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

[Darkoshvilli]

Originally Posted by Frntenac

It is "Docteur Penfield"

Vive le Quebec libre! /s

[yaletown_fella]

Picturesque Nantucket Blvd:

https://goo.gl/maps/2YCKLTcAz393Dk2i7

[alps]

Halifax

• Quinpool Road
• Bland Street
• Blink Bonnie Terrace

Hong Kong

• Rednaxela Terrace (that's "Alexander" backwards)
• Route Twisk
• Texaco Road
• Glee Path
• Lion Rock Road

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by Architype

St. John's NL. also has a bit of colonial history which might be called into question some day. Here you are at the unfortunate intersection of Military & Colonial.

https://goo.gl/maps/KStHTSz51hoD59fN8

You're probably right it'll end up being an issue in the future.

I'm still surprised it was ever held in such high esteem. People were so proud of being Britain's first colony. We even called kept officially calling our Parliament the Colonial Building. As recently as Confederation, they still used it everywhere (for example, highway signs that read "Britain's Oldest Colony, Canada's Youngest Province"). But for people my age, it's just a word like 'island', or 'rocky'. There's no pride involved. Most people are indifferent, and the minority who think about it seem to be mostly anti-colonization, for obvious reasons.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by niwell

The Queensway and The Kingsway would fit as well, I'm sure there's a few more I'm not thinking of.

I recently discovered L'estrange place in Baby Point (not pronounced as you'd think!), which also features brick paving.

There are some people in Timmins with the last name Baby and it is pronounced the same way. They are francophone. I think the name came from Quebec (and France originally of course) but I think it's not very common in Quebec or Ontario for that matter.

[Chadillaccc]

Elbow Drive. It leads from the south end of the city to Mission (south downtown). The roadway largely follows the Elbow River north of the Glenmore Dam, and has some of the most expensive houses in the city along it. It reminds me of Avenue Road in Toronto, especially the view of the skyline when heading north around Elboya.


https://dailyhive.com/calgary/4712-e...w-calgary-home

[ScreamingViking]

Dundas has one simply called Tally Ho... no street, road, drive, avenue, etc.
https://goo.gl/maps/xCcHp7eaKgWvZUTQ9

(which is also the name of a fast-food roast beef sandwich place near McMaster that was popular for post-pub sandwiches and fries with gravy when I was a student there)

[p_xavier]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

I always liked (Montreal):

Rue de la Visitation
Rue des Récollets
Due des Soeurs-Grises

It's funny, along with Rose-de-Lima I've lived on all those streets.

[kwoldtimer]

Many “name” street in K-W harken back to the Mennonite settlers and to the days of “busy Berlin”. Erb, Eby, Menno, Weber, Gaukel, Breithaupt, Hoffman, Heiman, Lang, Schneider, Meinzinger, Ahrens, Pequegnat (OK, that one’s Swiss).

[urbandreamer]

Queen's Bush Road in Wellesley - amusing but also historically accurate. I once knew a gal who lived on that road ....

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by urbandreamer

Queen's Bush Road in Wellesley - amusing but also historically accurate. I once knew a gal who lived on that road ....

Calling a road after the Queen's bush sounds vaguely treasonous.........

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

If you listen to CBC, the "correct" English pronunciation seems to now be "Qyuh-beck". Not sure when that happened. I've never heard anyone in Ontario say "Quee-beck" unless they were being insulting (ie you hear it a fair bit ...). I carry on with my tried and true "Qwuh-beck".

My Dutch grandfather says Quee-beck, he emigrated here in the 40's. Probably doesn't come up much in his life for him to change it.

I think I bounce around depending on the sentence. I would think I also say Qwuh-beck the most, but Cue-beck and Ke-beck definitely pop out of my mouth sometimes.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Loco101

There are some people in Timmins with the last name Baby and it is pronounced the same way. They are francophone. I think the name came from Quebec (and France originally of course) but I think it's not very common in Quebec or Ontario for that matter.

Yes, I was thinking of that name in Toronto that there might be some sort of French connection.

You're correct that the French surname exists but it's not common at all.

[Alegan]

Sarnia has a few nice or fun names, though the overwhelming majority are named after people. I've included ones that I think are fairly neato:

Plank Road (named after what it used to made from; it was a corduroy road)

Hadfield Crescent (After our astronaut, Chris Hadfield )

The Rapids Parkway (Sarnia used to be called "The Rapids")

Venetian Boulevard (a marsh turned canal-side residences and marina)

Lake Chipican Drive (Lake Chipican is what remains of said marshland, I believe, and there used to be an eponymously named family steakhouse nearby)

Blanche Street (I doubt it was named after her, but I just love the Golden Girls! )

Devine Street (Sounds heavenly, but often referred to as the ghetto of Sarnia )

Frost Avenue
Toro Street
Lite Street
Derby Lane


and what should have been renamed years ago imo
Indian Road
(which leads to the Aamjiwnaang First Nation/"Sarnia Indian Reserve 45"; I mean, the first people were the Confederacy of the Three Fires, how badass would it be to have a name like that? Of course, defer to the FN for that discourse)

Bonus streets since I live in Oslo now, are Inkognitogata and Inkognito Terrasse (Incognito Street and Incognito Terrace, respectively). The prime minister's residence is on Inkognitogata, with the Nobel Institute just around the corner!

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by dleung

Toronto has the worst ones. Avenue Road. Busy Street. Boulevard Street. Silly portmanteaus like Hurontario or Burnhamthorpe. Depressing ones like Warden Ave. One of these are fake.

