[Tagging] Literal translation of street names

[Patrick Strasser-Mikhail]

Hello Janko!

Am 19.09.22 um 12:36 schrieb Janko Mihelić:
> A user in my city (Zagreb) started translating street names into 
> English, and I don't know what to do about it. An example of translation 
> is Butcher Street for Mesnička ulica, or Stone Street for Kamenita 
> ulica. I found a few of these in Berlin, for example,Straße der 
> Erinnerung translatedRoad of Remembrance. These are valid translations, 
> but it isn't helpful for a map. If an english user of our map saw "Road 
> of Remembrance", she won't be able to find that street sign, or explain 
> to a taxi driver where she wants to go.

I totally agree. The thing has one or more proper official name/s, and 
that name/s should be used.

> I think I've seen someone talk against such translations, but I can't 
> find a wiki page that talks about it. I can create one if there is 
> consensus that this is wrong tagging. Or maybe just add a few sentences 
> about it on the name=* wiki page.

I find
* https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Key:name
* https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Names#Localization

 From the later one:
"On the other hand, do not tag names that do not exist."
If a thing has multiple proper official names, we have ways to indicate 
them. A literal translation is not an offical name.

Many places in Croation may have Italian, German, Hungarian, Serbian 
etc. name that may differ substantially from the Croation name. In this 
case it's just a different name, not a translation. And for Croatia, it 
was decided to use Croation names as "name":
* https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Multilingual_names#Croatia

Finally, when the discussion has settled and you feel it came to a clear 
conclusion, feel free to extend the wiki in the right place, and 
reference this discussion. For backwards reference you can add a short 
note here on the list.

> The problem is, he is doing valid work, so it feels wrong to just delete 
> it. Another way to deal with this is to create a new tag, 
> name:literal_translation:en=* or just literal_translation:en=*.

Well meant, but not useful.

I guess one place to put is is the 'description:<lang>', with a remark, like
'description:en=Translated "Butcher Street"'

> Another question, what is the right name:en=* in these cases, or is 
> there none? Erinnerung Road?

None.

BR Patrick/trapicki
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