OpenStreetMap
Can I add extra keywords to improve search results?
Posted by Shy gear on 31 January 2026 in English.e.g. A place called “FooBar” should show up when you search for “Foo Bar”, or “Foo & Bar’s” should appear for “Foo and Bars”.
Note the space, ampersand, and apostrophe which may affect a search engine but are not pronounced in spoken English.
Is there a tag that the search engines pick up where I can put those variations? I notice that CoMap’s search engine is pretty good, but the search on openstreetmap.org is a little more strict.
Discussion
Comment from Shy gear on 31 January 2026 at 15:18
Never mind, figured it out!
alt_name for alternate spellings or alternate names in other languages: osm.wiki/Key:alt_name
loc_name for local slang names osm.wiki/Names#Local_names_(loc_name)
So “Dog Haus” might have an alt name of “Dawg Haus” and “Laura Bradley Park” might have a local name of “Lower Bradley Park”
Comment from H@mlet on 2 February 2026 at 11:51
Hi !
Just a word of caution, please don’t add every spelling mistakes you can think of in alt_name, it’s meant for already used, albeit non-official, names.
To answer your original question, the search engine (geocoder) showcased on openstreetmap.org (named nominatim) is by design quite strict in interpreting its inputs.
If you need a more fuzzy search, Photon is probably the best option out there.
Regards?
Comment from Shy gear on 2 February 2026 at 20:51
Thank you so much! I know this information is out there but it’s hard to stumble across it. The wiki has been very helpful but sometimes I don’t know what to search for.
Is there any public slippy map with fuzzy search, similar to openstreetmap.org? Or is fuzzy search too expensive to host?
Comment from H@mlet on 3 February 2026 at 14:07
https://cartes.app is a rather new and shiny project, and it looks like they are using photon (from their readme).
It’s kind of french-centric for now, but I suppose it can be used globally. I did search for “Dawg Haus” and found something in the US ! ;-)