A street name controversy is a conflict over a public road or street name, also including alleys, squares, parks, quays and motorways.
There are several different causes that can make a street name controversial:
In the first two cases, a street name controversy is about the symbolic contents of the name, whereas in the latter three scenarios the issue is about the linguistic form of the name (in the last case simply because the new name is different from the old one).
There is a broad spectrum of views on how to resolve street name controversies, varying from radical change to complete maintenance of the status quo. These views could be roughly categorised into the following attitudes, which can overlap in practice:
1. Complete maintenance of the status quo. There is nothing wrong with the current street name(s), and in the future the same or similar names can be used for other public streets and roads. [4] [5] Even if there is something wrong with it, there are more important issues that deserve priority. [5]
2. Better luck next time. Nothing should be changed with respect to current street names; it/they has/have already become too much a part of this area and an important reference to history, even if there are negative connotations attached to this/these name(s). [4] [5] However, when constructing new streets and roads, more thought should be given to how to name them, [4] [5] more attention should be given to underrepresented demographics, and it should be carefully considered whether a person, organisation or event will deserve a place of honour in the long term. [1]
3. (Re)contextualisation. This approach is especially favoured for dealing with monument and memorial controversies, but can also be applied to street names: a critical, balanced note is added to a street name sign or near it (for example in a museum or a tourist walking route) to highlight both positive and negative aspects of the person, organisation or event after which the street is named, so that passers-by can form their own opinions about history, or a special walking route with critical remarks is developed. [5] [6]
4. Democratic consensus. Formal meetings are held by a city council (or another relevant body) to discuss and vote on name changes, ad hoc consultations are held with local interest groups, or a poll or referendum is held to determine what local residents think of the issue in hopes of making a decision that is supported by a majority. If no majority is to be found, the name will be maintained for the time being. [5] [6] [7]
5. Radical change. The street names need to change as soon as possible, and sometimes vandalism and other forms of civil disobedience may be justified to make a point, influence public opinion, and put pressure on local politics. A name change doesn't necessarily require a majority; as long as a significant group of citizens is opposed to the street name, it is sufficient to mandate a change, because their interests should be taken into account. [6] [7]
In post-war Austria, Franz Langoth was long viewed as a "good" Nazi who bore no responsibility for the excesses of the regime. Therefore, in 1973, a street in his hometown Linz, where he served as mayor in 1944–1945, was renamed Langothstraße. Despite these beliefs, Langoth always maintained his national-socialist beliefs, and publicly defended them. For this reason, the street name was eventually restored to its original name of Kaisergasse in 1986. [8]
In the Brussels Capital Region, Eupen-Malmedy and the municipalities with language facilities, both street names and road signs are officially bilingual. Language activists from several sides are however arguing that these should be monolingual in certain areas in favour of their own language, and that other languages do not 'belong' on the signs there. Some even experience this as a kind of colonisation of their own language area. Therefore, these activists sometimes vandalise street name signs and road signs by making the undesired language illegible. This is especially common in the linguistic conflict in Voeren. [9]
Others opine that bilingualism of street names is good for individual understanding and mutual tolerance, and that one name is not necessarily "better" than another. They tend to reject resistance to multilingual signs as needlessly hostile and territorial behaviour towards speakers of other languages. In the end, the meaning of the names is the same, and merely spelt differently, or a direct translation of the same word.
In former East Germany (officially German Democratic Republic or DDR), many street names still refer to the communist era.
