> Just to make this somewhat clearer for others
> In the Balkans there are numerous examples of government and language change,
> together with complete alteration in the social order.
>
> So the street or place might be known locally by an old communist-era name
> (say Tito Street) but have been officially renamed after some other
> international dignitary (say Mother Teresa). So while I might say "you'll
> find
> me in Tito Street", when I'd put my address on an envelope it would have to
> be
> "Mother Teresa Street".
The same happened in East Germany after the Wall came down. Many streets had
their names changed to what it was before 1949, or to something different
altogether.
You should go by the street signs. Whatever they indicate is the official name
('name='). The former socialist name would then be 'old_name'. Currently, there
is no 'old2_name=' or 'very_old_name='. I'd be terribly surprised if the same,
renamed road still has some of the old street signs, in which case there would
be two official names. If the Balkan states were as thorough in wiping out the
last 40 years as they were in East Germany, none of the socialist street signs
will have survived, though.
There was an interesting presentation titled 'Mapping History' at this year's
SoTM which sheds some light on this dilemma and proposes possible ways of
dealing with it, but for now we have to live with name= and old_name=
http://www.vimeo.com/5843154
Oh, and of course you also have the localisations of names 'name:hr='
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:name
Cheers
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