Thread: Changing street names

In Russia we often change street names due to changing of political situation, for example.

At the photo you can see plates with present street name as well as four previous names of the street:

(The photo was taken in Yaroslavl). The good thing is that we never change house numbers.

What about other countries?

Yeah and you change the city names too!! Confusing!

About 6 months ago, I spent a very long time looking for a town in Siberia which I was sure I knew was there.. The reason I couldn't find it was that it had changed names since I went to school and learnt the geography of that area. I found it out by chance, much later. Google Earth hadn't bothered adding the old name in paranthesis. Likewise I spent a lot of time looking for a place in Kazakhstan which had also changed names.

St Petersburg is a nice name and sounds more "European" (and not very Russian). However, Leningrad is much faster to say... and its how many thought of that city while growing up --- by far the biggest city on the Baltic Sea and once the source of much speculation and with a high coolness factor. St Petersburg sounds more provincial and it makes me think of books by Tolstoy! Doesn't feel like it's the same city.. And perhaps that's actually true, in a way.

To answer your question --- yes it happens, but not as much as in Russia!
Town planning authorities take some obscure street with a non-descript name and change it to be named after a culturally or politically important person who just died. Or they re-name a park or something that never had an official name.

We have also changed the name of our country: Россия -> Российская империя -> СССР -> Россия
We changed national anthem, we even changing names of metro stations.

Before elections, candidates sometimes changing their names to match the name of the most popular candidate. This way they can take away some votes from the leader.

I think I should also change my name to not be behing of others

To my mind we attach too much importance to the name of object (russians are extremely superstitious). We even have a proverb for this: "Как корабль назовёшь — так он и поплывёт".

All the signs in the picture look quite modern? I don't recognise any of the names!
Which is the present name?

And it once had a very "neutral" name ---" University Street"
They should have stopped at that point...
This is a very crazy habit. People must be sick of it!
All maps become obsolete.

And the country is still PACKED with names of old communist heroes so it has not been consistently applied at all. Seems like a real nuiance!!!

Can't the citizens protest if town planning tries to rename their street?

In Sweden they always try to replace Christian names with "politically correct" names, in a silly and annoying way: For example: "Saint Örjan's park" with something like "Nelson Mandela's Park" or something silly like that.

The motivation is that the Christian names refer to saints that most people don't know anything about, and that that it's better to use names of famous people who stand for positive values.

But people think it's nonsense and protest! It's often in the papers and usually the town planners have to back off-- it only happens with parks and streets that nobody really cares about.

Here in England they never never really change names and some names have confusing names which were refer to local geography that was changed 100 years earlier. They also have a terrible habit of not putting up street signs, so it is often very hard to know what street you are on! The urban legend about this is that all the street signs were taken down during WW2, to confuse Germans, if they invaded. Allegedly they later forgot to put some of the signs back. Sounds too silly to be true, but this can be a real problem and often you have no choice but to ask someone the name of the street you are on.

o, it's quite interesting fact about taking down streets' signs, thanx)

Obviosly, all these signs were placed at the same time. Old names are indicated in order to help people of various generations to orientate themselves. "Бывш." means "Бывший" ("former"). So, the topmost plate is the present name.

May be "University street" was a good name when the university was there.

Here is info from Wikipedia about the street:

Улица Салтыкова-Щедрина. Названа в честь М. Е. Салтыкова-Щедрина (1826—1889) — писателя; провёл часть детства в селе Заозерье Угличского уезда, не однажды бывал в Ярославской губернии и позднее, использовал в произведениях («Пошехонская старина», «Господа Головлевы», «Убежище Монрепо», «Деревенский пожар» и др.), собранный здесь материал. Бывшая Никитская, Большая Рыбинская (от города Рыбинск Ярославской области), Университетская).

The religios names were actively replaced at USSR-times due to atheistic course of Soviet ideology.

Originally Posted by SAn

The good thing is that we never change house numbers.

But we change our phone numbers

When me parents got a telephone number in 1970-s it was 5-digit 5-XX-XX, later the number became 7-digit 455-XX-XX "direct" Moscow number. Ten years later it became 535-XX-XX.

About three years ago city code of Moscow was changed from 095 to 495 and additional code 499 was introduced.
Last year all numbers (495)53x-xx-xx were changed to (499)73x-xx-xx.

Originally Posted by mcz

o, it's quite interesting fact about taking down streets' signs, thanx)

Yeah, it's interesting for 5 minutes, but after that it becomes VERY irritating. It's insane when you walk around an area from one street to another without seeing any street sign! Even though you have a map you are still lost! [I guess an iPhone or satellite navigation would fix the problem, but I have never bothered with that..]

Luckily English people are EXTREMELY helpful to strangers who ask directions. It's almost unbelievable: They will offer to walk with you to where you are going, if they have time, if not they might draw a map by hand (!!!) or repeat the directions several times. This is a very sweet thing about England... First few times this happened to me I was totally amazed.

Originally Posted by Wowik

When me parents got a telephone number in 1970-s (...)

At least your parents have stayed in the same place and not changed their telephone number!! Good for them!

Originally Posted by SAn

May be "University street" was a good name when the university was there.

LOL... True, I guess that's an excuse to change the name... Whoever CLOSES a university though?! That's strange! Or perhaps it moved?

Also SAn, "Maybe" is one word, not two. I have heard that it's considered to be more "American" to say "maybe" and more "British" to say "perhaps". (They mean the same thing). Personally I use both...

That is my direct translation from Russian: "может быть" -> "may be".

Originally Posted by SAn

Obviosly, all these signs were placed at the same time. Old names are indicated in order to help people of various generations to orientate themselves. "Бывш." means "Бывший" ("former"). So, the topmost plate is the present name.

they should post the years for each name. When was it named Богоявленская, during the 1800's? It would be interesting to know. Just posting the names looks kind of stupid, unsightly and cluttered. It would be nice to see the signs in their original design. And send the graffitist to a лагерь!

Streets get renamed here, usually from something bland to a name to honor someone.
This woman sung a song "Old Cape Cod" years ago. It gets on my nerves by the end of summer but it's a good tourist draw.



Here's the story:
Patti Page takes center stage

By Gwenn Friss
gfriss@capecodonline.com
February 27, 2010

HYANNIS – Although she's sold 100 million records, including 15 that went gold, Patti Page blushed yesterday when Barnstable assistant town manager Thomas Lynch referred to her by her old nickname, “Patti Page, The Singing Rage.”

Singling out Page's 1957 hit “Old Cape Cod,” in which she sings about sand dunes, lobster stew and falling in love, Lynch said, “We hope when you think of the song, you think of us, because a piece of us is with you in that song.”
Read the rest--->

Here's the song with some photos of Cape Cod:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNMQkSFHpk

It's probably irrelevant to the discussed topic but I think that this one is just too funny:

Nice one!