World War II
In 1942, because of anti-Italian sentiment in Brazil during World War II, after a complaint from the National Defense League, the central square of Caxias do Sul, named after Dante Alighieri, was renamed Ruy Barbosa square, and Avenida Itália (Italy Avenue) became Avenida Brasil (Brazil Avenue). They were renamed back in 1990. [11] [12]
Military dictatorship
In 2014, the city council of Porto Alegre renamed Castelo Branco Avenue, named after the first president of the Brazilian military dictatorship, to Avenida Legalidade e da Democracia (Legality and Democracy Avenue), referencing the movement dubbed Campanha da Legalidade (Legality Campaign) which sought to keep João Goulart in the presidency in 1961. [13] [14] In 2018, the avenue was renamed again to Castello Branco (with an additional "L") after appeals in court claiming that the decision, which was taken by simple majority, should have had a 2/3 majority in the council. [15] [16] [17]
Morocco still has many Francophone street names from the French colonial era. Arab nationalists have pressured the government to Arabise these, and named them after Moroccan national heroes, but Amazigh activists feel they have been ignored, and argue for not forgetting to acknowledge their language and culture in the process of decolonisation. [18]
In July 2018, the city council of Agadir decided to change the Amazigh names of several streets into names of Palestinian cities to show solidarity with the Palestinian question. Although some Amazigh activists agreed that solidarity with Palestine was a good cause, they regarded the decision as an attempt to erase Amazigh culture and history. Other activists were completely opposed to the move, and did not see any advantage to the Palestinian cause in it, merely an arabising attack on Amazigh identity. [19]
In the Moroccan city of Agadir, the 80% Tamazight-speaking majority of the population complained that street name signs and road signs were only drawn up in Arabic with Arabic script and in French with Latin script. Activists from the Tamazight language emancipation movement considered this a form of discrimination, and en masse pleaded for the addition of Tamazight names in Tifinagh script, which was approved and introduced by the city council in August 2019. [3]
In May 2020, controversy arose around the naming of streets after Salafist extremists from the Arab states of the Persian Gulf in the suburb Témara of the Moroccan capital Rabat. [20]
Municipal authorities can establish rules in order to regulate the naming of streets. Such rules aim for recognisability, utility and personality. [21]
A well-known rule which all Dutch municipalities maintain is that a street cannot be named after a person until a specific number of years after their death. [1] This rule has been introduced in order to prevent a living person still committing a crime or otherwise contemptible act (or this being discovered shortly after their death), after which the honour of a street name might no longer be reasonable. The Dutch royal house is exempt from this rule: from the moment a new prince(ss) is born, public streets and roads may be named after them. Critics argue that this implies the Orange family will be living exemplary lives until the day they die, while, despite the high average popularity of the royals, they too are merely fallible human beings who could commit (major) mistakes and should not be accorded places of honour beforehand. [7]
West Frisian language advocates, including the provincial government and several political parties since the 1960s, [22] argue that in the entire province of Friesland (West Frisian and official name: Fryslân), or at least the areas where West Frisian speakers are in the majority (outside of the major cities, dominated by the Stadsfries dialects that are closely related to the Dutch language), are provided West Frisian street name signs and road signs in order to protect West Frisian culture. [22] [23] Opponents of such Frisification claim that these efforts will worsen the segregation between Frisophones and Neerlandophones, lead to needless confusion and costs, or that certain historical values will be lost by name changes. [23] [24] [25] As of 2011, most traffic signs in Friesland's municipalities are bilingual, with the Dutch name on top and the Frisian name at the bottom; a minority of signs is monolingually Frisian, and some places have exclusively Dutch signs. In practice, the road signs do not necessarily give an indication of the relative presence of West Frisian speakers in a municipality: Leeuwarden and Harlingen, for example, have bilingual signs, but Frisian speakers constitute only a small minority of the inhabitants, whereas overwhelmingly Frisian-speaking Achtkarspelen features only Dutch-language street name signs. [23]
An important part of public discourse surrounding street names in the Netherlands is concerned with its colonial heritage, especially the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and the Dutch East Indies. The colonial street name controversies usually focus on the personalities of Jan Pieterszoon Coen [1] for his role in the Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands (especially the Battle of Banda Besar in 1621), and J. B. van Heutsz because of his part in the Aceh War and the 1906 and 1908 Bali interventions. Activists tend to target the Coen Tunnel and Second Coen Tunnel in Amsterdam.
![]() | ![]() |
Activists replace 'Stalin lane' sign with '4 November lane' due to Hungarian Uprising. | The Stalin lane is officially renamed Freedom lane on 14 November 1956. |
Sometimes, street names have been changed after cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the Netherlands (from 2010) have been exposed to the public.
