Odonymy in the United Kingdom

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Odonymy refers to the street or road naming conventions in the toponymy of the United Kingdom.

Contents

History

Houndsditch, an example of a street name with no suffix in the City of London HoundsditchEC3.jpg
Houndsditch, an example of a street name with no suffix in the City of London

Many towns (particularly in England) will refer to their main thoroughfare as the High Street or Main Street, and many of the ways leading off it will be suffixed "Road".

In the City of London, according to tradition, there are no "Roads"; all the streets there are called "Street", "Lane", "Court", "Hill", "Row" or "Alley", or have no suffix (e.g. Cheapside). However, since 1994, part of Goswell Road now lies in the City of London, making this a unique anomaly. [1]

Culture

Some older road names that were created in an innocuous or matter-of-fact way, and that were accepted at that time, are nowadays considered rude. [2]

Road numbering

List

London

Statistics

The top 15 most-common street names are: [3]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">High Street</span> Generic primary business street of towns or cities

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street name</span> Identifying name given to a street or road

A street name is an identifying name given to a street or road. In toponymic terminology, names of streets and roads are referred to as odonyms or hodonyms. The street name usually forms part of the address. Buildings are often given numbers along the street to further help identify them. Odonymy is the study of road names.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gosforth</span> Suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, England

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A street suffix is the part of a street or road name that describes what type of road it is. Examples include "street", "avenue", "lane", "highway", and "drive". As they are commonly repeated between roads, they are often abbreviated; for example, "St." instead of "Street". The way street suffixes are used varies around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epping, Essex</span> Town and parish in Essex, England

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References

  1. "Why there's not a single Road in the City of London". The Londonist. 15 August 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  2. Smith, Oliver (3 October 2017). "Are Britain's rude road names under threat?". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  3. "The Most Common Street Names In The UK". The Fact Site. 21 March 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2021.

See also