LOL!
Street names have always fascinated me. There's a small street in Le Plateau that's called Napoleon. For years I presumed it was named after We-know-who, but I later found out that Napoleon is the name of the contemporary land owner's little boy, named Napoleon. The street is named after a 19th century farmer's boy.
And a particularly silly but all-too Montreal one is Rue de a Montagne (formerly known as Mountain street. It seems logical that since Mountain street starts up on the hill and goes down to the river would be named after the mountain, and that's what the francophone administrators thought too, so the translation made sense to them I guess, but Mountain / de la montagne was actually named after after some english dude called Mountain.
edit: oops, fact checked my bit about de la montagne and it seems I was wrong
Quote:
According to the Quebec Toponymy Commission, the street is named after Mount Royal. A 1761 map shows a trail at the location of the current street called chemin des Sauvages de la montagne. It is also found under the name chemin de la Montagne in later maps, such as the map by surveyor Jean Péladeau in 1778.[1]
There is an urban legend that it was named after Jacob Mountain, first Anglican bishop of Quebec, or his son Bishop George Jehoshaphat Mountain.[2] However, Jacob Mountain was neither the bishop nor resident in Quebec until 1793, long after the creation of maps bearing the name chemin de la Montagne.
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