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US names: "Johnson" is a tough one. It's likely not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson , because t
by dalke 3y ago
US names:
"Johnson" is a tough one. It's likely not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson , because the name is so common that we've had two presidents with that surname. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson succeeded Lincoln.
"Roosevelt" could be President FDR but it could also be President Teddy Roosevelt, from which the teddy bear is named. Or it could be someone else.
"Warren" is almost certainly not Warren G. Harding as we rarely named things after someone's first name. Warren is a very common name. For example, Warren, PA was named after Major General Joseph Warren, says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren,_Pennsylvania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren,_Pennsylvania .
Very few of the "Clinton" street names will be for Bill Clinton. It's a very common name. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton and for a list of US place names with "Clinton" see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_(disambiguation)#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_(disambiguation)#Unite... .
Some of the Clevelands are named after President Cleveland, but some, like Cleveland, OH, are named after Moses Cleaveland (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Cleaveland#Founding_of_Cleveland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Cleaveland#Founding_of_C... for the spelling difference). Cleveland, MN was named after Cleveland, OH (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland,_Minnesota https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland,_Minnesota).
There are a lot of Douglas names in the US. Two blocks from my childhood home was Douglas Road, named after John Douglas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Road_(Miami) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Road_(Miami)
At this point I don't think it's possible to get much good data out of this data set without years of manual effort.
Toponymy is hard, slow work.
- molteanu 3y agoWould you consider making a pull request? Indeed, if it's 50-50 for a name, then there is no solution out of it. If it's close to 90-10, then maybe it is safe to pick the 90%. It depends on the scope of the project, I suppose. Yes, the street names of US, Australia, Canada and a few other countries contain only the person's last name. Hard to figure out which is which. I agree with you.