I agree,like Terminal Avenue, Blood Ally, or Smith Ave. Oh wait those aren't in Toronto. And Hunrontario links Lake Huron and Lake Ontario so it's a pretty good name for a road. I live near Busy Street, it's a cute little street in what used to be the heart of Toronto's industrial district so it's name makes complete sense.

[Andy6]

I was just looking at Edmonton on Streetview and, get this, where they have a little suburban U-shaped suburban crescent that in Winnipeg we would call a "Bay", the street has three (!) names (numbers), to fit it properly into the city's numbered street grid. There are even street-intersection signs at the top corners of the "U"! So it's a suburban street with a few dozen bungalows but it has 3 names.

So in Edmonton, do you say you live on the "same street" as someone if you both live on one of many disconnected fragments of ### Avenue? Or would the people on the U-shaped entity all say that they lived on the "same street" as each other, despite the fact that there are three different names for it? (So if someone then said, "which street is that?", they'd have to reply ... what? Or is it just the Edmontonian culture not to probe into these matters too deeply?)

Edmonton's numbered-grid-devotion is pretty admirable, if not bordering on somewhat demented.

[Architype]

Originally Posted by Andy6

I was just looking at Edmonton on Streetview and, get this, where they have a little suburban U-shaped suburban crescent that in Winnipeg we would call a "Bay", the street has three (!) names (numbers), to fit it properly into the city's numbered street grid. There are even street-intersection signs at the top corners of the "U"! So it's a suburban street with a few dozen bungalows but it has 3 names.

So in Edmonton, do you say you live on the "same street" as someone if you both live on one of many disconnected fragments of ### Avenue? Or would the people on the U-shaped entity all say that they lived on the "same street" as each other, despite the fact that there are three different names for it? (So if someone then said, "which street is that?", they'd have to reply ... what? Or is it just the Edmontonian culture not to probe into these matters too deeply?)

Edmonton's numbered-grid-devotion is pretty admirable, if not bordering on somewhat demented.

The same things exist in Vancouver's grid system; one of the drawbacks of a grid system is that it must conform, often unintuitively, with the grid wherever possible. Major traffic routes are often subject to this as well. If you are driving east in Vancouver on West 4th avenue it goes through a number of diversions and name changes where it turns into; West 6th, then West 2nd, then East 2nd, then Great Northern, then East 6th Ave. After being cut off by the tracks, it continues on eastward. Functionally, the street has no name recognition or identity.

[wave46]

Originally Posted by Andy6

I was just looking at Edmonton on Streetview and, get this, where they have a little suburban U-shaped suburban crescent that in Winnipeg we would call a "Bay", the street has three (!) names (numbers), to fit it properly into the city's numbered street grid. There are even street-intersection signs at the top corners of the "U"! So it's a suburban street with a few dozen bungalows but it has 3 names.

So in Edmonton, do you say you live on the "same street" as someone if you both live on one of many disconnected fragments of ### Avenue? Or would the people on the U-shaped entity all say that they lived on the "same street" as each other, despite the fact that there are three different names for it? (So if someone then said, "which street is that?", they'd have to reply ... what? Or is it just the Edmontonian culture not to probe into these matters too deeply?)

Edmonton's numbered-grid-devotion is pretty admirable, if not bordering on somewhat demented.

It truly boggles the mind with Edmonton's suburbs.

The beauty of a grid-pattern street layout combined with a numerical street numbering is that you can easily locate places and don't have to worry about naming.

The idea of using a numerical street naming system on clusters of discontinuous suburban streets is like trying to put human clothes on the family dog. You could do it, but to what end for all the effort? Everyone's just confused at the end of the day.

[Gresto]

Not "beautiful", but for whatever reason I find Silver Seven Rd. in Ottawa has a nifty ring to it, though it gets less appealing when one realizes it could be the title of a Nickelcrap album.

The worst offence in the naming of streets is the nauseatingly uncreative numerical format. 129th St., Fifth Avenue, etc. Ontario's analogue to that is endless rural roads called some boring variation of 8th Concession, 5th Line, or whatever. And then there's the preposterous Upper Middle Rd. in Oakville.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I am actually mostly on board with you, with the caveat that people do have the right to pronounce their own names as they wish. Even if it's wrong!

People who know me would instantly recognize one of my favourite phrases: "he's pronouncing his own name wrong!".

In a previous life when I worked with the public and had to say people's names, I'd default to Italian Cs and CHs, Spanish Js and Germanic Js intuitively, and often people would be surprised.

Some actually didn't like it, and would correct me with the (North) Americanized phonetic way of saying their name.

Others were pleasantly surprised, roughly evenly divided between those who appreciated it but generally didn't bother insisting on correct pronunciation anymore (like trying to stop the ocean tide from coming in), and the others who in their lives insisted and probably corrected people all the time, and often came off as fussy as a result.

These days (especially in school situations with kids and teachers) there's a lot more emphasis on pronouncing names "correctly" as a sign of cultural sensitivity and respect with mispronouncing names seen as an example of "microagression". Though I assume correctly ought to mean "as the person wishes to have it pronounced" (the whole "you're pronouncing your own name wrong" thing can be just as awkward -- I don't know how things have changed in contemporary times, given you mentioning your work with the public being from a while back).

Many of the examples though (in a multicultural setting) are framed about racial or ethnic minorities (though it applies to any non-dominant language name).

You see a lot of people expressing opinions like this with this view.

E.g. "California’s Santa Clara County Office of Education created the “My Name, My Identity” campaign. The initiative asks community members to take a pledge to pronounce names correctly in order to foster a sense that students of all backgrounds are valuable and belong."