# Street name importance **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839 "2006-03-02T23:44:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/1 "2006-03-02T23:44:06Z")
How important to you is the name of the street where you live? I’ve come across many odd, confusing, funny, long, and complicated street names in my job and wonder what these people think about their unusual locations. Would having an undesirable street name sway your decision to buy an otherwise perfect home? Examples welcome! ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/2 "2006-03-02T23:50:59Z")
When buying our house, I didn’t want: A) a residence on a street with a focus-group-designed and compound-noun name (e.g., Springmeadow Drive, Snowbridge Lane, Peakview Terrace). Since we bought in the older part of the city, that wasn’t really an issue. B) a street name with a number (e.g., 4th Street, 144th Avenue). Beats me why I felt that way, but it was a deal-breaker. It all worked out–we live on a street that is named after plant found on the Russian steppe. ---
**Author:** ![feppytweed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/feppytweed/32/4280_2.png) [@feppytweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/feppytweed)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/3 "2006-03-02T23:53:33Z")
If the location, property, and price were great, I couldn’t care less what you call it. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/4 "2006-03-02T23:57:30Z")
I’m not sure it would be a dealbreaker. However, when they were going through a lean year, my parents had to make a quick move from a very nice house on Forest Avenue to a crummy little place on Humpfer St. The name didn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/5 "2006-03-03T01:27:57Z")
It would have to be a really great house for an unbelievably low price to even make me consider living on Jingle Bell Lane. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/6 "2006-03-03T02:03:54Z")
> [@dwyr](#): > > It would have to be a really great house for an unbelievably low price to even make me consider living on Jingle Bell Lane. We have a street called ‘Barking Dog Lane’ I think they are trying to keep people away… I’m one of the guys that approved the name. It fit withing our regulations, so what the heck. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/7 "2006-03-03T02:48:48Z")
There’s a housing development near me that has both Lois Lane and Penny Lane. Very corny, but I wouldn’t live there anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/8 "2006-03-03T03:03:54Z")
Some years ago, our local city magazine collected the “worst” street names in the city. Among the finalists: Sulphur Hydraulic Flad They all have houses on them. If those aren’t dealbreaks, nothing is. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/9 "2006-03-03T03:17:14Z")
There’s a thoroughfare outside Oshkosh, WI, named **Skeleton Bridge Road**. I always wanted to live there. I would not want to live on a street with a cutesy yuppie made-up name. Barf. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/10 "2006-03-03T03:34:12Z")
There’s a road way out of the way, near Syracuse, called Dinglehole Rd. Don’t believe me? The missus and I, as a parting shot before we moved to NYC, drove out there and took a picture! Seemed like a nice area, but you sure as hell wouldn’t catch me living there… ---
**Author:** ![Amaranta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Amaranta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amaranta)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/11 "2006-03-03T03:57:10Z")
> [@dwyr](#): > > It would have to be a really great house for an unbelievably low price to even make me consider living on Jingle Bell Lane. Jingle Bell Lane is cringle worthy, but across the pond on Vancouver Island, there’s a fairly major road called “Jingle Pot Road”. I think those are possibly two of the funniest non-dirty words you could put together. If there was a chance to live on a Jingle Pot Road, I’d be there in an instant. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/12 "2006-03-03T05:12:35Z")
How about those cutesy intersection names like the corner of… Amos & Andy Mason & Dixon I’m sure I’ve seen more. ---
**Author:** ![SurrenderDorothy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/surrenderdorothy/32/1221_2.png) [@SurrenderDorothy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SurrenderDorothy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/13 "2006-03-03T06:26:26Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Some years ago, our local city magazine collected the “worst” street names in the city. Among the finalists: > > Sulphur > Hydraulic > Flad > > They all have houses on them. If those aren’t dealbreaks, nothing is. You must live in my city. (Actually, I think a rather large number of 'dopers live in my city.) I definitely got lost on Sulphur one day and I write down delivery orders to Flad all the time. It wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me, but I might be willing to pay just a little more if it were a really really cool street name (like “Mars” or “Supercalifragelisticexpialidocious” or “Dorothy Lane” or “Cloud Nine”) Hell, I’d willingly live on Flad or Sulphur. Although in college towns, I’ve always felt like I didn’t really belong on streets called “Normal” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/14 "2006-03-03T06:37:21Z")
Most of the street names here are unofficial, and usually those are pretty boring. Some of the interesting ones in Tokyo include Killer Street in Shibuya, Piss Alley in Shinjuku, and the inexeplicably named Donaustrasse where I live. ---
**Author:** ![Tamarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tamarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamarin)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/15 "2006-03-03T06:49:19Z")
I live on a street with a boring name that I’m not really fond of, but there are a couple of streets around here that I’d love to live on. Sunnydale (with the added bonus that there is a funeral home on the same street) Black Cat Road Chicken Dinner Road ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/16 "2006-03-03T06:50:03Z")
I live on The Street. Hard to feel much passion about that one. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/17 "2006-03-03T07:01:55Z")
We live in one of those neigborhoods that has themed street names: Bridgecreek Bannon Creek Mill Creek Creekmill Stone Creek Bridgeford Pebblewood Pebblestone Brookstone Crossmill Sagemill Bendmill You get the picture. It’s very confusing for people coming to the house for the first time. We used to live on Stone Creek, we’d tell people how to get there, “Turn onto Pebble_wood_ make sure it’s _wood_ not Pebble_stone_. There’s two of them almost the same. Right next to each other.” Now it’s “Make sure you turn on _Bridge_creek not Bannon Creek.” But, we put up with it because we love our neighborhood. We’ve lived here, first in our apartment, now in our house for nearly 13 yrs. ---
**Author:** ![midget](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@midget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/midget)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/18 "2006-03-03T08:22:25Z")
My current apartment is on “Ferber Street”. Right off of “Erlanger”. Yech… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/19 "2006-03-03T09:33:06Z")
I live on a street with a fairly generic 1950’s-style name. I just like living at #1. 😃 However, there appears to have been one developer in the Toronto area whose naming staff were on serious drugs back in the sixties and seventies. Scattered through the northern suburbs are clusters of streets with names like [Tree Sparroway and Elsa Vineway](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=toronto,+ON&ll=43.78953,-79.370127&spn=0.004709,0.015771), [Bracken Fernway](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=toronto,+ON&ll=43.790242,-79.360921&spn=0.004291,0.015771), [Burnt Meadoway and Low Meadoway](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=toronto,+ON&ll=43.810608,-79.357767&spn=0.004289,0.015771), [Cheryl Shepway](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=toronto,+ON&ll=43.772488,-79.36532&spn=0.004292,0.015771), [Grado Villaway](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=toronto,+ON&ll=43.777152,-79.367208&spn=0.004292,0.015771), and many _many_ more. (Zoom in to read the names if need be.) And in the same general area is perhaps the most unpleasantly-suggestive street name in Toronto: [Old Cummer Avenue](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=toronto,+ON&ll=43.793557,-79.374011&spn=0.004709,0.015771). ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839/20 "2006-03-03T14:56:15Z")
We live in Stratford Glen, so all of our street names are from Shakespeare. Unfortunately, they used Tybalt four times (lane, drive, court, and circle) and Polonius twice. I mean, come on! They guy was quite a prolific writer - I’m sure there were other names to choose from. We’ve got: King Lear MacBeth Jester Polonius and Tybalt (It’s a small subdivision). Talk about lame! Just around the bend is Liberty Creek. We refused to look at houses on Pillory Way. (The neighborhood wasn’t as nice, either.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/street-name-importance/346839.md?page=2)