diff --git a/js/id/svg/labels.js b/js/id/svg/labels.js
index 754328c66..2e8fe8eee 100644
--- a/js/id/svg/labels.js
+++ b/js/id/svg/labels.js
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ iD.svg.Labels = function(projection, context) {
                 'startOffset': '50%',
                 'xlink:href': function(d) { return '#labelpath-' + d.id; }
             })
-            .text(iD.util.localeName);
+            .text(iD.util.displayName);
 
         texts.exit().remove();
 
@@ -140,8 +140,8 @@ iD.svg.Labels = function(projection, context) {
         texts.attr('x', get(labels, 'x'))
             .attr('y', get(labels, 'y'))
             .style('text-anchor', get(labels, 'textAnchor'))
-            .text(iD.util.localeName)
-            .each(function(d, i) { textWidth(iD.util.localeName(d), labels[i].height, this); });
+            .text(iD.util.displayName)
+            .each(function(d, i) { textWidth(iD.util.displayName(d), labels[i].height, this); });
 
         texts.exit().remove();
         return texts;
@@ -267,7 +267,7 @@ iD.svg.Labels = function(projection, context) {
                 preset = geometry === 'area' && context.presets().match(entity, graph),
                 icon = preset && !blacklisted(preset) && preset.icon;
 
-            if ((iD.util.localeName(entity) || icon) && !(hidePoints && geometry === 'point')) {
+            if ((iD.util.displayName(entity) || icon) && !(hidePoints && geometry === 'point')) {
 
                 for (k = 0; k < label_stack.length; k ++) {
                     if (entity.geometry(graph) === label_stack[k][0] &&
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ iD.svg.Labels = function(projection, context) {
             var font_size = font_sizes[k];
             for (i = 0; i < labelable[k].length; i ++) {
                 entity = labelable[k][i];
-                var name = iD.util.localeName(entity),
+                var name = iD.util.displayName(entity),
                     width = name && textWidth(name, font_size),
                     p;
                 if (entity.geometry(graph) === 'point') {
diff --git a/js/id/ui/raw_member_editor.js b/js/id/ui/raw_member_editor.js
index 71401ea36..3c9d9766e 100644
--- a/js/id/ui/raw_member_editor.js
+++ b/js/id/ui/raw_member_editor.js
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ iD.ui.RawMemberEditor = function(context) {
 
                     $label.append('span')
                         .attr('class', 'member-entity-name')
-                        .text(function(d) { return iD.util.localeName(d.member); });
+                        .text(function(d) { return iD.util.displayName(d.member); });
 
                 } else {
                     d3.select(this).append('label')
diff --git a/js/id/ui/raw_membership_editor.js b/js/id/ui/raw_membership_editor.js
index c23baf71a..a51d922d5 100644
--- a/js/id/ui/raw_membership_editor.js
+++ b/js/id/ui/raw_membership_editor.js
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ iD.ui.RawMembershipEditor = function(context) {
 
             $label.append('span')
                 .attr('class', 'member-entity-name')
-                .text(function(d) { return iD.util.localeName(d.relation); });
+                .text(function(d) { return iD.util.displayName(d.relation); });
 
             $enter.append('input')
                 .attr('class', 'member-role')
diff --git a/js/id/util.js b/js/id/util.js
index 7e23d9117..66174e6bb 100644
--- a/js/id/util.js
+++ b/js/id/util.js
@@ -10,9 +10,9 @@ iD.util.entitySelector = function(ids) {
     return ids.length ? '.' + ids.join(',.') : 'nothing';
 };
 
-iD.util.localeName = function(entity) {
+iD.util.displayName = function(entity) {
     var localeName = 'name:' + iD.detect().locale.toLowerCase().split('-')[0];
-    return entity.tags[localeName] || entity.tags.name;
+    return entity.tags[localeName] || entity.tags.name || entity.tags.ref;
 };
 
 iD.util.stringQs = function(str) {