Street Name Generator

How street names are built

A street name records what a place used to be. In an old town, streets are named for the trade done on them (Tanner's Row), for a landmark (Well Lane, Gallows Hill), for the place they lead to (Hartwick Road) or for a person nobody remembers. Modern streets are named by planners: after trees, hills, founders and the farm that stood there before the houses. The ending carries information too. A lane or a wynd is narrow and old, a street is built up, an avenue or boulevard is wide and planned, and a close or mews is a dead end.

Keeping the streets of one town consistent

Name each district for its age. The old centre gets trades and landmarks, the Victorian ring gets noble names and railway words, and the new estates get trees and meadows. Repeat the endings a real town would repeat: it will have a dozen roads and only one boulevard. If the town changed hands, let the old names survive as nicknames, so that a street the council calls Crown Avenue is still Butcher's Row to everyone who lives there. Give your characters a street they live on and a street they avoid, and use the same name each time. Readers remember an address more than a map.

Twenty example street names

• Tanner's Row the old leather street, still faintly smelling of it.
• Hartwick Road the main road out of town to the east.
• Upper Cooper Lane a narrow lane above the barrel yards.
• Willow Mill Drive a quiet estate built on a mill site.
• Gallows Hill a steep street with a grim old name.
• Calar Wynd a twisting alley behind the market.
• Silver Birch Close a cul-de-sac with identical houses.
• Old Fishmonger Quay the harbour street, loud at dawn.
• Bramley Avenue a wide road lined with chestnut trees.
• Candlemaker's Yard a courtyard with a bakery and a secret door.
• Northgate Terrace tall houses for clerks and teachers.
• Marrowby Street the shabby road behind the railway.
• Long Chandler Lane it runs from the quay to the old tower.
• Beech Meadow Way new houses on a former field.
• Saddler's Steps a stair street down to the river.
• Thornfield Parade a row of shops with flats above.
• Lower Pump Street named for a well that was long since filled.
• Redcliff Crescent a curve of grand houses above the bay.
• Ironmonger Passage a covered way full of small workshops.
• Selwick Gardens a leafy square with a locked park.