A
street name or
odonym is an identifying name given to a
streetA street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...
. The street name usually forms part of the
addressAn address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used for describing the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or...
(though addresses in some parts of the world, notably most of
JapanThe Japanese addressing system is used to identify a specific location in Japan. In Japanese, addresses are written using the opposite convention from Western addresses, starting with the biggest geographical entities down to the more specific ones....
, make no reference to street names).
BuildingIn architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...
s are often given
numberHouse numbering is the system of giving a unique number to each building in a street or area, with the intention of making it easier to locate a particular building. The house number is often part of a postal address....
s along the street to further help identify them.
Names are often given in a two-part form: an individual name known as the
specific, and an indicator of the type of street or area, known as the
generic. Examples include "Main Road", "Fleet Street" and "Park Avenue". The type of street stated, however, can sometimes be misleading: a street named "Park Avenue" need not have the characteristics of an
avenue__notoc__In landscaping, an avenue or allée is traditionally a straight route with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each, which is used, as its French source venir indicates, to emphasize the "coming to," or arrival at a landscape or architectural feature...
in the generic sense. Some streets are given a name without a street type designation.
The Mall, for example, is the name of various famous streets around the world. On the other hand, some streets have only a generic name, such as
Broadway.
A street name can also include a direction (the cardinal points east, west, north, south, or the quadrants NW, NE, SW, SE) especially in cities with a grid-numbering system. Examples include "E Roosevelt Boulevard" and "14th Street NW". These directions are often (though not always) used to differentiate two sections of a street. Other qualifiers may be used for that purpose as well. Examples: upper/lower, old/new, or adding "extension".
"
Main StreetMain Street is the metonym for a generic street name of the primary retail street of a village, town, or small city in many parts of the world...
" and "
High StreetHigh Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
" are common names for the major road in the middle of a shopping area in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, respectively.
Fore Street"Fore Street": a name often used for the main street of a town. It is commonly found in some parts of England and the United States.There are over seventy "Fore Streets" in Cornwall and about twenty-five in Devon....
is often used, instead of or as well as High Street, in the West of England. The most common street name in the US is "2nd" or "Second".
Etymologies
The
etymologyEtymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
of a street name is sometimes very obvious, but at other times it might be obscure or even forgotten.
In the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, most streets are named after numbers, landscapes, trees (a combination of landscapes and trees such as "Oakhill" is used often in residential areas), or the surname of an important individual (in some instances, it is just a commonly held surname such as Smith).
"The Shambles", derived from the
Anglo-SaxonOld English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...
term
fleshammels (tables on which meat was displayed for sale), is a historical street name which still exists in various cities and towns around
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The most well-known example is to be found
in YorkThe Shambles is an old street in York, England, with overhanging timber-framed buildings, some dating back as far as the fourteenth century. It was once known as The Great Flesh Shambles, probably from the Anglo-Saxon Fleshammels , the word for the shelves that butchers used to display their meat...
.
The unusual etymologies of quite a few street names in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
are documented in
Rude BritainRude Britain is a 2005 book of British place names with seemingly rude or offensive meanings...
, complete with photographs of local
signageSignage is any kind of visual graphics created to display information to a particular audience. This is typically manifested in the form of wayfinding information in places such as streets or inside/outside of buildings.-History:...
.
Type of commerce or industry
Many streets were named for the type of commerce or industry that was along them. This practice rarely happens in modern times, but many of those named years ago are still common. Examples include London's
HaymarketHaymarket is a street in the St. James's district of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Piccadilly Circus at the north to Pall Mall at the south...
or Barcelona's Carrer de Moles, "Millstone Street", where the stonecutters used to have their shops.
Lombard StreetLombard Street is a street in the City of London.It runs from the corner of the Bank of England at its north-west end, where it meets a major junction including Poultry, King William Street, and Threadneedle Street, south-east to Gracechurch Street....
in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
was named after goldsmiths from the
LombardyLombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
region of Italy, who were originally associated with the street. As the street developed to become the home of London's money lenders, the name "Lombard Street" came to be associated with the financial industry. Several cities in the United States, including
San FranciscoLombard Street is an east–west street in San Francisco, California. It is famous for having a steep, one-block section that consists of eight tight hairpin turns.-Route description:...
,
BaltimoreLombard Street is a major street in Baltimore. It forms a one-way pair of streets with Pratt Street that run west-east through downtown Baltimore. For most of their route, Pratt Street is one-way in an eastbound direction, and Lombard Street is one way westbound. Both streets begin in west...
and
PhiladelphiaLombard Street is an east-west street in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It runs from Front Street, near the Delaware River, on the east, to 27th St., near the Schuylkill River, on the west....
, have a Lombard Street named after the one in London.
Landmarks
Some streets are named for
landmarkThis is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...
s that were present along the street when it was constructed. These have often disappeared but the name is retained.
Barcelona's La Rambla is officially a series of streets. The Rambla de Canaletes is named after a fountain that still stands, but the Rambla dels Estudis is named after the Estudis Generals, a university building demolished in 1843, and the Rambla de Sant Josep, the Rambla dels Caputxins, and the Rambla de Santa Monica are each named after former convents. Only the convent of Santa Monica survives as a building, and it is now converted to a museum.
Sometimes a street is named after a landmark that was torn down to build that very street. For example, New York's
Canal StreetCanal Street is a major street in New York City, crossing lower Manhattan to join New Jersey in the west to Brooklyn in the east . It forms the main spine of Chinatown, and separates it from Little Italy...
takes its name from a canal that was filled in to build it.
Self-descriptive names
While names such as Long Road or Nine Mile Ride have an obvious meaning, some roads' names' etymologies are less clear. The various Stone Streets, for example, were named at a time when the art of building paved (stone)
Roman roadThe Roman roads were a vital part of the development of the Roman state, from about 500 BC through the expansion during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Roman roads enabled the Romans to move armies and trade goods and to communicate. The Roman road system spanned more than 400,000 km...
s had been lost. Even allowing for different standards of notability, though, it is unclear why the main road through
Old WindsorOld Windsor is a large village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the English county of Berkshire.-Location:...
was called
Straight Road.
Destination
Many roads (particularly in the UK, Australia, the northeastern US, and South Ontario in Canada) are given the name of the town to which they lead. However, there are also many examples of streets named after a city that is many miles away and has no obvious link to the street.
When the roads do still make it to their stated destination, the names are often changed when they get closer to the destination. (Hartford Avenue in
Wethersfield, ConnecticutWethersfield is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. Many records from colonial times spell the name Weathersfield, while Native Americans called it Pyquag...
, becomes Wethersfield Avenue in
Hartford, ConnecticutHartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, for example.) A road can switch names multiple times as local opinion changes regarding its destination; for example, the road between
OxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and
BanburyBanbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
changes name five times from the
Banbury RoadBanbury Road is a major arterial road in Oxford, England, running from St Giles' at the south end, north towards Banbury through the leafy suburb of North Oxford and Summertown, with its local shopping centre. Parallel and to the west is the Woodstock Road, which it meets at the junction with St...
to the Oxford Road and back again as it passes through villages.
Some streets are named after the areas that the street connects. For example, Clarcona Ocoee Road links the communities of Clarcona and Ocoee in
Orlando, FloridaOrlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
, and Jindivick–Neerim South Road links the towns of Jindivick and
Neerim SouthNeerim South is a town in West Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, located in the Shire of Baw Baw, east of Melbourne and north of Warragul. At the 2006 census, Neerim South and the surrounding area had a population of 1,602....
in
VictoriaVictoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia.
BypassesA bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
are often named after the town they route traffic around, for example the
Newbury bypassThe Newbury bypass, officially known as The Winchester-Preston Trunk Road , is a stretch of dual carriageway road which bypasses the town of Newbury in Berkshire, England...
.
Distinguished or famous individuals
Some streets are named after famous or distinguished individuals, sometimes people directly associated with the street, usually after their deaths. Bucharest's
Şoseaua KiseleffŞoseaua Kiseleff is a major road in Bucharest that runs as a northward continuation of Calea Victoriei. The road was created in 1832 by Pavel Kiselyov, the commander of the Russian occupation troops in Wallachia and Moldavia...
was named after the Russian reformer
Pavel KiselyovCount Pavel Dmitrievich Kiselyov or Kiseleff is generally regarded as the most brilliant Russian reformer during Nicholas I's generally conservative reign.- Early military career :...
who had the road built while Russian troops were occupying the city in the 1830s; its Strada Dr. Iuliu Barasch is named after a locally famous physician whose clinic was located there.
Naming a street after oneself as a bid for
immortalityImmortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
has a long pedigree;
Jermyn StreetJermyn Street is a street in the City of Westminster, central London, to the south, parallel and adjacent to Piccadilly.It is well known as a street where the shops are almost exclusively aimed at the Gentleman's market and is famous for its resident shirtmakers Jermyn Street is a street in the...
in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
was named by
Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St AlbansHenry Jermyn, 1st Earl of Saint Albans KG was an English politician and courtier. He sat in the in the House of Commons at various times between 1625 and 1643 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Jermyn...
