About OSM Alba

OSM Alba is a map of Scotland in Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig), using OpenStreetMap data. Map data is licenced under the the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license

How to add Gaelic names

This map mainly uses the name:gd tag - gd is the ISO 639-1 code for Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig).

Recommended tagging

name:gd - the name in Gaelic
name:en - the name in English
name - the default/local name, as shown on openstreetmap.org. For most of Scotland, this is the name in English. In places where Gaelic is the main language (eg the Western Isles), this should be set as the Gaelic name, with the name:en tag for the English name.

For places with several Gaelic names, they can be tagged with:

alt_name:gd - an alternative Gaelic name
loc_name:gd - a local Gaelic name
old_name:gd - an old / historic Gaelic name

Note: even if the Gaelic name is the same as the name tag, it is still recommended to set it as name:gd as well - otherwise there is no way of knowing what language the name tag is in.

See also Multilingual names on the OSM wiki.

Sources for Gaelic placenames

Don't copy names from other maps without explicit permission, as they are probably copyrighted!

Sources that can be used include:

road signs and street signs - these are now common in some parts of Scotland. Though sometimes the spelling can be dubious or inconsistent
Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba (Gaelic Placenames of Scotland) are the national advisory partnership for Gaelic names. They have produced place-name lists for several trunk roads and a number of areas of Scotland. Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba have been contacted, and confirmed the Gaelic forms of the names themselves are uncopyrightable, so are fine to use in OpenStreetMap.
Ordnance Survey Opendata - the OS have released some maps under a free licence, which allows them to be used with OSM. This includes OS Streetview, which has Gaelic names for some places.

For instructions for how to edit OpenStreetMap, start with the Beginners' Guide on the OSM wiki.

For more Scotland specific OSM mapping activity, see Wikiproject Scotland.