diff --git a/scripts/geodata/osm/formatter.py b/scripts/geodata/osm/formatter.py
index 7fefc50a..dbf010bd 100644
--- a/scripts/geodata/osm/formatter.py
+++ b/scripts/geodata/osm/formatter.py
@@ -595,7 +595,7 @@ class OSMAddressFormatter(object):
             language_components = {}
 
             base_name_tags = [t for t in all_base_name_tags if t in tags]
-            if not base_names:
+            if not base_name_tags:
                 base_name_tag = None
             else:
                 base_name_tag = base_name_tags[0]