What's In A Name? It Depends

NO LONGER "McCARTHY'S WAY

Not currently possessing a GPS instrument to find addresses unknown to me, I have to depend on Mapquest or a street directory. While I intend to have the tech advantage of satellites soon, it didn't help today when I was trying to find a retail establishment specializing in bird feeders (don't ask!) in a part of town unfamiliar to me. So, I pulled out the city map and began to search in what I thought was the general area. During this inquiry, I found enough startling street names that I began to wonder, "How in the hell do people come up with all these names, and WHO would live in some of these places?" Thus, some research was needed, and I had time.
There are 4,000 named streets in Brown county. There are a lot of common ones, and quite a few head-scratchers. More on that later.
When urbanization began to boom, naming streets was easy since there were so few of them. Usually, these passages were named for landmarks (Mill Street), topographical (Hill Street)or hydrological features (River Street) as well as symbols of power, authority, heroes and famous leaders. That seems to cover most of the ones in our city. But, wait!there's more!
During the 1850s, Nature ceased being the contentious, to-be-dreaded force and took on more of a pastoral image; thus, we had streets named after trees, flowers, etc.
Following the Civil War in this country when development really began to take off, many of the new names echoed that of the developers themselves (we have one in our neighborhood: Fagerville St.) A bit presumptious, if you ask me...but then, you didn't.
Eventually, the term "street" became too common and was replaced by "avenue" which was, in turn, replaced by "drive" as the automobile became prominent in this country. Of course, "boulevard" followed closely. These new names were meant to impart a sense of broad expansion and leisurely travel. All of this meant that we could have four or five paths with the same basic name: "Farve Street, Favre Boulevard, Favre Avenue, of Favre Drive." Lest you think I'm being presumtuous myself, we already have a "Brett Favre Pass" here in Green Bay, and we will soon have a "Favre Boulevard." This latter one will replace either Ashland Avenue, Military Street or Velp Avenue...it has yet to be decided which.
Of course, we have all sorts of Packers nomenclature associated weith our streets: Lombardi Avenue used to be Highland Avenue, Holmgren Way used to be part of Gross Avenue, and the Ray Nitsche Bridge used to be the Washington Street Bridge. But, I digress a bit. Back to the street names which caught my attention today while searching for the bird place.
Animals are popular here, with "Swan" being associated with at least five or six locations, while "horse" notes both Trails and Courts.
There's a Stine Way, but I don't think it has anywhere close to 88 cul-de-sac extensions as it would have if I'd have planned it.
One seriously needs a GPS here in Green Bay because there's a Lost Lane, Lost Trail, Lost Horizon Rd., a Lost Creek Lane, a Lost Ridge Court, and a Lost Valley Court. In addition, there's Lost Dauphin Rd. that, supposedly, was the final destination for an exiled French monarch who didn't have global positioning either, apparently.
There are 27 streets, avenues, etc. named for saints as well as Lourdes Street which, I am told, has the best water in the city.
I would not try to play street hockey on Talladega Speedway, Daytona Speedway, Indy Court or Pocono Court, and I doubt if small children last long there unless they are very quick!
But, the strangest development of all is located in a solitary (no wonder) section of the Town of Lawrence here in Brown County. I imagine that there is some kind of test or initiation procedure if you want to live on Ravenclaw Court, Gryffindor Court, Wizard Way or Quiddich Court. Perhaps everyone has to be assessed by those on Rowling Road. Seriously, I'm not kidding. These places actually exist here.
All I'm saying is that if I run across streets named Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse or Breaking Dawn, I'm driving the other way as fast as I can and going immediately to buy a GPS.