User:Jonathan Haas/Spelling of names

Proper name spelling

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

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. Exceptions are made in the following cases:

• 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.
• Names are adapted to the local capitalisation rules; for example, in English, title case is generally preferred; in German, the first word of names is capitalised and nouns, adjectives, and proper names in the following words are capitalised, however capitalizing adjectives is sometimes optional. Note that multiple capitalisation styles could be right, so be careful and don't over correct. 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.
• Abbreviations that are used to save space and that can be written out without causing confusion should be written out, for details see Abbreviations.
• If multiple different spellings are used locally, the most common or most correct is preferred. The other spelling can be entered as alt_name=*.
• 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 the correct local spelling), because here the sign maker probably could not write a capital "ß", which was only officially adopted in the German language in 2017.
• 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 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 says "TACO 🔔 BELL" would be written as name=Taco Bell. However do not change spellings if doing so would cause confusion or if the original spelling is much more common.
• 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 contain mistakes or might have limitations in maximum entry length or allowable characters.

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?