A street name is an identifying name given to a street or road. In toponymic terminology, names of streets and roads are referred to as odonyms or hodonyms (from Ancient Greek ὁδός hodós 'road', and ὄνυμα ónuma 'name', i.e., the Doric and Aeolic form of ὄνομα ónoma 'name'). The street name usually forms part of the address (though addresses in some parts of the world, notably most of Japan, make no reference to street names). Buildings are often given numbers along the street to further help identify them. Odonymy is the study of road names. Names are often given in a two-part form: an individual name known as the specific, and an indicator of the type of street, known as the generic. Examples are "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 in the generic sense. Some street names have only one element, such as "The Beeches" or "Boulevard". In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was common when writing a two-part street name (especially in Britain) to link the two parts with a hyphen and not capitalise the generic (e.g. Broad-street, London-road). This practice has now died out. 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 Street" and "High Street" are common names for the major street in the middle of a shopping area in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively. The most common street name in the US is "2nd" or "Second".
Etymologies Streets are normally named, and properties on them numbered, by decision of the local authority, which may adopt a detailed policy. For instance the city of Leeds, UK, provides that:
property developers should consult with councillors, historic groups, etc. Names should relate to the history of the area or reflect the local landscape and population; no living person's names can be used, and the consent of the family is required to use those of the recently deceased; no initial 'the', numbers, punctuation or abbreviations are allowed, except St for Saint; no name may be changed without the consent of all affected property owners; properties shall be numbered from the start of a street, with odd numbers on the left and even numbers on the right; individual doors must have their own numbers; for sub-divisions with a shared entrance, flats should always be numbered or lettered but should not be described or suffixed (i.e., Flat 1, 36; or Flat A, 36 but not 36A or First Floor Flat, 36). Flat numbers should start at the main entrance of each floor and go clockwise; 'alias names' or 'Vanity Addresses' can be approved along with the number, but these must not be business names; the Royal Mail will only register properties which have their own secure letterbox. The etymology of a street name is sometimes very obvious, but at other times it might be obscure or even forgotten. In the United States, most streets are named after numbers, landscapes, trees (a combination of trees and landscapes 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). Some streets, such as Elm Street in East Machias, Maine, have been renamed due to features changing. Elm Street's new name, Jacksonville Road, was chosen because it leads to the village of Jacksonville. Its former name was chosen because of elm trees; it was renamed when all of the trees along the street succumbed to Dutch elm disease. The Shambles, derived from the Anglo-Saxon term fleshammels ("meat shelves" in butchers' stalls), is a historical street name which still exists in various cities and towns around England. The best-known example is in York. The unusual etymologies of quite a few street names in the United Kingdom are documented in Rude Britain, complete with photographs of local signage.
Type of commerce or industry
In the past, many streets were named for the type of commerce or industry found there. This rarely happens in modern times, but many such older names are still common. Examples are London's Haymarket; Barcelona's Carrer de Moles (Millstone Street), where the stonecutters used to have their shops; and Cannery Row in Monterey, California.
Landmarks Some streets are named for landmarks that were in the street, or nearby, when it was built. Such names are often retained after the landmark disappears. 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 has been converted to a museum. London's Crystal Palace Parade takes its name from a former exhibition centre that stood adjacent to it, destroyed by fire in 1936.
Sometimes a street is named after a landmark that was destroyed to build that very street. For example, New York's Canal Street takes its name from a canal that was filled in to build it. New Orleans' Canal Street was named for the canal that was to be built in its right-of-way.
Self-descriptive names
While names such as Long Road or Nine Mile Ride have an obvious meaning, some road names' etymologies are less clear. The various Stone Streets, for example, were named at a time when the art of building paved (stone) Roman roads had been lost. The main road through Old Windsor, UK, is called "Straight Road", and it is straight where it carries that name. Many streets with regular nouns rather than proper nouns, are somehow related to that noun. For example, Station Street or Station Road, do connect to a railway station, and many "Railway Streets" or similar do end at, cross or parallel a railway.
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