Dunedin is known for its student culture, and part of it is flats all around the city having their own names. These names are often on a sign that’s visible from the street. The students come up with them, and while they can change (and they do change) it’s very common to respect the name of a flat you’re moving into, and therefore many flats have very well-known names, even after the sign is removed or they’re renamed. These names are also very often the main way to refer to a flat.
Lots of times these names will be quite stupid and unique, but other times they might take after existing buildings or features. In one instance, for example, a flat is dubbed the “Dunedin Casino”, after the former tenants stole a sign from the actual casino and put it on their front yard.
Should these names be mapped? They’re, after all, on-the-ground, and could serve useful for navigation or wayfinding. Flats are also actually known and referred to by their names, so they’re not a gimmick.
On the other hand, I’m afraid that some names like the Dunedin Casino or Trump Tower could result confusing to people looking for the features by these names when they’re redirected to a random student flat (probably not what they were looking for, even if they share a name).
And lastly, what tag should I use? I fear name=* might feature too prominently, but would fearing this be mapping for the renderer? Or is it founded and I should go with alt_name=*?
that is unfortunate but it should be fixed (and is fixable) by such geocoders - note that geocoder can judge importance in number of ways, such as checking whether object is prominent enough to have wikipedia or at least wikidata entry