, who developed the
St. James'sSt James's is an area of central London in the City of Westminster. It is bounded to the north by Piccadilly, to the west by Green Park, to the south by The Mall and St. James's Park and to the east by The Haymarket.-History:...
area for
Charles II of EnglandCharles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
. Perhaps to dissuade such posterity-seeking, many jurisdictions only allow naming for persons after their death, occasionally with a waiting period of ten years or more. A dozen streets in
San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
's
North BeachNorth Beach is a neighborhood in the northeast of San Francisco adjacent to Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf and Russian Hill. The neighborhood is San Francisco's Little Italy, and has historically been home to a large Italian American population. It still holds many Italian restaurants today, though...
neighborhood were renamed in 1988 after local writers; in 1994, the city broke with tradition, honoring
Lawrence FerlinghettiLawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...
by renaming an alley after him within his own lifetime.
Naming a street for a person is very common in many countries, often in the honoree's birthplace. However, it is also the most controversial type of naming, especially in cases of renaming. It is often the main reason for renaming:
- to commemorate a person who lived or worked in that area (for example, Avenue Victor Hugo
Avenue Victor-Hugo is an avenue in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. It begins at place Charles de Gaulle and ends at place Tattegrain . It is one of the twelve avenues beginning at the Étoile, and the second longest of the twelve, after the avenue des Champs-Élysées...
in ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he resided);
- to rename a very important street in a city after a major historical figure (for example, Boulevard René Lévesque
René Lévesque was a reporter, a minister of the government of Quebec, , the founder of the Parti Québécois political party and the 23rd Premier of Quebec...
in MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, formerly Dorchester Boulevard and Boulevard Leopold III / Leopold III Laan in Brussels named after a previous King).
Conversely, it can be a way to eliminate a name that proves too controversial; for example,
Hamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
Avenue in Brooklyn, New York became
WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
Avenue after the United States entered
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
against
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(see below).
Themes
Groups of streets in one area are sometimes named using a particular theme. One example is
PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, where the major east-west streets in
William PennWilliam Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
's original plan for the city carry the names of trees.
Other examples of themed streets:
- In Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, each of the 50 U.S. states has a street named after it (such as Pennsylvania AvenuePennsylvania Avenue is a street in Washington, D.C. that joins the White House and the United States Capitol. Called "America's Main Street", it is the location of official parades and processions, as well as protest marches...
, which runs from the Capitol to the White House). The state-named streets cross diagonally through the alphabetic (East-West) and numbered streets (North-South) in Washington's grid (see Streets and highways of Washington, D.C.The streets and highways of Washington, D.C. form the core of the city's surface transportation infrastructure. As a planned city, streets in the capital of the United States follow a distinctive layout and addressing scheme...
).
- Many American cities feature the names of presidents and states in their street names. In Mason City, Iowa
Mason City is the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 28,079 in the 2010 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties....
, for example, the west and east sides of the city are divided by the Federal Avenue. West of the Federal Avenue, streets are named Washington Avenue, Adams Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, ..., to Eisenhower Avenue. East of the Federal Avenue, streets are named Delaware Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Georgia Avenue, ..., to California Avenue.
- Themed street names are very common in Guadalajara
Guadalajara is the capital of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of Jalisco in the western-pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,564,514 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
, MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
; themes include:
- Constellations and astronomers in La Calma and Arboledas.
- Rivers and mountain ranges in Las Águilas (Sierra de Pihuamo, Río Verde...)
- Aztec places, people and gods in Ciudad del Sol (Axayácatl, Cuauhtémoc, Popocatépetl, Anáhuac...)
- World cities in Providencia.
- Hispanic writers and intellectuals in Ladrón de Guevara and nearby areas.
- Flowers in downhill Bugambilias, animals uphill.
- Classical artists in La Estancia (Hector Berlioz, Rafael Sanzio, Johann Sebastian Bach...)
- International writers in Jardines Vallarta.
- Mexican isles near El Sauz.
- Countries in Colonia Moderna (Francia, España, Alemania...)
- In Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, most north-south streets are named in alphabetical order, beginning Albion-Ash-Bellaire-Birch-Cherry-Clermont going eastward, and Acoma-Bannock-Cherokee-Delaware-Elati-Fox going west.
- In New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, many streets of the historic French QuarterThe French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...
are named for royal houses of France. Many who visit this neighborhood mistake Bourbon StreetBourbon Street is a famous and historic street that spans the length of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. When founded in 1718, the city was originally centered around the French Quarter...
to be named after the beverage that many of the street's famous revelers are drinking, while it is actually named after the House of BourbonThe House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
, the ruling dynasty of FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
when the city was founded. (Bourbon whiskeyBourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...
is named for Bourbon County, KentuckyBourbon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the remnant of what was previously a much larger Bourbon County, established as part of Virginia in 1785, and comprising what are now thirty-four modern Kentucky counties...
, and thus also indirectly for the dynasty.)
- The Toxteth
Toxteth is an inner city area of Liverpool, England. Located to the south of the city, Toxteth is bordered by Liverpool City Centre, Dingle, Edge Hill, Wavertree and Aigburth.-Description:...
area of LiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
has 'Welsh Streets', a series of streets named after Welsh places, including Rhiwlas St, GwydirGwydir may refer to:Australia*Gwydir Highway, New South Wales*Gwydir River, New South Wales*Division of Gwydir, electoral divisionUnited Kingdom*Gwydir Castle, Conwy, Wales*Gwydir Forest, Conwy, Wales...
St, Powis St and Madryn Street, where BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
drummer Ringo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
grew up. These streets are in the process of being demolished in order to create a more modern housing development. This has been heavily opposed by local residents, who claimed demolition would break Liverpool's link with Wales and ruin a piece of Beatles history.
- Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
has two themed areas where streets are named after large cities in Australia and Canada. LeicesterLeicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
has one area named after nutA nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...
s, with Filbert StreetFilbert Street, in Leicester, England, was a football stadium, and the home of Leicester City from 1891 to 2002. Although officially titled "The City Business Stadium" in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively by its address, like many English football stadia.- Early years :The club,...
being the home of Leicester City F.C.Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...
between 1891 and 2002.
- Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
also has a series of terraced streets with the names Hawthorne, Alma, Rowan, Ruby, Ivanhoe, Sylvan, Oban, and Newport, forming an acrosticAn acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...
for Harrison, the name of the builder. The streets all run into Beatrice Road, named for the builder's wife.
- Streets in the Central Business District of Sydney, Australia
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, are often named after English counties, regions or towns, including Sussex Street, Kent Street, York Street, Liverpool Street, Gloucester Street and Cumberland Street.
- In Brossard, Quebec
Brossard is a suburban area, located on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, opposite the island and city of Montreal.Brossard is subdivided into many smaller sections. These sections are characterized by having street names that all begin with the same letter of the alphabet...
, and Brampton, OntarioBrampton is the third-largest city in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada and the seat of Peel Region. As of the 2006 census, Brampton's population stood at 433,806, making it the 11th largest city in Canada. It is also one of Canada's fastest growing municipalities, with an average...
, different sections of the town all have streets starting with the same letter; in Brampton, the alphabetical order reflects chronology. Laval, QuebecLaval is a Canadian city and a region in southwestern Quebec. It is the largest suburb of Montreal, the third largest municipality in the province of Quebec, and the 14th largest city in Canada with a population of 368,709 in 2006...
has an area named for birds; Kirkland, QuebecKirkland is a town on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. As of 2006, the population was 20,491. It is named after Charles-Aimé Kirkland, a Quebec provincial politician....
has an area named after wines.
- In the Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
Olympic Village, built for the 1992 Summer OlympicsThe 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...
, the streets are named after cities that have hosted Olympics in the past.
- Several cities have areas named for the characters in Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
: Mississauga, OntarioMississauga is a city in Southern Ontario located in the Regional Municipality of Peel, and in the western part of the Greater Toronto Area. With an estimated population of 734,000, it is Canada's sixth-most populous municipality, and has almost doubled in population in each of the last two decades...
; Markham, OntarioMarkham is a town in the Regional Municipality of York, located within the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. The population was 261,573 at the 2006 Canadian census...
; Memphis, TennesseeMemphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
; Winston-Salem, North CarolinaWinston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...
; Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
.
- Themed names are popular in suburban subdivisions. The subdivision or suburban town may itself give the name of the theme, such as Anjou, Quebec (ex: main street named for King René of Anjou) and Lorraine, Quebec
Lorraine is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada on the north shore of the Rivière des Mille-Îles in the Regional County Municipality of Thérèse-de-Blainville. There are no industries and only a very limited commercial district ; almost all houses are of the detached type...
(streets all named for towns in eastern France, main street named for Charles de GaulleCharles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, who resided in that part of France).
- All street names in the Sampaloc District of northeast Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
, PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, are taken from the life and writings of José RizalJosé Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda , was a Filipino polymath, patriot and the most prominent advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He is regarded as the foremost Filipino patriot and is listed as one of the national heroes of the Philippines by...
.
- All streets in the South Triangle District of Quezon City
Quezon City is the former capital and the most populous city in the Philippines. Located on the island of Luzon, Quezon City is one of the cities and municipalities that make up Metro Manila, the National Capital Region. The city was named after Manuel L...
, PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, were named in honor of the Boy ScoutsThe Boy Scouts of the Philippines is the national Scout organization of the Philippines. Its mission is to imbue in the youth the love of God, country, and fellow men; to train young people to become responsible leaders; and to contribute in nation-building.The BSP was chartered under...
who died in a plane crashUnited Arab Airlines Flight 869 was an international scheduled passenger de Havilland Comet 4C flight from Tokyo, Japan to Cairo via Hong Kong, Bangkok, Bombay and Bahrain. On 27 July 1963 it was being operated by a de Havilland Comet registered as SU-ALD, when on approach to Bombay - Santa Cruz...
en route to the 11th World Scout JamboreeThe 11th World Scout Jamboree was held in August 1963 and was hosted by Greece at Marathon.The largest contingent for this event was the British, with almost 1,200 Scouts attending ....
in Greece.
- Street names in Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
typically follow a particular theme: the streets of DuffyDuffy is a suburb in the Canberra district of Weston Creek. On Census night 2006, Duffy had a population of 2,942 people. Duffy was named in honour of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, KCMG the 8th Premier of Victoria. Streets in the suburb of Duffy are named after Australian dams and reservoirs...
are named after Australian dams and weirs, the streets of PagePage is a suburb of Canberra, in the district of Belconnen. The suburb is named in honour of Sir Earle Page, a former Prime Minister. Streets in Page are named in honour of Australian scientists...
are named after biologists and naturalists, and the streets of GowrieGowrie is a suburb of Canberra, Australia, located in the northern end of the Tuggeranong Valley. Tuggeranong suburbs are the southernmost of Australia's capital city...
are named after Australian recipients of the Victoria CrossThe Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
.
- Almere
Almere is a planned city and municipality in the province of Flevoland, the Netherlands, bordering Lelystad and Zeewolde. The municipality of Almere comprises the districts Almere Stad, Almere Haven, Almere Buiten, Almere Hout, Almere Poort and Almere Pampus .Almere is the youngest city in the...
, NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, a planned city founded in 1976, is separated into themed sections. Streets in the city's business district are named for occupations (merchant, poet, real estate agent). Streets in other neighborhoods are named for musical instruments, actors, film directors, islands, months of the year, days of the week, rock stars (Rolling Stones, Jimi HendrixJames Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
), fruits, electronics (transistor, microphone, television), and even Dutch comic-book characters. Themed street names are also very common in all other DutchThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
towns and cities. It is rare to find non-themed neighborhoods built after 1900 in the Netherlands.
- Nearly all of the streets in Leeton, Australia
Leeton is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Leeton is situated approximately 550 km west of Sydney and 450 km north of Melbourne in the productive Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. Leeton is administered by Leeton Shire Council...
were named after plants.
- The Belgrade, Serbia neighborhood of Cerak Vinogradi
Cerak Vinogradi is an urban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in the municipality of Čukarica. - Location :...
has streets named exclusively by the tree species that lines the street: Ash, Linden, Cedar, etc. Notably, the only non-tree place name is the central green space area, named "Trg (Square of) S.C. Babovic", though it lacks any signs with the name.
- Street names in Iceland
Street names in Iceland typically consist of two elements. The first element is chosen in alphabetical order and conforming to the neighborhood's theme , and the second element is shared by all the streets in a neighborhood...
usually follow a duo-theme, where the second element is common throughout a neighborhood. Examples include neighborhoods where the themes are the names of early settlers, ending with -gata (street); and natural themes where the second part is -smári (clover) or -gerði (hedge) and the first part is chosen with alphabetic order in mind.
- San Francisco has five partial alphabets of parallel streets. Three of these series form the grid in the Bayview district (the series Griffith ... Upton crosses the double series Arthur ... Yosemite, Armstrong ... Meade). Another (Anza ... Yorba) crosses the numbered Avenues in the Richmond and Sunset districts, which together are sometimes called "The Avenues". A fifth is the north-south streets of the Sunnyside district (Acadia ... Genesee). San Francisco also has a series of numbered Streets in the Mission and South-of-Market districts.
- Grantham
Grantham is a market town within the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It bestrides the East Coast Main Line railway , the historic A1 main north-south road, and the River Witham. Grantham is located approximately south of the city of Lincoln, and approximately east of Nottingham...
, EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
; an estate, located in the northeast of the town, has its streets named after famous golf courses and racecourses located around the United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the Republic of IrelandIreland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, with a few exceptions. The estate itself is named "The Fairways" after the middle section of a golf hole.
- In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the city's west side has avenues that go from A-Z, although the majority of Avenue A was renamed to "Idylwyld Drive", a portion of the old Ave. A goes from 19th to 20th streets and will expand to an extension of Spadina Crescent in the River Landing
River Landing is an ongoing redevelopment district in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan that will create a commercial/cultural development along the bank of the South Saskatchewan River in downtown Saskatoon.River Landing is divided into two phases...
development. Although it was not officially named, Witney Avenue in the MeadowgreenMeadowgreen community is a geographically localized subdivision of the Confederation Suburban Development Area in the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Meadowgreen is surrounded by an abundance of green space and walking trails without being a River side neighbourhood. The buffer zone...
and Mount RoyalMount Royal is a neighbourhood on the westside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in the Confederation SDA. Having a population of 4.259 residents, the neighborhood consists of 3 elementary schools and 2 sister secondary schools.-Demographics:...
neighborhoods has been unofficially dubbed Avenue Z since it is the last street which runs parallel to Avenue Y.
- In Gander, Newfoundland, every street is named after a pilot, honoring the town's aviation history.
- Downtown of Ljubljana
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...
, SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, has a grid system of roads and LjubljanicaThe Ljubljanica is a river in the southern part of Ljubljana Basin in Slovenia. The capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, is situated on the river. The Ljubljanica rises to the south of the town Vrhnika and outflows in the Sava River about downstream from Ljubljana. Its largest affluent is Mali graben....
river banks named after famous Slovenian writers, poems or artists, such as France PrešerenFrance Prešeren was a Slovene Romantic poet. He is considered the Slovene national poet. Although he was not a particularly prolific author, he inspired virtually all Slovene literature thereafter....
and Ivan CankarIvan Cankar was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature...
. A neighbourhood named Murgle (in Southern Vič district) contains a street naming system based on names of trees planted on sides of the streets, e.g. Under Maples, Under Oaks and Under Willows.
- Streets, squares and parks in Cervar-Porat, Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, are named after winds, e.g. Jugo square, Bura square and Maestral park; after mediterranean plants and trees, e.g. LavandaThe lavenders are a genus of 39 species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. An Old World genus, distributed from Macaronesia across Africa, the Mediterranean, South-West Asia, Arabia, Western Iran and South-East India...
, OleanderNerium oleander is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the dogbane family Apocynaceae, toxic in all its parts. It is the only species currently classified in the genus Nerium. It is most commonly known as oleander, from its superficial resemblance to the unrelated olive Olea, but has many other...
, MaslinaThe olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...
, BršljanIvy, plural ivies is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan and Taiwan.-Description:On level ground they...
, RužmarinRosemary, , is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae, which includes many other herbs, and is one of two species in the genus Rosmarinus...
; and after some objects such as anchor and amphora. Stradun street is named after main street in DubrovnikDubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
. Skalinada street is named after Croatian urbanism term of a stairway street.
- In Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, streets in the College Terrace neighborhood (which borders the Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
campus) are named after distinguished colleges and universities. The streets running north-south start at the westernmost end of the neighborhood alphabetically: Amherst, Bowdoin, Columbia, and Dartmouth. After Dartmouth, the streets do not follow the alphabet (except for the last streets, Wellesley, Williams, and Yale): Hanover, Harvard, Oberlin, Princeton, and Cornell. The backbone of the neighborhood running west-east is College Avenue, and the northernmost street, Stanford Avenue also runs west-east.
- In downtown Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
, north-south streets east of A Street are named after Alaskan communities and place names, starting with Barrow, Cordova, Denali, Eagle. West of A street, streets are merely lettered; as in Washington D.C., they skip J street. Most east-west avenues are numbered.
- In Milford, Massachusetts
Milford is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It had a population of 27,999 at the 2010 census.For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated place Milford, constituting the center of the town, please see the article Milford ,...
, there is one section of collegiate names (Purdue, Cornell, BowdoinBowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
, etc.
- In Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
, downtown north-south streets are named for Texians who died during the Battle of the AlamoThe Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar . All but two of the Texian defenders were killed...
, followed by the San Jacinto area with streets named after the states of the Confederate States of AmericaThe Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. In addition, the Eastridge neighborhood features streets named with flower-inspired names, in alphabetic order.
Grid-based naming systems
In many cities laid out on a
grid planThe grid plan, grid street plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid...
, the streets are named to indicate their location on a Cartesian coordinate plane. For example, the
Commissioners' Plan of 1811The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 was the original design plan for the streets of Manhattan, which put in place the grid plan that has defined Manhattan to this day....
for
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
provided for numbered streets running parallel to the minor axis of the island and numbered and lettered avenues running parallel to the long axis of the island, although many of the avenues have since been assigned names for at least part of their courses. In the city plan for
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, north-south streets were numbered away from the
United States CapitolThe United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...
in both directions, while east-west streets were lettered away from the Capitol in both directions and diagonal streets were named after various States of the Union. As the city grew, east-west streets past W Street were given two-syllable names in alphabetical order, then three-syllable names in alphabetical order, and finally names relating to flowers and shrubs in alphabetical order. Even in communities not laid out on a grid, such as
Arlington County, VirginiaArlington County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The land that became Arlington was originally donated by Virginia to the United States government to form part of the new federal capital district. On February 27, 1801, the United States Congress organized the area as a subdivision of...
