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.

our local authority bad a competition and you could submit street names.

Street Naming Dept (district/unitary/borough council) gets the final say, but lots of people get an input. If you want a particular name or theme ask your parish/town council to put it on their list of suggestions because they're more likely to be amenable!

A girl I went to school with had her street named after her. Her dad brought the land and built 3 houses on it (they lived in one) and he named it Jessica Drive. I drive past it often and it always makes me smile

In my town there is an estate with the names of lakes in the Lake District.

It does make me laugh that the beautiful Windermere and Grassmere are synonymous in our town with drugs, violence and antisocial behaviour 😂

In my area all the roads are named after men. Apart from saints and royalty, there don't seem to be as many named after women.

I grew up on an estate named after various characters/features from Robin Hood. It was built in the fifties... And was nowhere near Nottinghamshire.

There's a road near my current town with a Dutch or Flemish name (I'm not sure which)... Its a twinned town.

In my town there is an estate with the names of lakes in the Lake District.

I think most towns have an estate named after the lakes, it's very popular.

There is a Pennis Lane in Kent, how they got that approved

@Scarby9

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.

Im Reading born and bred and have never heard of the "cathedral cities" area There is an area in Lower Earley that is still called Herbs and Spices. And the older area (officially called Newtown) of Cemetery Junction is all named after towns and cities. Although its known as Cemetery Junction. Unless that's the area you mean by Cathedral cities?

@Catcheronthesly You said not to ask you about postcodes...

My parents share a postcode with about 5 other houses (built in the 50s).
Our house (built in 1990s) has the same postcode as the whole of the road ~90 houses.

Is there a 'rule' about how many houses get allocated a particular postcode?

I used to live near a street called ‘all alone road. The street sign said ‘all alone road leading to all alone’. So for that street I’d say someone experiencing a major existential crisis .

Australians were very unoriginal when naming streets here etc. Everything is copied from the UK.

@greengrey

I drove down Minge Lane today.

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

Unless there are two, you were in my town.

@Catcheronthesly

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

Is it the same Minge Lane that has a Hornyold Road in the next town? Did you name the ones in the village beginning with W?

I've seen one called Cul-De-Sac locally. Nothing else, just Cul-De-Sac. Always thought that was a Friday afternoon job from a very bored town planner.

I used to leave near a town where Tolkien was the theme for street names. Gandalf’s Ride, Gimli Watch, Celeborn Street, etc.

The local bypass is named after my Gran, who campaigned for it for decades.

@Finfintytint

I used to leave near a town where Tolkien was the theme for street names. Gandalf’s Ride, Gimli Watch, Celeborn Street, etc.

We have a few Tolkien names too, he lived in the county and his son was a priest at the local church so his Father was a bit of a regular sight cycling around on his pushbike. Few places were Tolkien referenced for both Father and Son. Bit awkward really given Father John was hit with scandal.

There's as estate in Lent, near Nijmegen in the Netherlands, named after British rock bands. So there's Pink Floydstraat, Beatlesstraat, Genesisstraat, Oasisstraat, Deep Purplestraat, Queenstraat, and Rolling Stonesstraat.

@TeenMinusTests I don’t know, but I think there is a limit to how many can share a postcode. It’s up to the Royal Mail, but new estates don’t tend to have massive streets so it was never an issue for me. Two separate streets will never share a postcode though, even if there’s only two houses on each street!

@LudoBear yes it is that Minge Lane (hopefully there is only one!) No, I didn’t name any in that village, actually none in that county I don’t think, but lots in the next County down from you - starting on the town beginning with T!

My estate was built in the 30s and has themed street names. For example all streets are tree names so it’s known as the tree estate.

I'd like to know who is responsible fit Cockle Dicks Lane in Southport!

The area where I grew up were named after islands - Farne, Magnus, Seil, Shetland, Orcades. Interesting but you end up spelling them out a lot! Xx

My own road is a mans first and last name. I've googled it many times now asked around but nobody knows who he was!

My FIL had a block of council flats named after him (surname) - he was an engineer for the council and the flats were named after members of staff who had long service that year.