In my neighborhood there is a Rua Pires de Almeida and a Rua Ribeiro de Almeida, and I never know which is which, even though I've lived here for most of my life.
Downtown there is a street name that I particularly like: "Travessa dos Poetas de Calçada". Beautiful, isn't it? :-) Another good one is "Rua do Jogo da Bola" at Morro da Conceição. Old Rio.
Renata, I'm so glad that it isn't just me who gets confused by such names! And yes, I love "Cross-Street of the Sidewalk Poets" and "Ball Playing Street", or however one best translates those. 😊
Your essay reminds me of how, growing up in Albuquerque, I wasn't aware that many street names were in Spanish. As a kid, the street names were just names. Later, when I went back as adult I saw it and wondered how I had missed it: San Mateo, San Pedro, Lomas, etc.
Also, you got me thinking about a residential neighborhood near where I live now that has streets named for the TV show "Bonanza" or maybe "Big Valley." I am sure many people do not even really realize that anymore. They just live on Cartwright or Little Joe Ave.
And then there's my dad, who lives in a modern condo development where the streets are all named after classic Las Vegas Casinos: Golden Nugget, Sahara, Stardust. When I pointed it out to him, he was surprised.
I think it is interesting that often we do not stop to really see or think about the place names that surround us every day.
What a good observation! As a linguist, I'm generally aware of how people use expressions without ever really parsing them and noticing what they're really saying, but I hadn't thought much about how this happens with street names too.
That said, I am often struck by the funny way Spanish names are pronounced in California (starting with Los Angeles and San Francisco), but of course I'm not from there.
I am frankly kind of shocked that they named the streets in a neighborhood after the characters of a television show (imagine living on "Little Joe Ave" or "Hoss Road"!). That feels to me like a blending of reality and fiction that is almost uncomfortable. Do you find that too, or is it just normal for you?
I enjoyed your article Gregory! It’s interesting how street names influenced some of our property choices… in Sydney the first house my parents bought was in a street called Tango Avenue - coming from Buenos Aires we felt the place was made for us. Many years later when looking for an apartment in Verona, my husband and I couldn’t go past the one in Vicolo Satiro (Satyr Alley). Now we live in the Sardinian countryside and our street name is just a number… the road is so long and traverses several villages that it has taken the local postman several months to find us!
Cristina, I see that you mean! I would totally live in Vicolo Satiro! I'm sorry that your street is now a number, but I imagine that living in the Sardinian countryside is pretty good compensation! I love Sardinia.
Thanks, Michael! I find the whole block-naming thing really fascinating. I wonder if there are other countries in which they do that. Presumably other parts of Scandinavia?
I guess the European influence is evident here in New Orleans, though unfortunately some streets have been renamed with mundane ones (isn't Good Children Street nicer than a judge's name?) There is a book about New Orleans streets titled "Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children."
I love "Good Children Street". I wonder whether it was meant as a description or as an admonition? Maybe they changed it because the children on other streets felt inferior?
We were recently in Caldas da Rainha and were in a plaza named (maybe?) the April 25th plaza? Someone told me there are so many dates celebrated for various reasons…Love the names!
Thank you, Alisa! There are things named 25 de Abril all over Portugal, in honor of the revolution. I think everybody knows what that date refers to (a bit like the 4th of July in the USA), but I'm not sure they are clear on the other dates.
A friend just challenged me to find more streets named after dates in Lisbon, and I found these:
Rua Primeiro de Dezembro
Rua Quatro de Agosto
Avenida Cinco de Outubro
Avenida 24 de Janeiro
I wonder how many people know what these dates represent.
Love this, and I totally agree. I live on Rua Heliodoro Salgado, escritor. He was also a Freemason, something we know because we found a small monument to him in the Cemitério do Alto de São João, a place worth visiting, if you haven’t already. Best in May when the jacarandas bloom.
I'm glad you liked it, Mary! I have always loved the name "Heliodoro", and want to find something I can bestow it on. Combining it with Salgado, which can mean a savory petisco, lends it a bit of humor, don't you think?
I am a huge fan of the cemeteries of Lisbon, especially the Cemitério dos Prazeres; I definitely need to spend more time at the Alto de São João. And I know what you mean about the jacarandas—stunning!
