos
  • Herstappe
  • Kraainem
  • Linkebeek
  • Mesen
  • Ronse
  • Sint-Genesius-Rode
  • Spiere-Helkijn
  • Voeren
  • Wemmel
  • Wezembeek-Oppem

Until 2024, the standard was not clearly settled and monolingual names are still commonly found. A discussion on the community forum and a vote brought up the standard described here.

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