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Street names?
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
Twiggly the Gnome
Legend
In the town my grandmother lives in, there is a street called Pig Trot Road. It was named after the old Pig Trot School building which used to stand there, which was built on stilts so that the pigs could pass underneath it. 
ProfessorPain
First Post
Street names are usually related to terrain, function, or history (people, events, etc). I usually try to keep this in mind when making a list, since you don't want to call it "Liberty Ave" unless there is a reason. What kind of street names are you shooting for? Here is a brief list off the top of my head:
Merchants' Way
Water Lane
Rock Street
Clyde's Hill Ave
Clyde's Hill Lane
Market Street
Garden Square
Pond Street
Gully Court
Shippers Road
King's Crossing
Ed_Laprade
Adventurer
I figured you weren't looking for that, but there's at least one street here in my home city that has more than one name along its length. And, of course, there were no such things as street signs in most midieval cities/towns. Want to know where you are? Ask!It's a fictional city in a game book describing a magical fantasy world, not a real life historical documentary!
Names need to serve only a single purpose: be evocative. Etymology isn't relevant.
In most cities/towns that grow organically (ie. not New York, Phoenix, or Gainesville), street names happened as a result of local flavor. You wouldn't tell someone to head down peach pie lane and turn left on pecan avenue. You'd tell them to head down the elm street* and turn left at the street just past the Horse and Crown (so named because the sign outside has a horse and a crown painted on).
If you want good names for streets and alleys, decide on what businesses, churches, architecture, and geography you have there. If you name something Canal St, it probably ought to run along side a canal... if it isn't a canal itself! If you have a broad street capable of handling a lot of traffic, why then that's obviously Broadway. If you have a street running alongside a large park maintained at the city's expense, you've got yourself a Park Place, if not a Parkway. And if you've got a St. Mary's church next to a creek (aka "bourne"), then you've got Marylebone Street.
I'm a big fan of giving worlds real medieval flavor and realism, rather than just trying to make them dirty and fantasyish.
For example, if you've a hill in the middle of your city, that's where the nobility will live. Medieval towns lacked true sewer systems, so a common method of getting rid of sewage was to toss it in the street. The streets were sloped so that the center of the street acted as a gutter to carry sewage away to, at the best, natural waterways that acted as sewage systems (for example, the covered waterways of London's River Fleet. This led to quite a stench, a palpable miasma. The nobles rose above it and, of course, their filth flowed quickly downhill. Also, they were the ones who could afford to have water carried uphill to their homes or, later, install expensive pumps/wells that had tunnel through a great deal of solid earth to get to water.
Where people live, how places are named.... only in a planned modern city are such things truly accidental. When a place is organic and has a history, there's always a reason, even if it's not apparent.
By the by, sometimes the reason is stupid (laws). And sometimes it's very counterintuitive. Why are ancient temples in the middle of depressions? Because cities tend to move toward the sky. People drop their filth near their homes, the ground rises, they build new homes; only temples are kept clean and maintained and, after many generations, end up in mini-valleys. The Parthenon, having been built on a rocky hill in the first place, is an obvious exception.
* so named because it had a ton of elms. There are more Elm St.s in the US than Main St.s because elm trees grow 3-5 feet a year; instant air-conditioning.
If you want good names for streets and alleys, decide on what businesses, churches, architecture, and geography you have there. If you name something Canal St, it probably ought to run along side a canal... if it isn't a canal itself! If you have a broad street capable of handling a lot of traffic, why then that's obviously Broadway. If you have a street running alongside a large park maintained at the city's expense, you've got yourself a Park Place, if not a Parkway. And if you've got a St. Mary's church next to a creek (aka "bourne"), then you've got Marylebone Street.
I'm a big fan of giving worlds real medieval flavor and realism, rather than just trying to make them dirty and fantasyish.
For example, if you've a hill in the middle of your city, that's where the nobility will live. Medieval towns lacked true sewer systems, so a common method of getting rid of sewage was to toss it in the street. The streets were sloped so that the center of the street acted as a gutter to carry sewage away to, at the best, natural waterways that acted as sewage systems (for example, the covered waterways of London's River Fleet. This led to quite a stench, a palpable miasma. The nobles rose above it and, of course, their filth flowed quickly downhill. Also, they were the ones who could afford to have water carried uphill to their homes or, later, install expensive pumps/wells that had tunnel through a great deal of solid earth to get to water.
