Apple Business guidance for capturing brand and location display names

Display Names

Display names captures one or more names in explicitly stated languages. Name captures one or more terms to refer to a feature as it exists in reality.

Display names are used for two main purposes:

Apple Maps display purposes. For example, place cards, address of a location, directions to a location, and so on.
Apple Maps search.

Whereas, a primary name is used for display purposes, alternate names are used strictly for search purposes.

Display Names - Simple

Example of a primary display name.

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "Better Bag",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Display Names - Complex

This airport has:

Two primary display names in different languages
Two commonly used alternative names in English
One name which is an abbreviation designated by IATA

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "Aeropuerto Internacional Daniel Oduber Quirós",
      "locale": "es",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Guanacaste Airport",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": false
    },
    {
      "name": "Liberia International Airport",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": false
    },
    {
      "name": "LIR",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": false
    }
  ]
}

Primary Name

Primary name is used for display purposes.

Display names MUST include at least one primary name.
Primary name MUST capture the location's official name as it exists in reality. This may be sourced from:
- Physical signage found at the provided address or its geocoded representation.
- Official website.
- Claimed social media site.
Display names MAY include more than one primary name provided they exist in reality.

Multiple Primary Names

Example of a location with multiple primary names which exist in reality.

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "中国银行",
      "locale": "zh",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Bank of China",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Alternate Names

An alternate name is any name which is not flagged as primary. Alternate names are used strictly for search purposes.

Display names MAY include zero or more alternate names.
An abbreviation, acronym, or initialism SHOULD be added when it is commonly used.
A name which has firmly established itself within a cultural lexicon SHOULD be added when it is commonly used.

Abbreviation as Alternate Name

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "San Francisco International Airport",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "SFO",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": false
    }
  ]
}

Initialism as Alternate Name

Note: USPS not U.S.P.S. Refer to Restrictions: Punctuation for more details

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "United States Postal Service",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "USPS",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": false
    }
  ]
}

Cultural Lexicon as the Source of an Alternate Name

McDonald's is commonly referred to as Macca's in Australia and New Zealand.

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "McDonald's",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Macca's",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": false
    }
  ]
}

Edge Cases

When signage used across all locations is only a symbol/icon, then the name should be the legal name in the specified country.
When a symbol/icon is used, but only for a limited number of locations, then these locations should have the name that's used by other locations in the specified country. For example, in major cities such as London, New York, and Tokyo, in limited situations, Starbucks signage only displays the green siren symbol, not the name.

Restrictions: Address Information

Name MUST NOT include:
- Address information when there is no corresponding physical or conceptual relationship with physical signage found at the provided address or its geocoded representation.
- Building, neighborhood, street intersection, or reference landmarks when multiple locations with the same name exist in proximity. See Exceptions: Densely Occupied Space

info

Apple Maps will manage the disambiguation of multiple locations with the same name when they exist in proximity.

Exceptions: Names with Matching Address Information

Name MAY contain terms matching address information when this exists in reality.

Names With Matching Address Information

Category	Example	Address
Airports	Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport (Aerodrom Nikola Tesla Beograd)	Belgrade Airport, 11271, Belgrade, Serbia
Apple Buildings and Apple Stores	Apple Champs-Élysées	114 Avenue des Champs-Elysées, 75008, Paris, France
Corporate Buildings/Campuses/Business Parks	Bassi Business Park	Via Ugo Bassi, 4, 20159 Milano MI, Italy
Educational Institutions	The University of Melbourne	Grattan Street, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia
Hotels and Stays	Four Seasons Hotel Guangzhou	5 Zhujiang West Road, Zhujiang New Town, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Ports	Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal	241 Calcutta St, Newark, NJ 07114
Professional Services and Financial Institutions	Bank of Scotland	167-201 Argyle Street, Glasgow, G2 8BU, Scotland

Exceptions: Densely Occupied Space

Densely occupied space refers to a high concentration of businesses, offices, or commercial establishments within multi-story buildings, and where proximity creates overlapping or closely situated locations. In densely occupied space, locations sharing an official name SHOULD include additional terms that clarify their spatial context.

