Local usage is the arbiter. If you run SV down a main street, and find the websites for a bunch of stores using a name, that's the local name. A single UR should make you want to look or ask more questions. If the responder makes a good case (in back and forth conversation) or there is other data to back up the position, then that's satisfactory.
USPS lookup can contribute, but shouldn't be the single arbiter either.
Even though this is a NJ discussion, I will use New York City as an example, because it is a very good illustration of what can go wrong if you rely entirely on city/town/village incorporated names. Note that there are no CDPs at all in NYC, just the borough or county names are used (which are always in conflict, except for the Bronx... and technically Queens, too, though it is irrelevant there for the ost part as we shall see).
In much of NYC, the borough name is the "city" name for all purposes. Brooklyn, Bronx (or The Bronx) are the incorporated county name, USPS name, and the name that locals call it. There's not much conflict for naming for those two boroughs, other than the funkiness of "The." Informally, "The" is always used, but it is recognizable either way, and when writing practically (including addresses), it is typically left off anyway. Locals may use a neighborhood for self-identification only (and sometimes those neighborhood names are in conflict, such as Flatbush/Midwood and a host of others). Brooklyn is technically Kings County, not Brooklyn County, but you own't find that on anything but some letterhead.
Manhattan has a bit of a dual identity. The county is "New York," while the borough is "Manhattan," and both are heavily used in different contexts. USPS has either "New York" or "Manhattan" as acceptable, but "New York" is preferred. Residents will also go both ways -- interestingly, outside Manhattan, NYC residents refer to Manhattan as "The City," almost universally, and residents will say so "The City" to locals, "New York" to out of towners if they don't think the person needs/cares about the exact location, or "Manhattan" if the out of towner needs more specific information. In Waze, we use "Manhattan" because "New York" is deemed too ambiguous. Drivers searching for an address will rarely use "Manhattan," so what we have is a mismatch for searches, a mismatch for official naming (even though that's the borough name), and not what you would find in an address for anyone in the area. Nevertheless, that's the choice we made, and it isn't changing.
The borough of Staten Island is officially Richmond County, but nobody uses that in addressing or searches. Even USPS uses Staten Island. So we use it too. It doesn't match the official incorporated name of the county, and the borough name to the best of my research is not "incorporated" because there is no functioning level of state-recognized government. (Historically, Henry Hudson named it Staten Island, and it developed several villages over the next hundred plus years; the village of Richmond was where the government offices were located at the time it became a county, and that's what the county was called. At the end of the 19th century, it became part of NYC, with the borough named Richmond, which didn't change until about 40 years ago.)
That leaves Queens. Oh boy. Queens' former villages still retain a strong identity today. Its major villages are still the primary names used for addressing by USPS, such as Flushing, and Forest Hills. There are local neighborhoods names that are not used this way -- for example, Flushing includes a whole bunch of large, well-known local neighborhoods whose names ("Kew Gardens Hills") are only used by residents for self-identification, but would never be used for addressing. Nevertheless, every place in Queens has a dual identity of "Queens" and "local village name." For simplicity, we have adopted Queens for the entire borough as the name.
I believe all the county names and the city name were included in state charters, which make them incorporated. When I checked, it looked like the boroughs are not separately incorporated. It creates a mess, because the notion of cities-within-counties is upside down in NYC, boroughs are coterminous with counties but rarely share a name, and village, borough, and county name are have dominance in some area or other. USPS is not consistent in the selection of name type for that reason -- whatever is the dominant usage in a place, that's what they use.
And that's the point. Whatever is dominant in local usage, we use in Waze, too. COnflicting street names? Go with local usage. Conflicting locality names? That's what we're discussing, and ditto.
Usually, there is not a dominant name conflict between local usage and incorporated municipality name in NJ (or NY either, for that matter). Unless we know of one, we can go with incorporated name.
(By the way, the dropping of "Township" is also fairly consistent with the dominant usage theory, even if we did it for other reasons.)
USPS lookup can contribute, but shouldn't be the single arbiter either.
Even though this is a NJ discussion, I will use New York City as an example, because it is a very good illustration of what can go wrong if you rely entirely on city/town/village incorporated names. Note that there are no CDPs at all in NYC, just the borough or county names are used (which are always in conflict, except for the Bronx... and technically Queens, too, though it is irrelevant there for the ost part as we shall see).
In much of NYC, the borough name is the "city" name for all purposes. Brooklyn, Bronx (or The Bronx) are the incorporated county name, USPS name, and the name that locals call it. There's not much conflict for naming for those two boroughs, other than the funkiness of "The." Informally, "The" is always used, but it is recognizable either way, and when writing practically (including addresses), it is typically left off anyway. Locals may use a neighborhood for self-identification only (and sometimes those neighborhood names are in conflict, such as Flatbush/Midwood and a host of others). Brooklyn is technically Kings County, not Brooklyn County, but you own't find that on anything but some letterhead.
Manhattan has a bit of a dual identity. The county is "New York," while the borough is "Manhattan," and both are heavily used in different contexts. USPS has either "New York" or "Manhattan" as acceptable, but "New York" is preferred. Residents will also go both ways -- interestingly, outside Manhattan, NYC residents refer to Manhattan as "The City," almost universally, and residents will say so "The City" to locals, "New York" to out of towners if they don't think the person needs/cares about the exact location, or "Manhattan" if the out of towner needs more specific information. In Waze, we use "Manhattan" because "New York" is deemed too ambiguous. Drivers searching for an address will rarely use "Manhattan," so what we have is a mismatch for searches, a mismatch for official naming (even though that's the borough name), and not what you would find in an address for anyone in the area. Nevertheless, that's the choice we made, and it isn't changing.
The borough of Staten Island is officially Richmond County, but nobody uses that in addressing or searches. Even USPS uses Staten Island. So we use it too. It doesn't match the official incorporated name of the county, and the borough name to the best of my research is not "incorporated" because there is no functioning level of state-recognized government. (Historically, Henry Hudson named it Staten Island, and it developed several villages over the next hundred plus years; the village of Richmond was where the government offices were located at the time it became a county, and that's what the county was called. At the end of the 19th century, it became part of NYC, with the borough named Richmond, which didn't change until about 40 years ago.)
That leaves Queens. Oh boy. Queens' former villages still retain a strong identity today. Its major villages are still the primary names used for addressing by USPS, such as Flushing, and Forest Hills. There are local neighborhoods names that are not used this way -- for example, Flushing includes a whole bunch of large, well-known local neighborhoods whose names ("Kew Gardens Hills") are only used by residents for self-identification, but would never be used for addressing. Nevertheless, every place in Queens has a dual identity of "Queens" and "local village name." For simplicity, we have adopted Queens for the entire borough as the name.
I believe all the county names and the city name were included in state charters, which make them incorporated. When I checked, it looked like the boroughs are not separately incorporated. It creates a mess, because the notion of cities-within-counties is upside down in NYC, boroughs are coterminous with counties but rarely share a name, and village, borough, and county name are have dominance in some area or other. USPS is not consistent in the selection of name type for that reason -- whatever is the dominant usage in a place, that's what they use.
And that's the point. Whatever is dominant in local usage, we use in Waze, too. COnflicting street names? Go with local usage. Conflicting locality names? That's what we're discussing, and ditto.
Usually, there is not a dominant name conflict between local usage and incorporated municipality name in NJ (or NY either, for that matter). Unless we know of one, we can go with incorporated name.
(By the way, the dropping of "Township" is also fairly consistent with the dominant usage theory, even if we did it for other reasons.)
Re: Standards for Naming Townships in NJ