A delightful essay ! It causes me to reflect on life in Ireland, where often the house numbers, when they exist, follow sequentially down one side of the street, then turn back and proceed sequentially up the other side.
But more interesting is the naming of houses. We lived in a place called "Beechgrove" (once the home of Maeve Binchy) in a village called Ghleann na gCaorach (Irish for "Glen of the sheep") -- both names evocative in their own way. (The house next door was named "Soubirous.") I always enjoyed walking around South Dublin and reading the plaques with the house names, many surely sheltering a story waiting to be told.
Thank you, John! I have never noticed the up-one-side-then-down-the-other numbering system, but I'm not surprised it exists.
Don't you find that there is something charming in the layer of indirection created by place names in a language that isn't our own? It's great fun to learn that "Ghleann na gCaorach" means "Glen of the sheep", much the way it's fun to learn that "Boavista dos Pinheiros" means "Lovely View of the Pines". I find that it makes one appreciate a name more when one has to think about it for a bit before understanding it.
Sometimes the reason for a placename is obscure while being nonetheless suggestive. My mother's family was from a townland in south Donegal called "Meenataggart," which means "Field of the priest"; a neighbouring townland is called "Eglish" (not hard to figure out that it means "church"). Clearly some ecclesiastical interests were at work there at some point, but the actual history is gone, leaving behind semantic footprints that, as you say, you cause us to pause and reflect.
The nice joke/wordplay in the footnote deserves more visibility, Gregory.
Nice summary of the street naming approaches. One element that is missing IMO, though maybe not suitable for this lighthearted piece, but one I find very interesting, is the politics of street names. The fact that in many countries, streets are renamed after change of political regimes (and that people of the older generation may refer to them by the old name - my grandmother who was born in 1910 used to refer to the main street in the capital of Slovenia with the name it had before WW2, and by the time she died, the street had changed its name twice)
In some towns in Southern Europe I have seen street signs with the little note, XX Street, and then in small letters below: previously YZ street.
And what about when a street name is given to a place, but people refused to use it and it ends up being renamed officially to the name it had before? It seems this is the case of Largo do Rato in Lisbon (which for a while was called Largo do Brasil from 1910-1948 but it seems they could not make it stick and it went back to being called Largo do Rato (not after a rat/mouse, mind you, but after a nickname of a famous man).
Of course, I could (maybe should) write a whole post about street names in various African countries, where no one knows the names listed on the map, but refer to the roads by the prominent building/office/institution on that street. And when foreigners visit and use streets they see on Google maps to instruct the taxi drivers or make appointments with friends, a whole lot of confusion ensues.
Thanks for all of this, Liza. Perhaps now people will find the joke in the footnote. 😊
I had actually wanted to talk about the gendered aspect of street naming, and also the Largo do Rato, but the essay was just getting too long, so I didn't. I'm glad you brought those things up.
And yes, the whole aspect of political/generational shift (or lack thereof) in street names is worthy of its own essay. I think you should write the one about navigation in African countries. I lived for a time in Pittsburgh, where people tended to give directions according to buildings that _used_ to be there, so they were of no use whatsoever to people who actually needed directions!
The steep cobbled street of assistance! Perhaps is shortened from “the steep cobbled street requires the need for assistance..” or is that implied?
The castle at Montemor o novo… has 4 doors to its wall, including (to my delight) The Door of the Ill-Fated Hour. I said to Kim and Atticus, “Walk this way to the Door of the I’ll-Fated Hour clop clop”
Eliza, the steep cobbled streets here are all just one rainfall away from a medical emergency! I hope you have not had any of those during your stay in Portugal. That would be an ill-fated hour, indeed, though it might give you a chance to check out the Portuguese health care system...
In my neighborhood there is a Rua Pires de Almeida and a Rua Ribeiro de Almeida, and I never know which is which, even though I've lived here for most of my life.
Downtown there is a street name that I particularly like: "Travessa dos Poetas de Calçada". Beautiful, isn't it? :-) Another good one is "Rua do Jogo da Bola" at Morro da Conceição. Old Rio.
Renata, I'm so glad that it isn't just me who gets confused by such names! And yes, I love "Cross-Street of the Sidewalk Poets" and "Ball Playing Street", or however one best translates those. 😊
Ball Game Street, maybe?