, a grid-based naming system is still sometimes used to give a semblance of order.
Often, the
numbered streetA numbered street is a street whose name is an ordinal number, as in Second Street or Tenth Avenue. Such forms are among the most common street names in North America, but also exist in other parts of the world, especially in the Middle East. Numbered streets were first used in Philadelphia and...
s run east-west and the numbered avenues north-south, following the style adopted in Manhattan, although this is not always observed. In some cases, streets in "half-blocks" in between two consecutive numbered streets have a different designator, such as Court or Terrace, often in an organized system where courts are always between streets and terraces between avenues. Alternatively, some systems use fractions or additional letters (such as 38th 1/2 Street or 38a Street for a street between 38th and 39th). Sometimes yet another designator (such as "Way", "Place", or "Circle") is used for streets which go at a diagonal or curve around, and hence do not fit easily in the grid.
In many cases, the block numbers correspond to the numbered cross streets; for instance, an address of 1600 may be near 16th Street or 16th Avenue. In a city with both lettered and numbered streets, such as Washington, D.C., the 400 block may be between 4th and 5th streets or between D and E streets, depending on the direction in which the street in question runs. However, addresses in Manhattan have no obvious relationship to cross streets or avenues, although various tables and formulas are often found on maps and travel guides to assist in finding addresses.
Examples of grid systems:
- In Denver, all roads running east/west are given "Avenue" designations, while those running north/south are given "Street" designations. Sometimes, additional designations are given based on physical characteristics of the road (for example, 6th Avenue Parkway and Monaco Street Parkway both contain large medians consisting of trees and walkways). Denver carries numbered Avenues north of Ellsworth, the center of the address system in Denver. Broadway carries alphabetical streets east and west. For example, 100 North Broadway is at First Avenue and Broadway. Alternately, 100 West Ellsworth is at Ellsworth and Acoma Street.
- In Salt Lake City, the road system is generally based on the location of Temple Square
Temple Square is a ten acre complex located in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . In recent years, the usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities immediately adjacent to Temple Square...
. Salt Lake City is also known to have a number-based naming system. For example, one may find the address of a local store at 4570 South 4000 West, where 4000 West (or 40th West) is the name of the street and 4570 is the number on the building. This means the store is approximately 45 blocks south of the Salt LakeThe Salt Lake Temple is the largest and best-known of more than 130 temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the sixth temple built by the church, requiring 40 years to complete, and the fourth operating temple built since the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo,...
LDS Temple, and 40 blocks west of the Salt Lake Temple. Similar cartesian coordinate systemA Cartesian coordinate system specifies each point uniquely in a plane by a pair of numerical coordinates, which are the signed distances from the point to two fixed perpendicular directed lines, measured in the same unit of length...
s are used in other Utah cities and towns. Much of rural IndianaIndiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
follows the same practice, as do many cities and towns in eastern IdahoIdaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
.
- The Chicago grid system
Roads and freeways in Chicago summarizes the main thoroughfares and the numbering system used in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.-Street layout:...
extends throughout the entire city and into some of its suburbs. State StreetState Street is a large south-north street in Chicago, Illinois, USA and its south suburbs. It begins on the Near North Side at North Avenue. For much of its course, it lies between Wabash Avenue on the east and Dearborn Street/Lafayette Avenue on the west...
(0 E/W) and Madison StreetMadison Street is a major east-west street in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to human intervention, the Chicago River emptied into Lake Michigan at the present day intersection of Madison Street and Michigan Avenue....
(0 N/S), in the "Loop"The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...
divide the city into quadrants. All streets bear a directional prefix (N, S, E or W) indicating their position relative to State and Madison, which is never omitted when writing an address (and rarely in speech). "Blocks", which have a range of 100 numbers, are approximately 1/8 mile long (except between Madison and 31st Streets, where blocks are slightly shorter). Many neighborhoods have intermediate blocks at 1/16 mile intervals as well. Most high-traffic streets lie at intervals of a mile or half-mile. North-south streets are always named, while east-west streets are named on the North Side and numbered on the South Side. Most residents know at least a few of the major streets and their grid positions (i.e. North Avenue = 1600 N, Cicero Avenue = 4800 W). Thus addresses in Chicago are commonly given two ways: in Cartesian coordinates (3400 North, 2800 West) or as number and name (3324 North California). The distance from State or Madison Streets can be calculated from the address number, dividing by 800. For example, 1600 north is two miles north of Madison and 1600 west is 2 miles west of State. Diagonal streets are given directional suffixes based on whether they travel more north-south or more east-west. Examples are North Lincoln Avenue and Ogden Avenue, which bends at Madison and changes from North Ogden to West Ogden.
- In Detroit and the suburbs to the north, major roads were generally built every mile, and many of the east-west roads are numbered in the Mile Road System based on their distance from the start of Woodward Avenue. These roads are named with "Mile Road", from 5 Mile to 37 Mile. Addresses in much of the area are counted from the beginning of Woodward Avenue in Detroit, with roughly 2000 addresses assigned per mile, not coinciding with the Mile Road numbers; for instance, 8 Mile is the 20700 block, not 800 or 8000.
Street renaming
Street names can usually be changed relatively easily by municipal authorities for various reasons. Sometimes streets are renamed to reflect a changing or previously unrecognized ethnic community or to honour politicians or local heroes.
A changed political regime can trigger widespread changes in street names – many
place names in ZimbabweFollowing independence in 1980, Zimbabwe began renaming cities, towns and streets, in an attempt to eradicate symbols of British colonialism and white minority rule, starting in 1982, on the second anniversary of independence...
changed following independence in 1980, replacing names of British colonists with those of Zimbabwean nationalist leaders.
Street names may also be changed to reflect gradual changes in political attitudes, for example in
Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
where streets named after the city's early settlers - many of whom were secessionists and slaveholders - have been renamed gradually since 1990, mostly for civil rights leaders.. While the older street names consisted of last names only (e.g. Hunter Street, Cain Street, Ashby Street), the new names include the full name of the honoree (e.g. Joseph E. Lowery Blvd., Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.)
Some international
causes célèbresA is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
can attract cities around the world to rename streets in solidarity; for example a number of streets with South African embassies were renamed honouring Nelson Mandela during his imprisonment.
Street names can also be changed to avoid negative associations. Malbone Street in
BrooklynBrooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
,
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, became Empire Boulevard after the deadly
Malbone Street WreckThe Malbone Street Wreck, also known as the Brighton Beach Line Accident of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company , was a rapid transit railroad accident that occurred November 1, 1918, beneath the intersection of Flatbush Avenue, Ocean Avenue, and Malbone Street, in the community of Flatbush, Brooklyn...
. Cadieux Street in
MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
was renamed De Bullion because the original name was notorious for the former presence of many bordellos. East 14th Street in Oakland, California, which was notorious for extreme levels of violent crime, was renamed
International BlvdInternational Boulevard is a street in Oakland, California that changes names while stretching from suburban Hayward , through San Leandro International Boulevard is a street in Oakland, California (formerly known as East 14th Street) that changes names while stretching from suburban Hayward...
in 1996 as part of the city's redevelopment efforts. Prohibition brought about heated attempts to change
Whiskey Bottom RoadWhiskey Bottom Road is a historic road north of Laurel, Maryland that traverses Anne Arundel and Howard Counties.-Route description:Whiskey Bottom Road runs through North Laurel, Maryland starting at Maryland Route 198 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. The road continues westward across U.S...
in
Laurel, MarylandLaurel is a city in northern Prince George's County, Anne Arundel County, and Howard County, Maryland, United States, located midway between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Incorporated in 1870, the city maintains a historic district including its Main Street...
, to a more "dignified" name. During
World War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
several streets in the
German VillageGerman Village is a historic neighborhood just south of downtown Columbus. It was settled by a large number of German immigrants in the early-to-mid-19th century, who at one time comprised as much as a third of the population of the entire city...
area of
Columbus, OhioColumbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, were given more "American" sounding names, and Hamburg Avenue in Brooklyn became
WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
Avenue. In Toronto, Hamburg Avenue was renamed to Bristol Avenue in one part and made into an extension of Gladstone Avenue in another. Streets named for Humboldt, Liszt and Schiller were renamed Lynwood, Balmoral and Clarendon, respectively, while Bismark Avenue became Asquith.
Street names also can be affected by a change in official language. After the death of
Francisco FrancoFrancisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
, the
Spanish transition to democracyThe Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...
gave
CataloniaCatalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
the status of an
autonomous communityAn autonomous community In other languages of Spain:*Catalan/Valencian .*Galician .*Basque . The second article of the constitution recognizes the rights of "nationalities and regions" to self-government and declares the "indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation".Political power in Spain is...
, with
CatalanCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
as a co-
official languageAn official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
. While some street names in Catalonia were changed entirely, most were merely given the Catalan translations of their previous
CastilianSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
names; for example,
Calle San Pablo (Saint Paul Street) in
BarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
became
Carrer Sant Pau. In some cases, this was a reversion to Catalan names from decades earlier.
