List of countries that use housenames for buildings, other than Bolivia

https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD/issues/10727

Hi everyone! I was trying to fix this issue, which talks about adding addr:housename for countries like Bolivia, where buildings primarily have names instead of numbers. I was wondering if there could be a list of all such countries using housenames, so I could potentially update all such countries in iD?

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Hi! In Morocco, buildings also have names. But first, I was wondering, what is the difference between name and addr:housename? Which one should be used for buildings? See an example building below (called RĂ©sidence Ryad).

So basically for buildings, I believe there is only housename @ilias. I don’t see any name variable in iD for buildings.

What do you mean? When tagging a building, the first thing we see on id is name. If we’re supposed to only use addr:housename instead of name, then this is pretty misleading, don’t you think?

For the difference between name and addr:housename, see for example this recent discussion. Not sure I quite get it unfortunately.

Regards.

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Did you link to the intended thread? That seems to be all about student accommodation.

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My bad, tried to go too fast. Link corrected, thanks.

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So if I’m correct, the name has to be part of the address… but how do I know that?

I suppose, when you write a letter, do you include the building name, or just the number ?

The question could be : Is it customary in your place to use building name in addresses (for mail, directions…) ?

To answer OP, the wiki (precisely the wikidata item) says:

Popular in some countries like England, Spain, Portugal, Latvia instead of, or in addition to, a house number.

The wiki page might need a lot more details on the subject… :expressionless:

Thank you @H! Indeed, the wiki needs better explanation. I’ll discuss this with my fellow Moroccans about the correct address format and get back to this thread.

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addr:* is used for postal services. A building can have a different name, but the post adress is using the official housename. See also Key:addr:* - OpenStreetMap Wiki*

You can say, “It’s house Residence Ryad, the adress is housename, street, plz, city”, for example. If the owner changes, the name may change, but the housename stays the same.

Thats at least how i understood everything.

If it can be explained better, probably Key:addr:housename - OpenStreetMap Wiki should be expanded as well.

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Rural England very often has housenames rather than numbers. Our street has three houses with numbers (8, 10, 11… go figure) and about thirty houses with names. It’s not the easiest round for the postman.

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As others have indicated, addr:housename=* is specific to addressing. The vast majority of building names go in name=*, not addr:housename=*.

In the United States, a physical address usually includes a house number; if the building receives mail, its mailing address contains a delivery address line (“street address”) based on this or some other physical address. A large or famous building may informally omit its street address in favor of the building name, knowing that the postal service will deliver mail regardless. However, this doesn’t make the building name part of the official address.

There are some exceptions. In Puerto Rico, an apartment building may lack a physical address, so the delivery address line includes the building name (and/or number) instead. Any address within one of these apartment complexes would have an addr:housename=*.

On the mainland, especially in rural areas, many homes lack mailing addresses but still have physical addresses, so addr:housename=* probably isn’t appropriate in general. However, it’s entirely possible that some non-postal authority, such as a county tax assessor or land register, has assigned an “address” based on the building name, in which case we could use addr:housename=*. I’d consider it an edge case not worth worrying about for iD.

Regardless, you’ll often see addr:housename=* in the database even where it isn’t needed. Long ago, I used to use this key when dual-tagging a historic building with the shop that occupies it: I would put the shop’s name in name=* and the building’s name in addr:housename=*. This is incorrect and hopefully I’ve corrected my mistakes, but I’m sure I’m not alone.

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Hi all, Please be aware that here the issue is NOT RELATED to the tag:name=xxx of the building but to the Address Schema for Businesses located inside those named buildings who DO NOT HAVE a tag:housenumber.

Let me raise an example: Mercado Minorista La Ramada in the City of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Has No Number for the buildings, is just a marketplace with more than 1000 business/shops of all kind inside.

The current address ID Input schema only allow to display (and feed) Street name, Number, Neighborhood, City. This marketplace has different roads arounds, has NO number; so how you identify any business inside for addressing? otherwise than a node in the perhaps approximate location?

ie: shop=clothes, name=Tienda Maria, addr:street=Calle Simon Bolivar, addr:housenumber=Unknown or None or Blank, (Missing data: addr:housename: MERCADO MINORISTA LA RAMADA), level=xxx, unit=xxx

That’s the data that we are requesting. So the issue is NOT related to the name of the building, but to use such name for addressing purpose.

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I think with the second post the thread got a bit derailed ^^°

Nut sure what you mean exactly, but if i understood it correctly, its wrong. You can use addr:housname=* instead of add:housenumber=* as well.

Also, i’m not sure i understand the goal: There is “Mercado Minorista La Ramada” and you want to map each shop individually?

If the postal adress is: “Mercado Minorista La Ramada, Calle Simon Bolivar, Santa Cruz de la Sierra” and the individual shops don’t have a adress you could use ref=* or probably better addr:unit=* if(!) that is somewhat visible anywhere on the ground. Like on the individual shop itself, for example.

So, one shop OpenStreetMap there could be tagged as such in my opinion:

addr:city=Santa Cruz de la Sierra
addr:street=Calle Simon Bolivar
addr:housename=Mercado Minorista La Ramada
addr:unit=56

Although i’m asking myself if addr:housename=* is correct here at all, because there are about 11 houses? The adress for all of them is with “Mercado Minorista La Ramada”?

I think the original issue was not about tagging schemas but about what is shown as an input field when editing in ID.

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Sorry for asking for clarifications, my bad.

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Yeap, this is more of less what we need to have in ID for input proper data, but for Shops, Offices and other kind of Professions (Tags), not only for Buildings as depicted. I know this same issue is common for many other countries in Latin America. But I am just interested in bolivia for now.

Each country could ask for the same eventually.

Indeed very likely the final address will be very similar to that, perhaps including addr:level= and/or addr:aisle=

No I don’t want to map every single shop/business inside the market, but that possibility should be open to mappers/owners to add their businesses.

In smaller buildings the amount of business may be no more than 1/2 dozen in average, except Malls and Commercial Buildings.

Thanks