In Knoxville, Tennessee there is a subdivision with street names based on different forms of movement or locomotion: Rambling, Drifting, Strolling, Roaming, Walking, Wandering, Curving, and Climbing.
I was a door-to-door canvaser and I worked with a guy who had done a "Gunsmoke’ inspired neighborhood, Miss Kitty Drive and Festus Way.
The Dutch can be very… systematic about street names, so that in one area of Amsterdam there’s Lange Leidsedwaarstraat, Korte Leidsedwaarstraat, Leidseplein, Leidsekruistraat, Leidsestraat, and Leidsegracht. Elsewhere there’s Lauriergracht, Laurierstraat, Laurierhof, Eerste Laurierdwaarstraat, and Tweede Laurierdwaarstraat; and Bloemgracht, Bloemstraat, Eerste Bloemdwaarstraat, and Tweede Bloemdwaarstraat.
There’s another one in Kirkland, a suburb of Montreal. Another subdivision in Laval has all the streets named after titles, such as Rue de la Duchesse, Rue de la Princesse, Rue du Monarque, Avenue des Ambassadeurs, Rue du Colonel, Avenue des Généraux, Rue du Sénateur, and Avenue des Aristocrates. (Yes, the houses are horrendously large and fancy.)
Columbus has infinite humor possibility, as Gay street crosses High. One friend, noting he stood at the intersection of Young and Gay quipped “I’m not that young.” This was funny the first time.
Gay,sadly, does not intersect Long, nor, perhaps fittingly, broad.
We have a neighborhood in which the developer named three streets after himself. McVey Blvd, which runs N/S. McVey Blvd West, which runs every direction, but is west of McVey. And McVey court.
In the US and Canada, it’s relatively common to see subdivisions with street name themes that are either based on foreign languages (e.g. a subdivision with fanciful French street names in suburban Cleveland), or non-local places (e.g. a subdivision in Iowa with a series of streets named after British cities).
Does this practice exist in other countries? When I look at foreign cities in Google Maps, it seems like all the street names are in the native language, and none have themes reflecting far-away places. A suburb of London will have street names that are all … well, very, very British. I won’t find a suburb of Paris that has a subdivision with streets named after cities in Florida. Even in other countries that have suburban built environments similar to the United States and Canada (Australia, New Zealand, and to some extent Ireland), the street names are all … well, generic or local, with no themes based on foreign places.
I found a subdivision outside of Johannesburg with streets named after North American tree species, and another with streets named after US states and cities (looks like a township area, based on the aerial), but that’s about it.
Off the top of my head I can think of several examples of Sydney suburbs where the streets are named after foreign places (European battlefields; English cathedral cities). My mother lives in an area of a NSW country town where the streets are named after Queen Victoria’s nine children.
Just upthread I posted about a Sydney suburb whose streets are all named after parts of Edinburgh Castle. There’s another suburb with road names themes around English battles and generals (Waterloo, Talavera, Khartoum, Blenheim, Wolfe). There’s a suburb called Waterloo. I can’t imagine where you got this impression, but it’s not generally true for Australia.
It depends when the part of Australia was built. In North Ryde, to which you’d referred and I’d made reference further upthread, I think the area was developed in a single, controlled land release post-WWII and so you get the thematic naming. In Newtown, where I’m living now, the place was developed more organically in the mid-late 19th Century, and there’s no consistent naming conventions.
The later the development, the more likely you are to run into something like this.
Sydney CBD has George (king) as the main street, with the politicians (Pitt and Castlereagh) to the east and the dukes (York, Clarence, Kent and Sussex) to the west. Probably intended more as flattery than quirkiness, at the time.
The courts in a development in my hometown are almost all named after girl’s names – but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Esmeralda Ct., Sabrina Ct., Samantha Ct. and Tabitha Ct. are all next to one another.
This is a trailer park within walking distance of where I grew up, outside Marquette, MI.
There’s a subdivision in Mississauga, ON, named for baseball players.
Another one, in Barrie, ON, named for authors.
When I was helping my parents buy a vacation home, I steadfastly refused to help them with one of their favorites, on Golden Shower Lane
Try explaining THAT one to your mother.:smack:
The bigger side streets in Mission Beach, San Diego, CA, are loosely based on the California Missions.
There is one in Shawnee, KS, too, but without the fake castle turrets. We wanted to move there, but no homes came up for sale when we were in the market.
There are several interesting themed subdivisions here in Clarksville, TN. The “normal” Presidents, States, Camelot, etc. But we also have a subdivision called “Plantation Estates” with Gone With the Wind street names ( Google Maps ).
We also have a tonge-in-cheek named access road. Along a main road (Needmore) the entrance to one subdivision is called “Needless”. There are no houses on this road, tough. ( Google Maps ).
There is one in Durant OK. that are all gun names. Colt Winchester etc.
Pinellas County, Florida (St Petersburg, Clearwater, etc.) originally laid out the grid by numbers then any added streets were to be A-Z based on their place in the alphabet beginning over after 26th. (i.e. a road added between central and 1st would begin with A, 1st & 2nd - B, etc.) It worked for a while as you can see here: Google Maps
The streets around where my friends’ parents live are all named after US presidents.
Nothing odd there, except it’s in England.
I did find one little town in NZ with the same name as a village I used to live in in England, and loads of the street names were the same as well, or named after nearby villages. I wonder how much the guy who named it missed his old home…
On Pender Islandin BC the streets are all nautical. I have a picture of the corner of Pirate and Schooner.