In a similar way, English street names were changed to French in Quebec during the 1970s, after French was declared the sole language for outdoor signage. This was met with hurt and anger by many of the province's
Anglophones, who wished to retain their traditional placenames. The government body responsible for overseeing the enacting of the
Charter of the French LanguageThe Charter of the French Language , also known as Bill 101 and Loi 101, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada defining French, the language of the majority of the population, as the only official language of Quebec, and framing fundamental language rights for everyone in the province...
continues to press English-majority communities to further
francizeFrancization or Gallicization is a process of cultural assimilation that gives a French character to a word, an ethnicity or a person.-French Colonial Empire:-Francization in the World:...
their street names (for example, what was once "Lakeshore Road" was changed to "Chemin Lakeshore" in the 1970s, with the
Office québécois de la langue françaiseThe Office québécois de la langue française is a public organization established on March 24, 1961 by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage...
pressuring a further change to "Chemin du Bord-du-Lac"). However, some Indian reserves have their own signage policies, which may exclude French.
Sometimes, when communities are consolidated, the streets are renamed according to a uniform system. For example, when the community of
GeorgetownGeorgetown is a neighborhood located in northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years...
ceased to have even a nominal existence independent of Washington, D.C., the streets in Georgetown were
renamedThe Georgetown street renaming occurred as a result of an 1895 act of the United States Congress that ended even the nominal independence of Georgetown from Washington, D.C. The Act required, inter alia, that the street names in Georgetown be changed to conform to the street naming system in use...
as an extension of Washington's street-naming convention. Also, when leaders of Arlington County, Virginia, asked the
United States Post Office DepartmentThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
to place the entire county in the "Arlington, Virginia" postal area, the Post Office refused to do so until the county adopted a uniform addressing and street-naming system, which the county did in 1932.
In the borough of Queens, New York, a huge street renaming campaign began in the early 20th century, changing almost all of the street names into numbers, in accordance with the adoption of a new unified house numbering scheme. A confusing aspect of this massive transformation was that some of the local subway stations retained their names, instead of them being changed with their corresponding street(s). Often these names either remained intact years later, with rare examples surviving even today. A curious example is that of 23rd Street - Ely Avenue Station; Ely Avenue was renamed 23rd Street long before the subway station was even constructed.
Sometimes street renaming can be controversial, because of antipathy toward the new name, the overturning of a respected traditional name, or confusion from the altering of a familiar name useful in navigation. A proposal in 2005 to rename 16th Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C., "Ronald Reagan Boulevard" exemplified all three. Issues of familiarity and confusion can be addressed by the street sign showing the current name and, in smaller writing, the old name. One compromise when the issue is more political can be "co-naming", when the old name is fully retained but the street is also given a second subsidiary name, which may be indicated by a smaller sign underneath the 'main' name. (See section below on "Multiple names for a single street".)
It is also controversial because it is seen by many as a way to rewrite history, even if the original name is not well-liked but nevertheless traditional or convenient. It can be used to erase the presence of a cultural group or previous political regime, whether positive or negative, and to show the supremacy of a new cultural group or political regime. A prime example of this type of name change was the renaming of Montreal's Dorchester Boulevard, the nexus of the financial and business district, named for governor
Lord DorchesterGuy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, KB , known between 1776 and 1786 as Sir Guy Carleton, was an Irish-British soldier and administrator...
, to
René Lévesque BoulevardRené Lévesque Boulevard is one of the main streets in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.It is a main east-west thoroughfare passing through the downtown core in the borough of Ville-Marie. The street begins on the west at Atwater Avenue and continues until it merges with Notre Dame Street East just east...
, after a leader of the
Parti QuébécoisThe Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...
, a
separatistQuebec nationalism is a nationalist movement in the Canadian province of Quebec .-1534–1774:Canada was first a french colony. Jacques Cartier claimed it for France in 1534, and permanent French settlement began in 1608. It was part of New France, which constituted all French colonies in North America...
party which was responsible for diminishing the rights of anglophones throughout the province (including mandating French-only street names). City officials rushed to the name change, without even waiting the required one-year mourning period after Lévesque's death. Many Anglophones and federalists were outspoken in their opposition to the name change, and the majority English-speaking city of
WestmountWestmount is a city on the Island of Montreal, an enclave of the city of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada; pop. 20,494; area 4.02 km²; population density of 5,092.56 inhabitants/km²....
retained Dorchester as the name of their portion of the street in protest.
Multiple names for a single street
While it is very common for what is effectively a single street to have different names for different portions of the street, it is less common for a portion of a street to have two equally acceptable legal names. There are numerous cases of the latter in New York City:
Sixth AvenueSixth Avenue – officially Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown"...
in Manhattan was renamed as
Avenue of the Americas in 1945, but the name never really stuck, and the city now considers both names equally acceptable, and both appear on street signs. Manhattan street signs now also designate a portion of
Seventh AvenueSeventh Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park....
as
Fashion Avenue, and
Avenue Cthumb|right|225px|Avenue C was designated [[Loisaida]] Avenue in recognition of Puerto Rican heritage of the neighborhoodAvenue C is a street in the Alphabet City neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street is also known as Loisaida Avenue, and it bears that official...
is also
Loisaida Avenue, a
Spanglish.Spanglish refers to the blend of Spanish and English, in the speech of people who speak parts of two languages, or whose normal language is different from that of the country where they live. The Hispanic population of the United States and the British population in Argentina use varieties of...
name deriving from the English
Lower East SideThe Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
. In
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
,
125th Street125th Street is a two-way street that runs east-west in the New York City borough of Manhattan, considered the "Main Street" of Harlem; It is also called Martin Luther King, Jr...
is co-named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd while East 116th Street also bears the name Luis Munoz Marin Blvd. The avenues also bear co-names: Lenox (Sixth) Avenue/Malcolm X Blvd, Seventh Avenue/Adam Clayton Powell Blvd, and Eighth Avenue/Frederick Douglass Blvd. One street in the Wakefield neighborhood of the Bronx changes its name repeatedly due to the presence of the Bronx - Mount Vernon border, from South 11th Avenue in Mount Vernon, eventually becoming Seton Avenue in the Bronx, with one particular section in between having different names on each side of the street because of the presence of the city line in the centre line of the street: Seton Avenue on the west (Bronx) side of the street, and Mundy Lane on the east (Mount Vernon) side of the street. As a result of this confusing nomenclature created by the difference in jurisdiction, many
city mapA city map is a large-scale thematic map of a city created to enable the fastest possible orientation in an urban space. The graphic representation of objects on a city map is therefore usually greatly simplified, and reduced to generally understood symbology.Depending upon its target group or...
s display both names without giving further visual clarification regarding the name difference, while some other maps give no specific name whatsoever to that portion of the street, instead opting to label the street South 11th Avenue for the portion of the street entirely in Mount Vernon, and Seton Avenue in the Bronx, negelecting to mention Mundy Lane in between.
CairoCairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
's
Muizz Li-Din AllahMa‘ādh Abū Tamīm al-Mu‘izz li Dīn Allāh , also known as al-Moezz, was the fourth Fatimid Caliph and 14th Ismaili imam, and reigned from 953 to 975. It was during his caliphate that the center of power of the Fatimid dynasty was moved from Ifriqiya to the newly conquered Egypt...
Street changes its name as one walks through. It may variously be referred to by locals as Souq Al-Nahhasin ("Coppersmith Bazaar") or Souq Al-Attarin ("Spices Bazaar") or Souq Al-Sagha ("Goldsmith and Jeweler Bazaar"), according to historical uses, as in "Type of commerce or industry" above. (For a tourist, that might be misleading. These Cairene names identify both a "segment" within the Street, and "sub-Areas" in the City.)
In Australia, some major roads may have two names of different types:
- Hume Highway/Sydney Road in outer northern Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, which is exclusively Sydney Road closer to the city and exclusively the Hume Highway outside Melbourne
- Hoddle Highway
Hoddle Highway is an urban highway in Melbourne linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, allotted metropolitan route . The name "Hoddle Highway" is almost completely unknown to most drivers - who refer instead to its constituent parts: Hoddle Street and Punt Road.It starts at the Eastern Freeway...
which is better known as Hoddle Street north of Bridge RoadBridge Road is a major shopping strip in Melbourne, Australia. It is best known for its abundance of clothing factory outlets, which makes it a popular tourist attraction...
and Punt Road south of it
- Princes Highway
The Princes Highway route through Melbourne, runs along former alignments with which originally Highway 1 now run on Melbourne's freeway network.-Werribee section:...
which has localised names - Dandenong Rd through South-Eastern Melbourne; Geelong Rd through the Western suburbs and Lonsdale Street through central Dandenong. The reason for this confusing naming of the highway is that it follows streets and roads which were already named when the highway was named in 1920 and were never renamed.
- Nepean Highway
Nepean Highway runs south from the centre of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia to Portsea, along the eastern shore of Port Phillip. It is the primary road route to central Melbourne from Melbourne's southern suburbs.- History :...
which adopts the name Brighton Rd, St Kilda RoadSt Kilda Road is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is part of the locality of Melbourne which has the postcode of 3004 and along with Swanston Street forms a major spine of the city....