Where people live, how places are named.... only in a planned modern city are such things truly accidental. When a place is organic and has a history, there's always a reason, even if it's not apparent.
By the by, sometimes the reason is stupid (laws). And sometimes it's very counterintuitive. Why are ancient temples in the middle of depressions? Because cities tend to move toward the sky. People drop their filth near their homes, the ground rises, they build new homes; only temples are kept clean and maintained and, after many generations, end up in mini-valleys. The Parthenon, having been built on a rocky hill in the first place, is an obvious exception.
* so named because it had a ton of elms. There are more Elm St.s in the US than Main St.s because elm trees grow 3-5 feet a year; instant air-conditioning.
I generally have the streets either named after the King or relavent to where the street is for the city. So the main street of the capital would be the name of the king. A street leading to the pier or along side it would be Old Pier Street. And so on.
Another option would be to take the names of the moons for Jupiter and Saturn (or other planets) and make them your streets "Leta Street" "Metis Drive" "Old Io Way" and so on -- though, that would give you very greek sounding names -- I don't know if that would fit with the regular naming convention of the people and places for your setting.
Another option would be to take the names of the moons for Jupiter and Saturn (or other planets) and make them your streets "Leta Street" "Metis Drive" "Old Io Way" and so on -- though, that would give you very greek sounding names -- I don't know if that would fit with the regular naming convention of the people and places for your setting.
Halivar
First Post
Dast! You got me! I guess I'll just quietly slink away from thread...
<Columbo>Oh, wait... just one more thing, Mr. Morrus...
</Columbo>Being born and raised in Germany, I can tell you that most of the streets in the cities I grew up in also used mostly names of famous people there, also, although you're right that "D&D" style names are more common (I once lived next to a forest called "Grünewald"; I suppose you'd never find a forest here in the US called "Greenwood.").
Oh, and one thing I brought over from Europe: every D&D setting I have has a "King's-<everything>". King's Road. King's River. King's-bloody-compost-heap-in-a-backlot (in German this would be one long compound word). I don't know anything about England (because I never went), but I get the impression continentals love that stuff.
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I'd go with the English street names. streetmaps.co.uk has the whole country, if you want more.
In naming streets in my campaign, I keep 3 principles in mind:
- There is no street name authority. The names are simple what local people call the street, if anything. There are no street signs anyhow. If the government did care about such things, people would ignore it -- there's an "Avenue of the Americas" in New York City officially since the 1960s, but to New Yorkers, it will always be 6th Avenue (conveniently located between 5th Ave and 7th Ave). This means thematic stuff, such as all trees or alphabetical order or numbers, is right out -- it sounds like a suburban subdivision anyhow.
- Most often, people name streets by what they buy there, what's produced there, what people go there to do, or what commerce is brought in on it. Thus such names as Ironmonger Row, Coopergate, Bathgate, Leatherman's Road, Fisherman's Wharf, etc.
- Otherwise, people name streets after local landmarks or where the road goes: Castle Hill Road, The Greyhawk Road, etc.
- Nobody bothers to name a lot of roads. What's the name of your driveway or the alley behind your house? Thought so.
In naming streets in my campaign, I keep 3 principles in mind:
- There is no street name authority. The names are simple what local people call the street, if anything. There are no street signs anyhow. If the government did care about such things, people would ignore it -- there's an "Avenue of the Americas" in New York City officially since the 1960s, but to New Yorkers, it will always be 6th Avenue (conveniently located between 5th Ave and 7th Ave). This means thematic stuff, such as all trees or alphabetical order or numbers, is right out -- it sounds like a suburban subdivision anyhow.
- Most often, people name streets by what they buy there, what's produced there, what people go there to do, or what commerce is brought in on it. Thus such names as Ironmonger Row, Coopergate, Bathgate, Leatherman's Road, Fisherman's Wharf, etc.
- Otherwise, people name streets after local landmarks or where the road goes: Castle Hill Road, The Greyhawk Road, etc.
- Nobody bothers to name a lot of roads. What's the name of your driveway or the alley behind your house? Thought so.
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