The Waze editing community strives to maintain professional maps. Roads named formally and accurately testify to professional map editing. To this end, the name given to segments of a road must be consistent and must always derive from primary sources. The following principles provide a framework for determining the most appropriate name for a road segment. These fundamental principles apply to all road types, including parking-lot roads, dirt roads, and non-drivable roads.
- Road names shall derive preferentially from government sources. These sources are, in order of priority:
- Clear and consistent signage;
- Local government street maps (for example county GIS); or
- Other government data (such as state maps or topographic maps).
- If government sources provide multiple but inconsistent names for a road segment, local sources, such as local news articles or the knowledge of long-term local residents, may be considered to determine the most consistent name.
- The alternate name field exists primarily to support roads with multiple highway route numbers and/or numbered highways with local street names. It may also be employed to maintain multiple street names for the same road, but only if a consistent name cannot be established.
- The alternate name field is never for obsolete names! Waze is not intended as a road-history archive and road names no longer in common usage do not belong on the Waze map even if marked by occasional historical signs along the roadway.
- If no government source names a road on private property, it may be named according to information supplied by the property owner or tenant, for example on private signs or maps.
- If the above sources provide no name at all for a road segment, its name field should marked as "None". Under no circumstances shall a road name be made up, even if the resulting name is relevant to nearby landmarks or destinations or intended to improve voice instructions. The only exception is for routing-guidance stubs whose lengths are very short — subject to the Segment length/Minimum minimum-length requirement — so that their names will not display in the client or Live Map.
- Third-party mapping databases shall not be used to supply a road name that cannot be found in primary sources. Doing so may propagate an incorrect name or expose Waze to legal objections.