, and finally Swanston StreetSwanston Street is a major thoroughfare in the centre of Melbourne, Australia. It is historically one of the main streets of central Melbourne, laid out in 1837 as part of the Hoddle Grid, the layout of major streets that makes up the central business district...
Boundary Road/Station Road in
HoveHove is a town on the south coast of England, immediately to the west of its larger neighbour Brighton, with which it forms the unitary authority Brighton and Hove. It forms a single conurbation together with Brighton and some smaller towns and villages running along the coast...
and
PortsladePortslade is the name of an area of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century...
,
East SussexEast Sussex is a county in South East England. It is bordered by the counties of Kent, Surrey and West Sussex, and to the south by the English Channel.-History:...
, has different names for each side of the street. Originally known as "Station Road", named for
Portslade railway stationPortslade railway station is a railway station serving the town of Portslade-by-Sea in East Sussex, but located on the western fringes of the village of Aldrington ....
, in 1903 Hove opted to rename its side as "Boundary Road", to avoid confusion with "Station Approach", leading to
Hove railway stationHove railway station is in Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. The station and the majority of trains serving it are operated by Southern. The only other operator is First Great Western, who provide a limited number of services each day to Wales and the West Country. However Gatwick Express...
. Portslade's parish council objected to this, and continued to refer to their side by the old name.
Some cities may use double-naming to honour historic street names. In Calgary, Alberta, for instance, most downtown streets were originally named after local pioneers, but in the early 1900s the original names were replaced by
numbersA numbered street is a street whose name is an ordinal number, as in Second Street or Tenth Avenue. Such forms are among the most common street names in North America, but also exist in other parts of the world, especially in the Middle East. Numbered streets were first used in Philadelphia and...
. Decades later, some of the original street names were reincarnated as names for pedestrian or other malls. These names are not used in addressing: a building on the
Stephen Avenue MallStephen Avenue is a major pedestrian mall in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The mall is actually the portion of 8 Avenue SW between 4 Street SW and 1 Street SE. It is open to vehicles only from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m....
would still have its legal address on 8th Avenue SW or SE.
Multiple streets sharing the same name
In many cases, more than one street in a locality will have the same name: for example, there are three separate
Abbey RoadAbbey Road is a thoroughfare located in the borough of Camden and the City of Westminster in London, running roughly northwest to southeast through St. John's Wood, near Lord's Cricket Ground...
s in
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and five Washington Streets in Boston.
In areas where people commonly refer to a street name with both "specific" and "generic" parts solely by the specific one, this can cause additional confusion. For example, Atlanta has many streets that share the name
Peachtree StreetPeachtree Street is the main street of Atlanta. The city grew up around the street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it...
, -Drive, -Plaza, -Circle, -Way, -Walk, West Peachtree Street, and many other variations that include "Peachtree" in the name. Occasionally, these streets actually intersect each other, as with Pike Place and Pike Street and Ravenna Boulevard and Ravenna Avenue in Seattle, Washington. In many cities in
AlbertaAlberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, new developments have only a few common street names, which are followed by variant types such as Boulevard, Drive, Crescent and Place. The
western suburbsThe Main Line is an unofficial historical and socio-cultural region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, comprising a collection of affluent towns built along the old Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad which ran northwest from downtown Philadelphia parallel to Lancaster Avenue , a road...
of Philadelphia near Conshohocken contain a number of roads named Gulph, including Gulph Road, Upper Gulph Road, New Gulph Road, Old Gulph Road, Gulph Creek Road, Gulph Lane, Gulph Hills Road, North Gulph Road, and South Gulph Road. In some cases, these roads intersect each other multiple times, creating confusion for those unfamiliar with the local geography.
Such an occurrence of street names coinciding came in the episode "The Maid" on
SeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
, when a lost
KramerCosmo Kramer, usually referred to as simply "Kramer", is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Michael Richards...
, calling
JerryJerome "Jerry" Seinfeld is the main protagonist of the American television sitcom Seinfeld . The straight man among his group of friends, this semi-fictionalized version of comedian Jerry Seinfeld was named after, co-created by, based on, and played by Seinfeld himself.The series revolves around...
for assistance, discovers he is at the corner of 1st Avenue and 1st Street in New York. He remarks, "1st and 1st. The nexus of the universe."
Nicknames and shorthands
Some streets are known equally or better by a name other than their official name.
Seattle's University Way NE is almost universally known to locals as "
The AveUniversity Way NE, colloquially The Ave , is the commercial heart of the University District and the off-campus extension of the University of Washington in Seattle. Once "a department store eight blocks long," The Ave has gradually turned into what now resembles an eight-block-long global food...
".
Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
's Delaware Avenue acquired the nickname of "Presidents Avenue", being where
Millard FillmoreMillard Fillmore was the 13th President of the United States and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the office of president...
lived,
William McKinleyWilliam McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
died, and
Theodore RooseveltTheodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
was sworn in as president. The best-known segment of South Las Vegas Boulevard is called the
Las Vegas StripThe Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
, or just "The Strip".
It is also common in some places to shorten the name of streets which have long names. For example, many streets named for
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
are often referred to as "
Mass AveMassachusetts Avenue, known to locals as Mass Ave, is a major thoroughfare in Boston, Massachusetts, and several cities and towns northwest of Boston...
";
BostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
's
Commonwealth AvenueCommonwealth Avenue is a major street in the cities of Boston and Newton, Massachusetts. It begins at the western edge of the Public Garden, and continues west through the neighborhoods of the Back Bay, Kenmore Square, Allston, Brighton and Chestnut Hill...
is often called "Comm Ave"; Manhattan's
Lexington AvenueLexington Avenue, often colloquially abbreviated by New Yorkers as "Lex," is an avenue on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City that carries southbound one-way traffic from East 131st Street to Gramercy Park at East 21st Street...
is often simply called "Lex" and
Madison AvenueMadison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square to the Madison Avenue Bridge at 138th Street. In doing so, it passes through Midtown, the Upper East Side , Spanish Harlem, and...
, "Mad";
Charlottesville, VirginiaCharlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
's Jefferson Park Avenue is simply "JPA"; in
Williamsburg, VirginiaWilliamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
, Duke of Gloucester Street is often referred to as "DOG Street". In
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
,
Lake Shore DriveLake Shore Drive is a mostly freeway-standard expressway running parallel with and alongside the shoreline of Lake Michigan through Chicago, Illinois, USA. Except for the portion north of Foster Avenue , Lake Shore Drive is designated as part of U.S...
is commonly abbreviated to "LSD". In
Portland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Martin Luther King, Junior Boulevard is abbreviated to "MLK Jr. Blvd." (although in Chicago, Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive is always called "King Drive"), and the
Tualatin Valley HighwayThe Tualatin Valley Highway No. 29 is an Oregon highway which passes through the Tualatin Valley, between the cities of McMinnville and Beaverton...
west of Portland is often spoken of and written as "TV Highway". In
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, the
Don Valley ParkwayThe Don Valley Parkway is a controlled-access six-lane municipal expressway in Toronto connecting the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto with Ontario Highway 401, the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway. North of Highway 401, it continues as Ontario Highway 404. The parkway runs through...
is commonly referred to as the "DVP" (and sometimes the Don Valley Parking Lot due to high congestion). In Los Angeles,
Figueroa StreetFigueroa Street is a street in Los Angeles County, California named for General José Figueroa , governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835, who oversaw the secularization of the missions of California...
is frequently referred to as "Fig.", and in southern
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, "PCH" is a common abbreviation for Pacific Coast Highway. In
Las VegasThe Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, Desert Inn Road and Tropicana Avenue are known to the locals as "D.I." and "Trop", respectively, plus Martin Luther King Boulevard there is known as "MLK".
In
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
,
Boulevard Saint-MichelThe Boulevard Saint-Michel is one of the two major streets in the Latin Quarter of Paris . It is a tree-lined boulevard which runs south from the pont Saint-Michel on the Seine river and the Place Saint-Michel, crosses the boulevard Saint-Germain and continues alongside the Sorbonne and the...
is affectionately known as "Boul'Mich". North Michigan Avenue, Chicago's most famous shopping street, is also occasionally referred to by that name, but is more commonly called the
Magnificent MileThe Magnificent Mile, sometimes referred to as The Mag Mile, is a neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, that runs along a portion of Michigan Avenue extending from the Chicago River to Oak Street in the Near North Side community area. The district is located adjacent to downtown; it is also one block...
.
Symbolism
Some street names in large cities can become metonyms, and stand for whole types of businesses or ways of life. "
Fleet StreetFleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
" in London still represents the British press, and "
Wall StreetWall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
" in New York City American finance. In London, a top surgeon with a private practice is liable to be referred to as a
Harley StreetHarley Street is a street in the City of Westminster in London, England which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.- Overview :...
surgeon even if he does not actually maintain an office in Harley Street. The cachet of streets like
Park AvenuePark Avenue is a wide boulevard that carries north and southbound traffic in New York City borough of Manhattan. Through most of its length, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east....
and Fifth Avenue can prove effective branding, as for the
Buick Park AvenueThe Buick Park Avenue is a full-size car built by General Motors and sold by its Buick division. The nameplate was first used since 1975 as a top trim level of the Buick Electra, and the Park Avenue became a standalone model for the 1991 model year, replacing the Electra...
luxury car, and Saks Department Store being always known as "
Saks Fifth AvenueSaks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor...
