[OSM-talk] Tag alt_name

[Pieren]

Hi all,

I would like to add the tag "alt_name" in the Map Features wiki page.
I discovered this tag in a mail from David Earl ([1]) sometime ago but
I don't think that many people are reading the ML archives.
I also don't think that a vote is required here because the tag seems
"obvious" for me. But I would like to hear your opinions about the tag
itself and if it can go directly in the Map Features page or not.
I know it is not widely used (approx. 200 nodes and 200 ways) but I
think it's because not many people know it and also because it's
rarely required (only on naming variations).
As far as I know, the tag is only used by the Namefinder application today.

Here an excerpt of David Earl's email:
"I'd like to encourage you, when editing the map, to think about how
people might search for the features you are adding to the map and try
to accommodate them, to try to be helpful to future consumers of the
map data. Using alt_name is one way to do this."

alt_name is not about abbreviations, internationalisation or any of
the "name" tags already described in the Map Features wiki page [2].
I personnaly uses it because in France, we have sometimes two
variations of street names, either between the official documents and
the real signs or between real signs.
Here an example submitted by murphy2712.nospam, another french contributor:
- Rue Glais-Bisoin [3]
- Rue Glais Bizoin [4]

I would also appreciate if David could add a word about the tag in his
Namefinder wiki page [5].

regards
Pieren

[1] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2008-May/025863.html
[2] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Map_Features#Name
[3] http://murphy.ovh.org/osm/Glais-Bisoin.jpg
[4] http://murphy.ovh.org/osm/Glais_Bizoin.jpg
[5] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Namefinder