As of 2020, 85% of all Dutch streets' personal names referred to men. The municipality of Utrecht therefore decided to name all streets in the new Heldinnenwijk ("Heroines' Quarter") after women who were active in the Dutch resistance during World War II, with the proviso that they had only committed non-violent acts of resistance. [1] In the municipality of Putten, a new residential area featured 12 streets named after Putten women who were determined to have done something extraordinarily brave, such as Trientje Timmer who had helped people to go in hiding from the Nazis during World War II. [1]
Getting ambulances, firefighters or police vehicles at the correct place in time can be a matter of life and death, making the communication of the street name of vital importance. For example, if the city of Amsterdam had a "Klaverstraat" in addition to its Kalverstraat, a reading or typing error could be fatal. Moreover, mail carriers, other services and citizens can end up confused as well. Street names should therefore be different enough to avoid probable mistakes. [1] The town of Maasbracht actually has both a Kalverstraat and a Klaverstraat, but the distance between them is only a 3-minute car drive, and is therefore not considered an urgent problem. [29]
Companies at the Noorderkade in Alkmaar mounted resistance when the municipality announced on 30 March 2013 that their street was going to be renamed Koning Willem-Alexanderkade ("King Willem-Alexander Quay") on the occasion of the inauguration of Willem-Alexander on 30 April 2013. [30] The companies complained that they had invested a lot of money in their reputation with their current address, and were not prepared to carry the extra costs of address changes and the risk of losing customers. The municipality conceded to the objections, and instead renamed the Sportlaan to Koning Willem-Alexanderlaan. [7]
The Francoist period (1936–1975) remains controversial in 21st-century Spain. The National–Catholic regime has left its mark in many street and square namings, which some Spaniards seek to preserve, while others make efforts to erase them. [31] On 31 October 2007, the socialist Zapatero I government introduced the Historical Memory Law, which removed all names of General Francisco Franco himself, but left those of his henchmen and his symbols intact. [31] Arguing that this legislation had not gone far enough, Madrilene mayor Manuela Carmena announced in June 2016 that 30 names of Franco's associates and associations would also be removed from the capital's streets and squares. [31]
This is a list of streets renamed due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Following the invasion, one Philosophy consulting group together with Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched a campaign called "Ukraine Street", which calls for nations to change the name of the streets where the Russian embassy or consulate is located on to "Ukraine Street". Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the campaign part of an effort to "isolate Russia and de-Putinize the world." [32] In addition, Ukraine has been conducting a campaign of derussification, removing names of streets and plazas associated with Russian and Soviet history and replacing them with official Ukrainian names.
Friesland, historically and traditionally known as Frisia, named after the Frisians, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, and south of the Wadden Sea. As of January 2023, the province had a population of about 660,000, and a total area of 5,753 km2 (2,221 sq mi).
The Frisians are an ethnic group indigenous to the coastal regions of the Netherlands, north-western Germany and southern Denmark, and during the Early Middle Ages in the north-western coastal zone of Flanders, Belgium. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia.
Holland is a geographical region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th century, Holland proper was a unified political region within the Holy Roman Empire as a county ruled by the counts of Holland. By the 17th century, the province of Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, dominating the other provinces of the newly independent Dutch Republic.
Leeuwarden is a city and municipality in Friesland, Netherlands, with a population of 127,073 (2023). It is the provincial capital and seat of the Provincial Council of Friesland.
Hoorn is a city and municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the largest town and the traditional capital of the region of West Friesland. Hoorn is located on the Markermeer, 20 kilometers (12 mi) east of Alkmaar and 35 kilometers (22 mi) north of Amsterdam. The municipality has just over 73,000 inhabitants and a land area of 20.38 km2 (7.87 sq mi), making it the third most densely populated municipality in North Holland after Haarlem and Amsterdam. Apart from the city of Hoorn, the municipality includes the villages of Blokker and Zwaag, as well as parts of the hamlets De Bangert, De Hulk and Munnickaij.
West Frisian, or simply Frisian, is a West Germanic language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, mostly by those of Frisian ancestry. It is the most widely spoken of the Frisian languages.
Football Club Utrecht is a Dutch professional football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard.