". In the opposite way,
42nd Street42nd Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, known for its theaters, especially near the intersection with Broadway at Times Square. It is also the name of the region of the theater district near that intersection...
still symbolizes a street of pleasure, but also sin and decadence. Like Wall Street,
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
's
Bay StreetBay Street, originally known as Bear Street, is a major thoroughfare in Downtown Toronto. It is the centre of Toronto's Financial District and is often used by metonymy to refer to Canada's financial industry since succeeding Montreal's St. James Street in that role in the 1970s...
represents Canadian finance and business and still serves it today.
Much as streets are often named after the neighborhoods they run through, the reverse process also takes place, with a neighborhood taking its name from a street or an intersection: for example, the aforementioned Wall Street in Manhattan,
KnightsbridgeKnightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
in London,
Haight-AshburyHaight-Ashbury is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight.-Location:...
in
San FranciscoSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, or
Jane and FinchJane and Finch is a neighbourhood located in northwestern North York, a district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The area is roughly bounded by Highway 400 to the west, Driftwood Avenue to the east, Grandravine Drive to the south, and Shoreham Drive to the north...
in Toronto.
Vanity addresses
A street address invented or renamed to emphasize a particular institution is sometimes called a "vanity address".
- One example is Target Field
Target Field is a baseball park located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the home ballpark of the Minnesota Twins, the city's Major League Baseball franchise. It is the franchise's sixth ballpark and third in Minnesota. The Twins moved to Target Field for the 2010 Major League Baseball...
in Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, whose address is styled as "1 Twins Way". The home stadium of the Minnesota TwinsThe Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
baseball team is at the foot of "Twins Way", which is a renamed, short portion of 3rd Avenue.
- The Palace of Auburn Hills
The Palace of Auburn Hills, often referred to simply as The Palace, is a sports and entertainment venue in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb on the northern outskirts of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1988, it is the home of the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association...
is addressed as "6 Championship Drive" to recognize the number of championships sports teams who play there have won. (3 for the Detroit PistonsThe Detroit Pistons are a franchise of the National Basketball Association based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The team's home arena is The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was originally founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons as a member of the National Basketball League in 1941, where...
and 3 for the Detroit Shock).
Street type designations
Streets can be divided into various types, each with their own general style of construction and purpose. However, the difference between streets, roads, avenues and the like is often blurred and is not a good indicator of the size, design or content of the area. For example, London's
Abbey RoadAbbey Road is a thoroughfare located in the borough of Camden and the City of Westminster in London, running roughly northwest to southeast through St. John's Wood, near Lord's Cricket Ground...
serves all the vital functions of a street, despite its name, and locals are more apt to refer to the "street" outside than the "road". A desolate road in rural
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, on the other hand, may bear a sign proclaiming it "Davidson Street", but this does not make it a "street".
In the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
many towns will refer to their main thoroughfare as the
High StreetHigh Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
, and many of the ways leading off it will be named "Road" despite the urban setting. Thus the town's so-called "Roads" will actually be more streetlike than a road.
In some other English-speaking countries, such as New Zealand and Australia, cities are often divided by a main "Road", with "Streets" leading from this "Road", or are divided by thoroughfares known as "Streets" or "Roads" with no apparent differentiation between the two. In
AucklandThe Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, for example, the main shopping precinct is around
Queen StreetQueen Street is the major commercial thoroughfare in the Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand's main population centre. It starts at Queens Wharf on the Auckland waterfront, adjacent to the Britomart Transport Centre and the Downtown Ferry Terminal, and runs uphill for almost three kilometres in a...
and
Karangahape RoadKarangahape Road is one of the main streets in the central business district of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area - and subsequent flight of residents and retail into the suburbs - turned it from one of Auckland's premier shopping streets...
, and the main urban thoroughfare connecting the south of the city to the city centre is Dominion Road.
In
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and
SeattleThe street layout of Seattle is based on a series of disjointed rectangular street grids. Most of Seattle and King County use a single street grid, oriented on true north. Near the center of town, various land claims were platted in the 19th century with differently oriented grids, which have...
, east-west streets are "Streets" whereas North-South streets are "Avenues". Yet in
St. Petersburg, FloridaSt. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
and
Memphis, TennesseeMemphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, all of the east-west streets are "Avenues" and the North-South streets are "Streets" (Memphis has one exception—the historic
Beale StreetBeale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately . It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are...
runs east-west).
In
OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
,
concession roadIn Upper and Lower Canada, concession roads were laid out by the colonial government through undeveloped land to define lots to be developed; the name comes from a Lower Canadian French term for a row of lots. Concession roads are straight, and follow an approximately square grid, usually oriented...
s are numbered based on where in an area's initial survey they are located. Roads perpendicular to the baseline, usually a lake, are often called "lines", while roads parallel to the baseline are either "concession roads" or "sideroads".
In
MontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, "Avenue" (used for major streets in other cities) generally indicates a small, tree-lined, low-traffic residential street. Exceptions exist, such as Park Avenue and Pine Avenue. Both are major thoroughfares in the city. In older cities, names such as "Vale" which would normally be associated with smaller roads may become attached to major thoroughfares as roads are upgraded (e.g. Roehampton Vale).
In the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
in the 1970s and 1980s there was a trend to not use the street type suffix at all, resulting in street names like (translated) "
North Sea" and "
Tuba".
In some cities in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(San Francisco; Houston; Detroit;
ClevelandCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
;
MemphisMemphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
), streets have official suffixes, but they are not generally given on street signs or used in postal addresses. In
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, suffixes are given on street signs but often ignored in popular speech, postal addresses, and 'L' station names.
Occasionally, in systems where the general trend is to omit street type suffixes, there may be specific execptions where the street type is included, when the name of a street may cause confusion for those unfamiliar with the region. For example, in
TorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, where
public transit services-Island Ferry:The ferry service to the Toronto Islands was operated by the TTC from 1927 until 1962, when it was transferred to the Metro Parks and Culture department. Since 1998, the ferry service is run by Toronto Parks and Recreation.-Gray Coach:...
, such as bus routes,
streetcar routesThe Toronto streetcar system comprises eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission , and is the largest such system in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, and track length. The network is concentrated primarily in downtown and in...
, and
subway stationThe Toronto subway and RT is a rapid transit system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of both underground and elevated railway lines, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission . It was Canada's first completed subway system, with the first line being built under Yonge Street, which opened in...
names, tend to omit street type suffixes, "Main Street" is always referred to as such because visitors might assume that it is a central thoroughfare in the city, when in fact it is far removed in the east side, in the former town of
East TorontoEast Toronto, Ontario was an incorporated community in what is today a part of the city of Toronto, Canada. It covered much of what is today the Upper Beaches neighbourhood, stretching up to Danforth Avenue in the north. The central street in the community was Main Street, running south from...
, which was annexed by Toronto in 1908. It was never renamed because there were no other "Main Streets" for it to conflict with, since Toronto's main thoroughfare is named
Yonge StreetYonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...
.
List of street type designations
In parentheses for each designation are listed the standard abbreviation used in the U.S.
- Major roads
- Controlled-access highway
A highway is any public road. In American English, the term is common and almost always designates major roads. In British English, the term designates any road open to the public. Any interconnected set of highways can be variously referred to as a "highway system", a "highway network", or a...
(Hwy.) or Motorway (Mtrwy.)
- Autobahn
- Auto-estrada
- Autoroute
Autoroute may refer to:* Controlled-access highway, particularly in French speaking countries* Routing , when routes to wires in a design are automatically assigned...
- Autostrada
- Autostrasse
- Byway
A byway in the United Kingdom is a minor secondary or tertiary road. In 2000 the legal term 'restricted byway' was introduced to cover roads on which it is possible to travel by any mode but not using 'mechanically propelled vehicles'.-Byway Open to All Traffic :In England & Wales, a Byway Open to...
- Turnpike
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
(Tpk.)
- Main roads (e.g. A roads in Great Britain)
- A road
A roads may refer to* A roads in Great Britain* A roads on the Isle of Man* A roads in Latvia* A roads in Lithuania* A roads in Malaysia, state roads in Perak* A roads in Northern Ireland* A roads in Sri Lanka...
- Bundesstraße
Bundesstraße , abbreviated B, is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.-Germany:...
- Expressway
A limited-access road known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway and expressway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which has many or most characteristics of a controlled-access highway , including limited or no access to adjacent...
(Expy.)
- Freeway (Fwy.)
- Pike
- Reichsstraße
In medieval times, a Reichsstraße was an imperial road in the Holy Roman Empire.The Reichsstraße came under royal jurisdiction and travellers were afforded the protection of the Landfrieden, a law that was supposed to ensure peace and unhindered passage similar to the Queen's peace...
- Small roads (often residential/suburban)
- Alley
An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane found in urban areas, often for pedestrians only, which usually runs between or behind buildings. In older cities and towns in Europe, alleys are often what is left of a medieval street network, or a right of way or ancient footpath in an urban setting...
(Aly.)
- Arcade
Arcade may refer to:*Arcade , a passage or walkway, often including retailers*Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware*Arcade game, a coin operated game machine usually found in a game or video arcade...
- Avenue
__notoc__In landscaping, an avenue or allée is traditionally a straight route with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each, which is used, as its French source venir indicates, to emphasize the "coming to," or arrival at a landscape or architectural feature...
