What is the most beautiful or original street name in your city?

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Ottawa, OTOH, uses both English and French generics for almost all of its street names, with the result that the English ones become the default name, and they end up sounding very awkward like:

Des Épinettes Avenue
Des Conifères Street
De l'Église Street
Des Pères-Blancs Road
Du Clairvaux Gardens

We’re horrible here with French street names, far worse than the average local person‘s actual general knowledge of French.

For example, Lemarchant Road. If you pronounce that in French, people will correct you, even those who would pronounce it correctly in any other context.

[MolsonExport]

This Street, That Street, and The Other Street, in Porters Lake, Nova Scotia..

I shit ye not.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Th...!4d-63.3051435

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Roncesvalles sounds pretty.

Some of the named laneways are fun - like the Milky Way.

There were the ones where they added "way" to something to make an oddball designator, like "Sebastian Cabotway" and "John Cabotway". I notice that they have now undone the linkage, so it is now more blandly "Sebastian Cabot Way".

[MolsonExport]

Queen's Bush Road, Wellesley, ON
Buttertubs Drive, Nanaimo, BC
Ragged Ass Road, Yellowknife, NT. <--we have a winner
Road to Nowhere, Iqaluit, NU
The Tragically Hip Way, Kingston, ON
Ha Ha Creek Road, Wardner, BC

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by molsonexport

this street, that street, and the other street, in porters lake, nova scotia..

I shit ye not.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/th...!4d-63.3051435

lol!

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Roncesvalles sounds pretty.

Some of the named laneways are fun - like the Milky Way.

Certainly among the more elegant and historic.

Although it's not a "street", Toronto also has its Philosopher's Walk.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

We’re horrible here with French street names, far worse than the average local person‘s actual general knowledge of French.

For example, Lemarchant Road. If you pronounce that in French, people will correct you, even those who would pronounce it correctly in any other context.

That's not really a French name though -- more like one of those Norman names that became upper class names in England.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Progress Avenue in Scarborough.

A lot of francophone places in Canada have a Boulevard du Progrès or Rue du Progrès. They generally seem to date back to the aspirational 60s, when we wanted to convince ourselves that we were "can do" people, capable of moving forward and not just "nés pour un petit pain"...

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Andy6

That's not really a French name though -- more like one of those Norman names that became upper class names in England.

Le-MAR-chent, isn't it?

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by Acajack

IIRC Winnipeg generally uses French style and generics (ie rue) for a lot of its newer French street names?

Ottawa, OTOH, uses both English and French generics for almost all of its street names, with the result that the English ones become the default name, and they end up sounding very awkward like:

Des Épinettes Avenue
Des Conifères Street
De l'Église Street
Des Pères-Blancs Road
Du Clairvaux Gardens

Yes, Winnipeg names are either French or English as the primary designation, even though they are signed both ways (in the designated areas -- there is now a proposal to go citywide, I believe). So if there is a context where there is only room for one version, there seems to be a guideline that, for example, Archibald Street is "officially" "Rue Archibald" but "Rue Marion" is officially "Marion Street" (maybe ... I'm not certain). It doesn't always make a lot of sense which ones are which, but a bureaucracy has to come up with stuff like this or else it isn't worth its name.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Andy6

That's not really a French name though -- more like one of those Norman names that became upper class names in England.

I'd guess that's right. The closest equivalent name in francophone Canada is the uber-common Marchand, which actually means "merchant". I have never met anyone named Le Marchand.

And with a T at the end, it roughly means "the dude who is walking", as opposed to "merchant".

Lemarchant is extremely rare in France itself, though interestingly enough it is concentrated in the regions of France that are closest to the British Channel Islands:

https://www.filae.com/nom-de-famille/LEMARCHANT.html

[MolsonExport]

St. James Street in Montreal became Rue St. Jacques, as one of the earlier examples of the longstanding francophonization of major and minor streets in Montreal.

Other prominent examples include: de la Montagne (Mountain), Rene Levesque (Dorchester), Robert Bourassa (University), Atateken (Amherst...good riddance here; the replacement sounds like a native word).

[SignalHillHiker]

You learn something new every day. Lemarchant isn’t French lol. Fun.

[WhipperSnapper]

Peaceful Way

[Masoliantekw]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I'd guess that's right. The closest equivalent name in francophone Canada is the uber-common Marchand, which actually means "merchant". I have never met anyone named Le Marchand.

And with a T at the end, it roughly means "the dude who is walking", as opposed to "merchant".

Lemarchant is extremely rare in France itself, though interestingly enough it is concentrated in the regions of France that are closest to the British Channel Islands:

https://www.filae.com/nom-de-famille/LEMARCHANT.html

Well, my French ancestors were named Lemarchant. From France (Poitou).

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Queen's Bush Road, Wellesley, ON
Buttertubs Drive, Nanaimo, BC
Ragged Ass Road, Yellowknife, NT. <--we have a winner
Road to Nowhere, Iqaluit, NU
The Tragically Hip Way, Kingston, ON
Ha Ha Creek Road, Wardner, BC

Funny you list it, I was thinking earlier that the main crossroads in Wellesley is Nafziger Rd and Queen's Bush Rd.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Andy6

Yes, Winnipeg names are either French or English as the primary designation, even though they are signed both ways (in the designated areas -- there is now a proposal to go citywide, I believe). So if there is a context where there is only room for one version, there seems to be a guideline that, for example, Archibald Street is "officially" "Rue Archibald" but "Rue Marion" is officially "Marion Street" (maybe ... I'm not certain). It doesn't always make a lot of sense which ones are which, but a bureaucracy has to come up with stuff like this or else it isn't worth its name.

I've heard rumblings about the Ontario government, GPS systems and even Canada Post only accepting the English versions of street names in that province, but I can't recall more details.

I don't believe the City of Ottawa quibbles about that (even if their signage at least is very bilingual), but some more francophone or very bilingual places to its east (Russell, Clarence-Rockland, The/La Nation, Casselman) might.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Masoliantekw

Well, my French ancestors were named Lemarchant. From France (Poitou).

Ah ben là. That is very interesting.

I have Channel Islands Normans in my family tree. I have no idea if they actually spoke French at the time they immigrated to Canada - perhaps they did.

Their name sounds really French and their descendants are francophone today, so nobody except me probably knows that there is a British-esque twist to that aspect of the family.

[SignalHillHiker]

St. John’s maintains a database of all street names that explains the current name as well as any previous names.

Lemarchant Road is named for Sir John Gaspard Lemarchant, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Newfoundland in the 1840s. Name first appeared on maps in 1879 but the street existed before that, presumably unnamed. Lemarchant was from a distinguished Guernsey family and served in colonial posts worldwide. He arrived in St. John’s in 1847, immediately after the Great Fire of 1846, which destroyed almost all of the city (12,000 out of 19,000 households made homeless). At the same time, potato blight destroyed harvests in Newfoundland. By all accounts he hated Roman Catholic political activism in Newfoundland (which didn’t gain independence until 1855) and was disgusted that the Protestant upper classes retired to England with their wealth. In 1852 he moved to take the Lieutenant Governor position in Nova Scotia.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

1852 he moved to take the Lieutenant Governor position in Nova Scotia.

Which probably explains why there is a Lemarchant Street in Halifax too.