Saturday, August 11, 2012

Street Names

A few days ago I blogged about people's last names. Today let's talk about street names. That includes roads, avenues, etc.

Lots of streets are either identified by numbers or letters. That's especially true in urban areas. Some cities have numbered streets going in one direction and those identified by letters crossing them.

Others may be named after famous people. In the United States many streets are named after former presidents.

Other streets, especially in areas that were originally rural, are named after a family that once lived there. Others are named after businesses originally located on them such as a mill, mine, factory, farm or ranch. There are School and Church streets in most towns, too.

A lot of street names tell something about the geography, such as a beach, hill,  river, or mountain.

Sometimes streets in certain areas, especially housing developments, may all have the names of certain flowers, trees, birds, or animals or even people's first names, usually in alphabetical order.  Names of states or countries might be used, too.

And, if people of various nationalities have lived in an area the street names might be in languages other than English.

Does your street name fall into one of these categories?

2 comments:

Magic Carpet of 16x Books said...

This looks like a fun read for kids, with a lesson to be learned as well.

Books for Kids - Manuscript Critiques
http://www.margotfinke.com

Janet Ann Collins said...

Margot, I think you meant to leave your comment on a different post, but thanks for trying.