Terms MUST NOT be verbose
Terms MUST be appended as a suffix
Terms SHOULD be sourced from "ground truth"
Terms SHOULD have the qualities of a reference landmark and, practically speaking, the terms alone should be capable of supporting wayfinding
Terms SHOULD be appended without a hyphen

Recommended Syntax with Example Names

{official_name} {additional_terms}

Roppongi Hills is an example of a densely occupied space which is located in the Roppongi district of Minato, Tokyo.

Roppongi Hills has two Starbucks Coffee locations. Their respective official names are disambiguated as follows:

Starbuck Coffee Roppongi Hills West Walk
Starbuck Coffee Roppongi Hills West Walk Lounge

Restrictions: Duplicate Names

Name MUST NOT be duplicated and made only distinct through use of a different locale.

info

Apple Maps manages display requirements for users whose preferred language is not the same as the language of the provided name.

Duplicate Name

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "Hardee's",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Hardee's",
      "locale": "ja",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Restrictions: Legal Structure Indicators

Name MUST NOT include descriptions about the legal structure.

Legal Structures

Examples include:

GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung)
Inc. (Incorporated) or Corp. (Corporation)
LLC (Limited Liability Company)
Ltd. (Limited)
PLC (Public Limited Company)

Restrictions: Punctuation

Name MAY include periods, commas, hyphens, apostrophes, and parentheses when officially part of the name.
When the name commonly used is an acronym or initials, periods MUST NOT be included. For example, KFC not K.F.C, YMCA not Y.M.C.A., and so on.
Name MUST NOT include semicolons, brackets, braces, or other special symbols as replacements for valid punctuation when officially part of the name
Name MUST NOT include a trademark or copyright symbol

Valid Punctuation - Hyphens

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "H-E-B",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Valid Punctuation - Parentheses

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "[m]eatery",
      "locale": "de",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Restrictions: Words Not Allowed

Name MUST NOT include any word(s) having:

No corresponding physical or conceptual relationship with physical signage found at the provided address or its geocoded representation.
Intent to advertise or market a location.
Intent to communicate spatial context (exceptions), amenities, product, or service offering which are factual descriptions about a location, not items that form part of the location's actual name.
Claims to fame, awards, titles, or the location's category.
A translation of the official name which does not physically exist.

Allowable Name

A food critic in Osaka, Japan, publishes an article in a local newspaper about a restaurant named 居酒屋とよ. Physical signage displays 居酒屋とよ. Physical signage does not include any translation of their name into another language.

Eater "picks up" the article and decides to include in a web publication featuring great Osaka restaurants.

For an English reading audience 居酒屋とよ is translated to Izakaya Toyo.

The Japanese and translated name are added as primary names to the location.

Characteristic	Present
Lexical item with intent to advertise location	No
Lexical item with intent to market location	No
Lexical item describes spatial context	No
Name is displayed on physical signage	No
Name has conceptual relationship with physical signage	Yes

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "居酒屋とよ",
      "locale": "ja",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Izakaya Toyo",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Intent to Advertise, Market, and Describe Spatial Context

Characteristic	Present
Lexical item with intent to advertise location	Yes
Lexical item with intent to market location	Yes
Lexical item describes spatial context	Yes
Name is displayed on physical signage	No
Name has conceptual relationship with physical signage	No

Display Names
{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "Ferienwohnung für 4 Personen ca 60 m in Venedig, Adriaküste Italien Venedig und Umgebung",
      "locale": "de",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Holiday apartment for 4 people approx. 60 m in Venice, Adriatic coast Italy Venice and the surrounding area",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Intent to Describe Spatial Context

A location that may be created provided that the expected names are added.

Brand name is physically shared with all physical locations.
Physical locations do not include the names of cities in their respective names.