Berberism is a Berber political-cultural movement of ethnic nationalism, started mainly in Kabylia (Algeria) and in Morocco later spreading to the rest of the Berber communities in the Maghreb region of North Africa. The Berberist movement in Algeria and Morocco is in opposition to cultural Arabization, the pan-Arabist political ideology and Islamism.
The Dutch are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common ancestry and culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Aruba, Suriname, Guyana, Curaçao, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the United States. The Low Countries were situated around the border of France and the Holy Roman Empire, forming a part of their respective peripheries and the various territories of which they consisted had become virtually autonomous by the 13th century. Under the Habsburgs, the Netherlands were organised into a single administrative unit, and in the 16th and 17th centuries the Northern Netherlands gained independence from Spain as the Dutch Republic. The high degree of urbanisation characteristic of Dutch society was attained at a relatively early date. During the Republic the first series of large-scale Dutch migrations outside of Europe took place.
The Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture is an academic institute of the Moroccan government in charge with the promotion of the Berber languages and culture, and of the development of Standard Moroccan Amazigh and its instruction in Morocco's public schools.
Mohamed Chafik, born 17 September 1926, is a leading figure in the Amazigh cultural movement. An original author of the Amazigh Manifesto, he was later appointed as the first Rector of the Royal Institute of the Amazigh Culture. He has worked extensively on incorporating Amazigh culture into Moroccan identity and is a leading intellectual of the Moroccan intelligentsia.
The predominant language of the Netherlands is Dutch, spoken and written by almost all people in the Netherlands. Dutch is also spoken and official in Aruba, Bonaire, Belgium, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Suriname. It is a West Germanic, Low Franconian language that originated in the Early Middle Ages and was standardised in the 16th century.
Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are both cognate with the Dutch language and spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language. They are remarkably diverse and are found within Europe mainly in the Netherlands and northern Belgium.
De Westereen is a village in the Dantumadiel municipality of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of around 5,000 in 2017.
There are a number of languages in Morocco. De jure, the two official languages are Standard Arabic and Standard Moroccan Berber. Moroccan Arabic is by far the primary spoken vernacular and lingua franca, whereas Berber languages serve as vernaculars for significant portions of the country. The languages of prestige in Morocco are Arabic in its Classical and Modern Standard Forms and sometimes French, the latter of which serves as a second language for approximately 33% of Moroccans. According to a 2000–2002 survey done by Moha Ennaji, author of Multilingualism, Cultural Identity, and Education in Morocco, "there is a general agreement that Standard Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, and Berber are the national languages." Ennaji also concluded "This survey confirms the idea that multilingualism in Morocco is a vivid sociolinguistic phenomenon, which is favored by many people."
Feanwâldsterwâl is a village in the Dantumadiel and Tytsjerksteradiel municipality's of Friesland, the Netherlands. it had a population of around 420 in 2021, however Feanwâldsterwâl is not a statistical entity, and the population count is only an estimation.
Johanna Elisabeth "Joke" Smit was a well-known Dutch feminist and politician in the 1970s.
Standard Moroccan Amazigh, also known as Standard Moroccan Tamazight or Standard Moroccan Berber, is a standardized language developed by the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) in Morocco by combining features of Tashelhit, Central Atlas Tamazight, and Tarifit, the three major Amazigh languages in Morocco. It has been an official language of Morocco since 2011.
De Fryske Marren is a municipality of Friesland in the northern Netherlands. It was established 1 January 2014 and consists of the former municipalities of Gaasterlân-Sleat, Lemsterland, Skarsterlân and parts of Boarnsterhim, all four of which were dissolved on the same day. The municipality is located in the province of Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands, and has a population of 51,778 and a combined area of 559.93 km2 (216.19 sq mi).
Robbert Baruch is a Dutch lobbyist, public administrator and former PvdA politician in the Netherlands. From 2006 to 2009 he was the Deputy Mayor and Alderman on behalf of the PvdA in the Rotterdam borough of Feijenoord. From 2012 to 2021 he was Manager Public Affairs in Buma/Stemra. In 2021 Baruch held the role of Senior Vice President Public Affairs, Europe to Universal Music Group (UMG).