How Do Streets Get Their Names?
Have you ever been walking through a neighbourhood and noticed how many different street names there are? Add to that the roads between cities and towns. With every new subdivision being built, new street names need to be picked out before anyone can move in. To make this more complicated, street names cannot use the same name as other nearby streets. Otherwise, one address could lead you to more than one place in just a single town. This begs the question; how do streets get their names?
When Did Streets First Start Getting Named?
Archeologists have found evidence of organized roads as far back as 4000 BC in areas such as Iraq and England. Stone streets began appearing in the ancient cities of Ur and Babylon allowing for travel with the newly invented wheel. Meanwhile, a wooden “corduroy” road named the “Sweet Track” has been discovered in a swampy area near Glastonbury, England. This road, made with wooden boards spanning the width and looking like corduroy fabric, was built in 3800 BC.
These roads, though, are not known to have had names during their ancient usage. The Sweet Track was not given a name until it was discovered in 1970 by a man named Ray Sweet. Sweet was a peat digger, a person who digs out a special type of moss from the swampy areas in which it grows.
The first streets with given names came much later, with estimates being around 300 BC. An example of this is the Via Appia, an ancient Roman road named after the Roman official, Appius Claudius Caecus. Appius oversaw the construction of the road that was built between Rome and Capua. As the overseer, he had the road named after him to cement his legacy in Roman culture.
Streets Named for Functionality
In modern day, it’s common for roads to be named after landmarks or features that define them. For example, streets with the name “Church”, “Mill”, or “Canal” usually feature their respective namesake. In the past, these names would have originated from shorthand used to identify different areas of the town. As towns grow, these names may not be as definitive but changing their name would be expensive or confusing. Decades later, the street seems to be named ambiguously, but has a story behind it. An example is of the famous Park Avenue in New York City.
In the early 1800s, Park Avenue, then called 4th avenue, was split down the middle by a railway. The train struggled to climb a hill between 32nd and 40th street, though. To remedy this, the city dug a trench through the hill, leaving a wide gap, or gorge, over the tracks. Following public concern for safety in 1850, the city built a cap over this trench to keep anything from falling in. On top of this they put down dirt and grass, distinguishing it from most other streets in the city, While not a playground by any means, these grassy medians became recognized as “parks”, resulting in the name Park Avenue. Over 170 years later, despite urbanization removing these grassy medians, Park Avenue retains its name.
Not all of the streets in New York City were given these descriptive names, though. Rather, the other streets have a more systematic etymology. As mentioned earlier, Park Avenue used to be named 4th Avenue. Originally, Park Avenue had 3rd Avenue on its east side and 5th Avenue on its west. Other avenues stretching north and south continue counting up, and down, across the city.
The streets intersecting, east to west, follow a similar system, counting up from 1st Street. This is common in other major cities, like Los Angeles and Miami. As a result, 2nd Street is the 2nd most common street name in America, after Main street. Most exceptions, like Madison Avenue and Lexington Avenue in New York, were built later and added to the existing streets.
Highways and freeways are also common examples of this name-based functionality. For instance, the 400-series highways in Ontario begin with the number 4 to refer to their four lanes. Though four lanes is common among highways in Ontario now, they were the first four lane highways when they were built.
When it comes to American Interstates, they are named as practically as American streets and avenues. Stretching from Florida to Los Angeles is Interstate 10, and every longitudinal interstate moving north increases in intervals of 10. Then from San Diego to Seattle, Washington is Interstate 5, also increasing by 10 as you move east. Some new, smaller Interstates have broken this rule, but the Interstate grid is pretty practical overall.
Streets Named for Culture / Inclusivity / Heritage
Another way for towns and cities to name streets is in a memorial way. While every municipality is different, town or city councils often look to notable people or groups during the naming process. It’s common across all of Canada to find streets named after veterans who were local residents. With new subdivisions being built, though, towns need more than just the names of veterans.
In July 2022, Toronto, Ontario elected a “Commemorative Framework” for naming streets, monuments, and community buildings. While the City Council retains final say, this framework “[prioritizes] commemorations significant to Indigenous Peoples, Black Communities, and equity-deserving groups”.
An example of this was the naming of two downtown laneways, North Star Way and Henry Box Brown Lane. These streets were named during Black History Month in Toronto, after two symbols that were iconic during the slave trade. Henry “Box” Brown was a slave who escaped America by hiding in a box that was then mailed to Canada. It would be 3 days before he made it to Toronto, after which he dedicated his life to spreading awareness about the injustices of slavery. North Star Way is named after the north star, which guided countless slaves toward their freedom in Canada.
Other communities, such as nearby Barrie, Ontario, have similar frameworks but allow for a wider influence of sources. In addition to inclusivity and heritage, Barrie looks for names from local culture and fundraising initiatives. Dozens of parks and streets commemorate everyone from city officials to a police officer who died while on duty.
Even sports and music are considered in the idea of culture when it comes to naming streets. In 1993, the Toronto Blue Jays won their first World Series, sparking celebrations across the streets of the city. To commemorate the championship, Toronto re-named a section of Peter Street, home to the Blue Jays’ home stadium, after the team. To this day, the Blue Jays’ home stadium is at 1 Blue Jays Way in Toronto.
The city of Ajax, Ontario, did something similar in 2025 following the retirement of the world famous band, Sum 41. Since the band began in Ajax, the city unofficially dubbed Falby Court as “Sum 41 Way”. This was supposed to be a short-lived change to honour the band’s final concert, but the band’s fans were persuasive. There was such a positive reception that the city decided to keep the sign up. While still an unofficial name change, the sign for “Sum 41 Way” will continue to stand beside the sign for Falby Court.
Streets Named for Lighthearted Entertainment
Giving every street a deep, sentimental name would be nice, but building and maintaining the list would be painstaking. When building a subdivision, developers have to submit ideas for street names, usually without any sentimental value. In 2023, a subdivision in Henderson, Nevada became famous from its Pokemon Inspired street names.
The development company, “Harmony Homes”, noted how difficult it is to name dozens of streets for a new subdivision. Project constructor Andrea Miller explained that every street needs two names submitted minimum in case one choice cannot be used. Some names could have a hidden meaning, while other names may already be in use.
In a lighthearted effort, Miller took the advice of her children and used Pokemon as inspiration. In addition to being entertaining, this made naming easier as it was almost guaranteed the names were not already used. Miller’s kids had helped out before as well, naming part of a Las Vegas neighbourhood after Paw Patrol characters.
This lighthearted nomenclature is a lot more common than one would think. Porters Lake, Nova Scotia, is home to the famous “This Street”, “That Street”, and “The Other Street”. Barrie, Ontario recently introduced “Evergreen Terrace” in reference to The Simpsons, with “South Park Lane” a block away. Entertaining street names can be found across America, most likely due to the same mental block for street names.
So next time you see a new street name, try and find out how it was named!