Aw, to live “between Good-Hour and the Steep Cobbled Street of Assistance”!
But then, of course, you'd be living in the Neighborhood of the Dead!
I think I’d be OK with that. 🪦
Once saw a street in the woods of central Maine…Amscray Lane. My husband and I still laugh about this. 😊
I love it! And I can envision the encounter between the surveyor and the resident that led to the name!
Your essay reminds me of how, growing up in Albuquerque, I wasn't aware that many street names were in Spanish. As a kid, the street names were just names. Later, when I went back as adult I saw it and wondered how I had missed it: San Mateo, San Pedro, Lomas, etc.
Also, you got me thinking about a residential neighborhood near where I live now that has streets named for the TV show "Bonanza" or maybe "Big Valley." I am sure many people do not even really realize that anymore. They just live on Cartwright or Little Joe Ave.
And then there's my dad, who lives in a modern condo development where the streets are all named after classic Las Vegas Casinos: Golden Nugget, Sahara, Stardust. When I pointed it out to him, he was surprised.
I think it is interesting that often we do not stop to really see or think about the place names that surround us every day.
What a good observation! As a linguist, I'm generally aware of how people use expressions without ever really parsing them and noticing what they're really saying, but I hadn't thought much about how this happens with street names too.
That said, I am often struck by the funny way Spanish names are pronounced in California (starting with Los Angeles and San Francisco), but of course I'm not from there.
I am frankly kind of shocked that they named the streets in a neighborhood after the characters of a television show (imagine living on "Little Joe Ave" or "Hoss Road"!). That feels to me like a blending of reality and fiction that is almost uncomfortable. Do you find that too, or is it just normal for you?
I enjoyed your article Gregory! It’s interesting how street names influenced some of our property choices… in Sydney the first house my parents bought was in a street called Tango Avenue - coming from Buenos Aires we felt the place was made for us. Many years later when looking for an apartment in Verona, my husband and I couldn’t go past the one in Vicolo Satiro (Satyr Alley). Now we live in the Sardinian countryside and our street name is just a number… the road is so long and traverses several villages that it has taken the local postman several months to find us!
Cristina, I see that you mean! I would totally live in Vicolo Satiro! I'm sorry that your street is now a number, but I imagine that living in the Sardinian countryside is pretty good compensation! I love Sardinia.
Absolutely!!
What a fascinating deep dive, Gregory! Love the detail about naming city blocks in Sweden!
Thanks, Michael! I find the whole block-naming thing really fascinating. I wonder if there are other countries in which they do that. Presumably other parts of Scandinavia?
Mm, I could see that! Will keep an eye out! 🙂
I guess the European influence is evident here in New Orleans, though unfortunately some streets have been renamed with mundane ones (isn't Good Children Street nicer than a judge's name?) There is a book about New Orleans streets titled "Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children."
I love "Good Children Street". I wonder whether it was meant as a description or as an admonition? Maybe they changed it because the children on other streets felt inferior?
I wonder too. Perhaps too many made their way to Bourbon Street.
We were recently in Caldas da Rainha and were in a plaza named (maybe?) the April 25th plaza? Someone told me there are so many dates celebrated for various reasons…Love the names!
Thank you, Alisa! There are things named 25 de Abril all over Portugal, in honor of the revolution. I think everybody knows what that date refers to (a bit like the 4th of July in the USA), but I'm not sure they are clear on the other dates.
A friend just challenged me to find more streets named after dates in Lisbon, and I found these:
Rua Primeiro de Dezembro
Rua Quatro de Agosto
Avenida Cinco de Outubro
Avenida 24 de Janeiro
I wonder how many people know what these dates represent.
Can’t wait to explore! Moving to Sao Martinho do Porto in a couple of months…
Excellent! Welcome to Portugal!
Love this, and I totally agree. I live on Rua Heliodoro Salgado, escritor. He was also a Freemason, something we know because we found a small monument to him in the Cemitério do Alto de São João, a place worth visiting, if you haven’t already. Best in May when the jacarandas bloom.
I'm glad you liked it, Mary! I have always loved the name "Heliodoro", and want to find something I can bestow it on. Combining it with Salgado, which can mean a savory petisco, lends it a bit of humor, don't you think?