(Ave.)
- Boulevard
A Boulevard is type of road, usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery...
(Blvd.)
- Road
A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...
(Rd.)
- Street
A street is a paved public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, but is more often paved with a hard, durable...
(St.)
- Bay
A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...
- Drive
A driveway is a type of private road for local access to one or a small group of structures, and is owned and maintained by an individual or group....
(Dr.)
- Close
- Gardens (Gdns.)
- Gate
- Glebe
Glebe Glebe Glebe (also known as Church furlong or parson's closes is an area of land within a manor and parish used to support a parish priest.-Medieval origins:...
- Lane
A lane is a part of the roadway within a road marked out for use by a single line of vehicles in such a way as to control and guide drivers for the purpose of reducing traffic conflicts. Most public roads have at least two lanes, one for traffic in each direction, separated by Lane markings...
(Ln.)
- Manor
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
(Mnr.)
- Mews
Mews is a primarily British term formerly describing a row of stables, usually with carriage houses below and living quarters above, built around a paved yard or court, or along a street, behind large city houses, such as those of London, during the 17th and 18th centuries. The word may also...
(*Not often used)
- Nene
Nene is a word in the language of the Seminole Indians. Roughly translated into English, it means "path" or "trail." In the city of Tallahassee, Florida, USA, it is often used in the same way that street, road, drive, terrace, or boulevard are used: following the name of the...
(*Not often used)
- Passage
-Other meanings:* Passage , a long room or hall leading to other rooms* Passage , a form of trained slow, animated trot performed by a horse* Passage , the process of approving a proposed law...
(Psge.)
- Pathway (Pthwy.)
- Place (Pl.)
- Row
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
- Terrace
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
(Ter., or Tce in Australia)
- Trace (Trce.)
- Trail
A trail is a path with a rough beaten or dirt/stone surface used for travel. Trails may be for use only by walkers and in some places are the main access route to remote settlements...
(Trl.)
- View
A view is what can be seen in a range of vision. View may also be used as a synonym of point of view in the first sense. View may also be used figuratively or with special significance—for example, to imply a scenic outlook or significant vantage point:...
(Vw.)
- Way
- Culs-de-sac
A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...
- Close
A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...
- Court
A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...
(Ct.)
- Cove
A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...
(Cv.)
- Croft
Croft may refer to: * Croft, an area of land with a crofter's dwelling, used for crofting .* Bleachfield, an open space used for the bleaching of fabric, sometimes called crofts.Locations in the United Kingdom:...
- Garth
A garth is an enclosed quadrangle or yard, especially one surrounded by a cloister .-Garth is a given name::*Garth Brooks, top-selling American country music artist...
- Green
A lawn is an area of aesthetic and recreational land planted with grasses or other durable plants, which usually are maintained at a low and consistent height. Low ornamental meadows in natural landscaping styles are a contemporary option of a lawn...
(Grn.)
- Lawn
A lawn is an area of aesthetic and recreational land planted with grasses or other durable plants, which usually are maintained at a low and consistent height. Low ornamental meadows in natural landscaping styles are a contemporary option of a lawn...
- Nook
Nook may refer to a small corner formed by two walls.Nook may also refer to:*A slang name for a person reading; also known as a "book nook"*"Nook", a science-fiction TV series Lexx episode...
- Place
A cul-de-sac is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road or court meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet...
(Pl.)
- Named for their shape
- Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
(Cir.)
- Circle
A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane that are a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any of the points and the centre is called the radius....
(Circ.)
- Crescent
In art and symbolism, a crescent is generally the shape produced when a circular disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points .In astronomy, a crescent...
(Cres.)
- Loop
A circle is a simple shape of Euclidean geometry consisting of those points in a plane that are a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any of the points and the centre is called the radius....
- Oval
An oval is any curve resembling an egg or an ellipse, such as a Cassini oval. The term does not have a precise mathematical definition except in one area oval , but it may also refer to:* A sporting arena of oval shape** a cricket field...
- Quadrant
A circular sector or circle sector, is the portion of a disk enclosed by two radii and an arc, where the smaller area is known as the minor sector and the larger being the major sector. In the diagram, θ is the central angle in radians, r the radius of the circle, and L is the arc length of the...
- Square
In geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral. This means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles...
(Sq.)
- Named for geographical attributes
- Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
(Cyn.)
- Causeway
In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...
(Cswy.)
- Dell
In physical geography, a dell is a small wooded valley. Like "dale", the word "dell" is derived from the Old English word dæl.-See also:* Cirque* Combe * Coulee* Dells of the Wisconsin River...
- Grade, but Grade
Grading in civil engineering and construction is the work of ensuring a level base, or one with a specified slope, for a construction work such as a foundation, the base course for a road or a railway, or landscape and garden improvements, or surface drainage...
may also be used for a dirt road that requires periodic grading
- Grove
A grove is a small group of trees with minimal or no undergrowth, such as a sequoia grove, or a small orchard planted for the cultivation of fruits or nuts...
(Grv.)
- Heights
Heights is a 2004 Merchant Ivory Productions film that follows a pivotal twenty-four hours in the interconnected lives of five New Yorkers...
(Hts.)
- Highlands
- Hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills...
(Hl.)
- Knoll
* In geography, a knoll is a small, low natural hill.* Knolling is an important term in understanding American artist Tom Sachs' work and process.-Places:...
(Knl.)
- Mount
Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...
(Mt.)
- Parkway
The term parkway has several distinct principal meanings and numerous synonyms around the world, for either a type of landscaped area or a type of road.Type of landscaped area:...
(Pkwy.)
- Rise
Rise or RISE may refer to:* Moving up-Music:* A type of melodic motion* Rise Records, a record label* Rise, an alias used by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne-Albums:...
- Vale
River Valley is the name of an urban planning area within the Central Area, Singapore's central business district.The River Valley Planning Area is defined by the region bounded by Orchard Boulevard, Devonshire Road and Eber Road to the north, Oxley Rise and Mohamed Sultan Road to the east, Martin...
- Named for their function
- Approach
- Bypass
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
(Byp.)
- Esplanade
An esplanade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The original meaning of esplanade was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide clear fields of fire for the fortress' guns...
- Frontage road
A frontage road is a non-limited access road running parallel to a higher-speed road, usually a freeway, and feeding it at appropriate points of access...
- Loop
- Parade
A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind...
(Pde, chiefly in Australia)
- Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
- Plaza
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...
(Plz.)
- Promenade
- Quay (Pronounced "key". A major street in Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
is known as "Queens Quay". Spelled "Key" in Bellevue, WashingtonBellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle, it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. The population was 122,363 at the 2010 census.Downtown Bellevue is...
, USA.)
- Spur
A spur route is a short road forming a branch from a longer, more important route . A bypass or beltway is never considered a true spur route as it typically reconnects with the major road...
- Stravenue
A stravenue is a type of road particular to Tucson, Arizona. The United States Postal Service officially supports the suffix STRA for stravenues...
(Stra.)
- Walk
WALK may refer to:*WALK , a radio station licensed to East Patchogue, New York, United States*WALK-FM, a radio station licensed to Patchogue, New York, United States...
Numbering
Some major roads, particularly motorways and freeways, are given
road numberA road number is often assigned to a stretch of public roadway. The number chosen is often dependent on the type of road, with numbers differentiating between interstates, motorways, arterial thoroughfares, two-lane roads, and so forth.-United Kingdom:...
s rather than, or in addition to, names. Examples include the
M1The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
and
Interstate 5Interstate 5 is the main Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Ocean coastline from Canada to Mexico . It serves some of the largest cities on the U.S...
. Many streets in Britain are given both a number and a name as part of the
Great Britain road numbering schemeThe Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...
. The same is also common in the United States; for example, in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, much of
New York AvenueNew York Avenue is one of the diagonal avenues radiating from the White House in Washington, D.C. It is a major east-west route in the city's Northwest and Northeast quadrants and connects downtown with points east and north of the city via Cheverly, Maryland, the John Hanson Highway and the...
is U.S. Highway 50. In
York RegionThe Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. It replaced the former York County in 1971, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area and the inner ring of the Golden Horseshoe...
,
OntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, the former provincial
Highway 7King's Highway 7, commonly referred to as Highway 7 and historically as the Northern Highway, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario...
(currently signed as York Regional Road 7) is still referred to as
Highway 7 on road signs and in everyday use, even though the road has not been part of Ontario's provincial highway system since 1998.
Some jurisdictions may use internal numbers to track county or city roads which display no number on signs.
Statistics
The most common street names in the United States, as of 1993, were:
- Second or 2nd (10,866)
- Third (10,131)
- First (9,898)
- Fourth (9,190)
- Park (8,926)
- Fifth (8,186)
- Main (7,644)
- Sixth (7,283)
- Oak (6,946)
- Seventh (6,377)
- Pine (6,170)
- Maple (6,103)
- Cedar (5,644)
- Eighth (5,524)
- Elm (5,233)
- View (5,202)
- Washington (4,974)
- Ninth (4,908)
- Lake (4,901)
- Hill (4,877)
"First" streets are less common than "Second" and "Third" because some cities do not have "First" streets—naming them "Main" instead, or renaming them after historical figures.
External links