Characteristic	Present
Lexical item with intent to advertise location	Yes
Lexical item with intent to market location	No
Lexical item describes spatial context	Yes
Name is displayed on physical signage	Partial
Name has conceptual relationship with physical signage	Yes

Incorrect Name
{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "Eddie V's - Austin",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Expected Name
{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "Eddie V's Prime Seafood",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Translation

This location has:

Two primary display names in different languages
Transliteration of the arabic text (primary language tag + script subtag)

An English translation "Happy Yemen Restaurant" must not be present because the location, by that name, does not exist.

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "Yemen Cafe",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "مطعم اليمن السعيد",
      "locale": "ar",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Mat‘am al-Yaman al-Sa‘id",
      "locale": "ar-Ltn",
      "primary": false
    }
  ]
}

Locale encodings for Yemeni location in Brooklyn, NYC

Naming Conventions: Individual Professionals

A user may instinctively search for a professional service using the personal name of the individual associated with the service. This is common when searching for a doctor, dentist, lawyer, veterinarian, insurance agent, real estate agent, hair stylist, mortgage broker, and so on. To support this use case, an individual professional may be captured as an independent location and the individual's name captured as the display name.

Apple Maps category used to describe the location (individual) SHOULD be as precise as possible.

Health Professionals

The following table provides general guidance for a limited set of countries. For any country that's not listed, we recommend referring to an applicable medical standards body for guidance.

Code	General Format	Example
`AR`	`{title} {first_name} {last_name}`	`Dra. María González Pérez`
`AU`	`{title} {first_name} {last_name}`	`Dr. Homer Simpson`
`BR`	`{title} {first_name} {last_name}`	`Dra. Gabriela da Silva`
`CA`	`{optional_title} {first_name} {last_name}, {accreditation}`	`Dr. Homer Simpson, DMD, FRCDC`
`CL`	`{title} {first_name} {last_name}`	`Dra. María Gonzalez Pérez`
`DE`	`{title} {accreditation} {first_name} {last_name},`	`Dr. med. dent. Homer Simpson`
`ES`	`{title} {first_name} {last_name}`	`Dr. Carlos González Pérez`
`FR`	`{title} {first_name} {last_name}`	`Dr. Homer Simpson`
`IN`	`{title} {first_name} {last_name}, {specialization}`	`Dr. Ram Patel, MBBS, MD`
`IT`	`{title} {first_name} {last_name}, {specialization}`	`Dott. Homer Simpson, ottica e optometria`
`TR`	`{title} {first_name} {last_name}`	`Dr. Teoman Doğan`
`US`	`{optional_title} {first_name} {last_name}, {accreditation}`	`Dr. Homer Simpson, DDS, MPH`

Primary name MUST be the individual's name
When an individual is affiliated with a brand, a non-primary name MUST be added and the individual's name MUST be suffixed with the brand
Name MUST not include address information such as office ID, room number, suite number, and so on.

Individual Health Professional with Brand Affiliation

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "Dr. Homer Simpson, DDS",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "name": "Dr. Homer Simpson, DDS - Highland West Dental Care",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": false
    }
  ]
}

Insurance Agents

Individual insurance agent names are included after the brand name.

Recommended Syntax with Example Name

{brand_name} - {first_name} {last_name}

{
  "displayNames": [
    {
      "name": "Farmers Insurance - Jane Smith",
      "locale": "en",
      "primary": true
    }
  ]
}

Name	Description
Brand	Brand API
Location	Location API
Locale	Locale guidance

Display Names​

Primary Name​

Alternate Names​

Edge Cases​

Restrictions: Address Information​

Exceptions: Names with Matching Address Information​

Exceptions: Densely Occupied Space​

Restrictions: Duplicate Names​

Restrictions: Legal Structure Indicators​

Restrictions: Punctuation​

Restrictions: Words Not Allowed​

Naming Conventions: Individual Professionals​

Health Professionals​

Insurance Agents​

Related​