I am a huge fan of the cemeteries of Lisbon, especially the Cemitério dos Prazeres; I definitely need to spend more time at the Alto de São João. And I know what you mean about the jacarandas—stunning!
It’s a great name, except when you’re spelling it out for your bank for the third time😁
A delightful essay ! It causes me to reflect on life in Ireland, where often the house numbers, when they exist, follow sequentially down one side of the street, then turn back and proceed sequentially up the other side.
But more interesting is the naming of houses. We lived in a place called "Beechgrove" (once the home of Maeve Binchy) in a village called Ghleann na gCaorach (Irish for "Glen of the sheep") -- both names evocative in their own way. (The house next door was named "Soubirous.") I always enjoyed walking around South Dublin and reading the plaques with the house names, many surely sheltering a story waiting to be told.
Thank you, John! I have never noticed the up-one-side-then-down-the-other numbering system, but I'm not surprised it exists.
Don't you find that there is something charming in the layer of indirection created by place names in a language that isn't our own? It's great fun to learn that "Ghleann na gCaorach" means "Glen of the sheep", much the way it's fun to learn that "Boavista dos Pinheiros" means "Lovely View of the Pines". I find that it makes one appreciate a name more when one has to think about it for a bit before understanding it.
Sometimes the reason for a placename is obscure while being nonetheless suggestive. My mother's family was from a townland in south Donegal called "Meenataggart," which means "Field of the priest"; a neighbouring townland is called "Eglish" (not hard to figure out that it means "church"). Clearly some ecclesiastical interests were at work there at some point, but the actual history is gone, leaving behind semantic footprints that, as you say, you cause us to pause and reflect.
The nice joke/wordplay in the footnote deserves more visibility, Gregory.
Nice summary of the street naming approaches. One element that is missing IMO, though maybe not suitable for this lighthearted piece, but one I find very interesting, is the politics of street names. The fact that in many countries, streets are renamed after change of political regimes (and that people of the older generation may refer to them by the old name - my grandmother who was born in 1910 used to refer to the main street in the capital of Slovenia with the name it had before WW2, and by the time she died, the street had changed its name twice)
In some towns in Southern Europe I have seen street signs with the little note, XX Street, and then in small letters below: previously YZ street.
There is also the issue gendered nature of streets named after famous people - see this interesting article about the fact that in Lisbon only 5% of the street names are names after women while 44% are names by men https://lisboaparapessoas.pt/en/2022/12/19/toponimia-lisbon-gender-inequality-data-analysis-manuel-banza/
And what about when a street name is given to a place, but people refused to use it and it ends up being renamed officially to the name it had before? It seems this is the case of Largo do Rato in Lisbon (which for a while was called Largo do Brasil from 1910-1948 but it seems they could not make it stick and it went back to being called Largo do Rato (not after a rat/mouse, mind you, but after a nickname of a famous man).
Of course, I could (maybe should) write a whole post about street names in various African countries, where no one knows the names listed on the map, but refer to the roads by the prominent building/office/institution on that street. And when foreigners visit and use streets they see on Google maps to instruct the taxi drivers or make appointments with friends, a whole lot of confusion ensues.
Thanks for all of this, Liza. Perhaps now people will find the joke in the footnote. 😊
I had actually wanted to talk about the gendered aspect of street naming, and also the Largo do Rato, but the essay was just getting too long, so I didn't. I'm glad you brought those things up.
And yes, the whole aspect of political/generational shift (or lack thereof) in street names is worthy of its own essay. I think you should write the one about navigation in African countries. I lived for a time in Pittsburgh, where people tended to give directions according to buildings that _used_ to be there, so they were of no use whatsoever to people who actually needed directions!
The steep cobbled street of assistance! Perhaps is shortened from “the steep cobbled street requires the need for assistance..” or is that implied?
The castle at Montemor o novo… has 4 doors to its wall, including (to my delight) The Door of the Ill-Fated Hour. I said to Kim and Atticus, “Walk this way to the Door of the I’ll-Fated Hour clop clop”
Eliza, the steep cobbled streets here are all just one rainfall away from a medical emergency! I hope you have not had any of those during your stay in Portugal. That would be an ill-fated hour, indeed, though it might give you a chance to check out the Portuguese health care system...