U.S. Place Names: Quaint Ones, Weird Ones
I love place names. They conjure up such great mental pictures, whether they’re accurate to the place or not. I was born and raised in New Jersey and I’ve always been fascinated by a town there called New Egypt. I’ve never been there, but it just sounds great. And how about Little Egg Harbor? Never been there either.
In a recent competition to enter the oddest names of actual streets, here are some of the weirdest:
Psycho Path in Traverse City, Mich.
Tater Peeler Road in Lebanon, Tenn.
Shades of Death Road in Warren County, N.J.
Unexpected Road in Buena, N.J.
Divorce Court in Heather Highlands, Pa.
Some of the United States’ most common street names are:
Second, Third, First, Fourth, Park, Fifth, Main, Sixth, Oak, Seventh, Pine, Maple, Cedar, Eighth, Elm, View, Washington, Ninth, Lake and Hill
May 1st, 2007 at 11:42 am
I want the street Unexpected Road
May 1st, 2007 at 2:25 pm
I’ve always been partial to George, Washington myself.
May 1st, 2007 at 3:09 pm
I wonder which is the most common street name in Canuckia…. ? I have an idea it’s “Queen” and/or “King”, but I’m too damned lazy to google it.
May 1st, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I have actually been to New Egypt, New Jersey – went through there several times when I was stationed at McGuire Air Force Base in Wrightstown, New Jersey many, many years ago. I think I might have been through Little Egg Harbor, too, but 1978 was an awful long time ago and my aging memory fails me!
May 1st, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Places I remember most:
Nellie’s Nipple in upstate New York
Troublesome Gulch, a road in Evergreen, Colorado, home of Sen. Gary Hart
May 1st, 2007 at 6:48 pm
We have really funny names here too…Ya’ll Comeback Lane, Johnny Long Rd., lots of streets with last names, but the best name is of a little town named Athol just 25 miles south of us. Say that 3 times really fast!
May 1st, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Wouldn’t you just love to know why these streets are named so strangely? Imagine the stories we could make up although I’m sure whatever story we came up with wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as the truth!
May 1st, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Robin: I’d like to visit Unexpected Road to see if it is in an unexpected place.
Les: I bet you’re right.
Linda: You get around.
Rosemary: Guess what? We have an Athol in Massachusetts, too!
Joan: Someone I know has a father who is a developer. He used to name streets in new developments after my friend and her sisters. So sometimes it’s just personal like that.
May 2nd, 2007 at 1:53 am
Thanks for stopping by my blog, curious to know how you got there.
For interesting place names, you could worse than look at Australian ones. Many are aboriginal in origin. One of my favorites is Manangatang.
May 2nd, 2007 at 1:53 am
I had the best address in the whole world when I lived in Newbury.
2 High Road.
Yeah.
Also, there is an Anis Road in Belmont. I almost bought a house there. Loved the house. HATED the address. Couldn’t do it.
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:32 am
I wonder if there are post cards forany of these grealyt named cities…
May 2nd, 2007 at 8:15 am
I think I would definitely skip “psycho path”
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:42 am
My favorite place name is “Oil Trough, Arkansas.”
I don’t know – just strikes me funny.
May 2nd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
I’ve been to both NJ towns. My mother’s friend used to live in New Egypt when I was little…and Little Egg Harbor isn’t that far from where I live…and I live right next door to Buena, NJ so I know I’ve driven by Unexpected Road.
May 3rd, 2007 at 7:28 am
Street/road names we have around here are: Doghouse Road, Assawoman Lane, and near my mom’s house in Texas, Dragon Lane.
May 4th, 2007 at 6:59 am
I collect names. Names of interesting towns and people. My interesting town list isn’t that long (i haven’t been working on it that long). My other list of people’s names is I think 15 pages long. Lots of fun.
May 31st, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Man divorce court road PA i swear everyone was high when they made pennsylvania just look at wierd names in pennsylvaia for r towns there so messed up