Who chooses new road names?

[LudoBear]

I'm fascinated by road names especially when they are an obvious theme. Example I used to live near Zodiac Road and off it were starsigns like Capricorn Way and Sagittarius Drive. Thankfully no Cancer Road though.

Who chooses road names? Some are obvious like School Lane but there is a Merrylegs Road not far from me.

Usually the builder will give suggestions to the local council and will check with Royal Mail that there are no similar names nearby.

Newer estates seem to have a theme, don't they, famous sportspeople, poets, cathedral cities etc.
I think our local town and district councillors have a stranglehold hand in it.

When it comes to older street names, they might be the names of farms or well-known people or landmarks. I think I've got a book about local history, somewhere up in the loft, that has a chapter on it.

Developers can propose names to the Street Naming Department and may often run competitions with local schools to help create a short list. Unfortunately it is also heavily politicised and often for large schemes the local councillors and political parties will have quite particular views which tend to win over.

@ThatsNotTheTeaHunty that's funny

I'm not sure who decides but in the town I live a school was knocked down and a new housing estate built and the road names were the names of the teachers who worked at the school.

Yes it's normally builders who decide if a small building company. Or the name of the farmer that sold the land.

I have often wondered that when I drive past Fanny Hands Lane in a nearby village just outside Market Rasen.

Modern road names in housing estates are so clearly themed. In the 80s/90s when Lower Early in Reading was the largest housing estate in Europe or something and growing day by day, I knew people who moved into the Spices area, the Cathedral Cities area etc.

@Changeisconstant

I'm not sure who decides but in the town I live a school was knocked down and a new housing estate built and the road names were the names of the teachers who worked at the school.

They've done this more than once or you live in the same town as Darlow Drive (he was an arse, by all accounts)

Bovis the idiots decided to name one of the new housing estates in my village the same name as my road so now you have to clarify 'original' & the best or 'new' if you're asking a specific question.

The developers put their preferences forward. I was given the privilege to choose a a nee road name in my town when I was a marketing assistant- probably a career highlight at the time as a was only 19 🤣
I wish I'd chosen something much more exciting in hindsight.

The builders of my old house were clearly named Alan and Barry as there were 2 adjoining streets named after them! My new house is a new build which is named after a surname that’s similar to an occupation but spelt differently and even the developer has registered it either the wrong spelling 🙈 so the street sign and the online drop down boxes don’t match up.

I drove down Minge Lane today.

I'd like to think it was named when the word meant something else!

@greengrey

I drove down Minge Lane today.

I'd like to think it was named when the word meant something else!

Was it next to Bell End? 🤔

They named mine after me. We moved there when I was 4.

It was St. My Name's Road.

If I tell you a development near me had a street named after the chief execs cat...... (true story. Fortunately cat was called something that worked as a street name not like Tiddles Avenue)
I do often wonder if the residents ever knew though.

Where Inised to lkve ot was the Parish Council who chose them.

I’m very near a sluts hole lane and my teacher used to live there!!

Or the name of the farmer that sold the land.

This seems to be the default where I live. Basically, they’re named after men.

Sometimes the developers choose and the name normally has no relevance to the area whatsoever. E.g. a new build estate called Elmfield Gardens, which has no elms (nor any other trees), no fields, and gardens the size of parking spaces.

I used to work for a big house developer and I named all the new roads. I was really excited that that was part of my job. It was a total BALL ACHE! Every council set (the same) annoying criteria - it had to have a theme, it had to be relevant (to the previous road name/area or something related to the town/city it was in) and it obviously couldn’t have been used already in the same town - which most things were if you wanted to use a historical famous person from that town. Then we had to submit them and wait approximately 100 years to see if they were approved or not. Please don’t get me started on assigning postcodes.........

Oh and @greengrey I have also been to Minge Lane - didn’t name it, but have named some roads not too far away!

we have moved into a new build in a new (to us) Town, I was walking into the town the other day and noticed our street name on a war memorial so had a closer look and all the street names are surnames of soldiers from the town that were killed in ww2.

My dad used to do it - he was a town planner for the city council in the department of transport. It was only a tiny part of his job.

My surname (married) name is used for a road where dh was born in memory of his great grandad.
If you have a deceased family member who was relevant to the town you can ask the council to consider using the name.

There’s a Phil Collins Way in a village near to me. Named after a previous mayor but it just makes me think of the singer!