What's in a name?

[gurnemanz]

"Royal" Wootton Bassett didn't need rebranding.

I live there and previous to the repatriations via nearby Lyneham no one had heard of the place. There was a certain frisson attached to the national and international attention we received, but on balance, I think I preferred it as we were. Organisations in the town have been applying to change their names to add "Royal", for example the Choral Society and the Tennis Club, both of which I am heavily involved with. This required applying to the Cabinet Office for permission. We then had to change the name of our bank account etc.

When I taught at the secondary school, it was called simply Wootton Bassett School. Under the new system it is now referred to grandiosely as Royal Wootton Bassett Academy. It was and is a good school but is still the local comp.

[Ferretfancy]

It's amazing how many new housing estates have roads with (often wildly inappropriate) birds' names - Lapwing Crescent, Osprey Drive etc. - the bird book is the first port of call for developers and council officials.

And in the spirit of other suggested changes, bird books could revert to the original Anglo-Saxon "whitearse" for "wheatear".

Wasn't there a new estate in which the road leading to the police station was called Letsby Avenue ?

[JFLL]

Wasn't there a new estate in which the road leading to the police station was called Letsby Avenue ?

Yes, it's in Sheffield -- story here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2000/feb/12/martinwainwright

[vinteuil]

... sometimes a 'traditional' name becomes very hard to live with. I think of the commune La-Mort-aux-Juifs near Courtemaux in France.

[MrGongGong]

... sometimes a 'traditional' name becomes very hard to live with. I think of the commune La-Mort-aux-Juifs near Courtemaux in France.

and the lane in York ?

[Richard Tarleton]

When I first visited Madrid in 1972, one of the most important streets was named the Avenida José Antonio. By the time I went back some years later, it had become the, er, Gran Vía.

[jayne lee wilson]

Nicholas Kenyon's changing "Record Review" to "CD Review" was the worst kind of shallow short-sighted "modernising". Can anyone think of a new title now, to include every kind of disc and download? The answer is... see above!

[gurnemanz]

When I first visited Madrid in 1972, one of the most important streets was named the Avenida José Antonio. By the time I went back some years later, it had become the, er, Gran Vía.

The residents of one of Leipzig's main thoroughfares, Südstraße, woke up one day in 1933 to find they now lived in Adolf-Hitler-Straße. After Soviet occupation in 1945 they had to get used to living in Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, in honour of a local Communist hero. Local wags used to refer to Adolf Südknecht Straße.

[teamsaint]

Nicholas Kenyon's changing "Record Review" to "CD Review" was the worst kind of shallow short-sighted "modernising". Can anyone think of a new title now, to include every kind of disc and download? The answer is... see above!

"Essential Reviews?"

[ardcarp]

Whatever-Medium-You-Choose-to-Listen-Through-including-Shellac-Vinyl-Tape-Digital-and-Otherwise-CD-Minidisk-i-Pod-Pad-Paq-Download-Review ?

[Barbirollians]

JLW is entirely right - Record Review it should be - as it refers to the recorded nature of the music rather than the particular carrier of the musical info.

[Pabmusic]

Here's an e-petition seeking to restore the old names of many roads in the UK:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/36111

One of the best known is Magpie Lane in Oxford (which has also been Grape Lane, or Grope Lane), but Shrewsbury still has Grope Lane (which also had an incarnation as Grope Countlane).

[ardcarp]

Not to do with changing names, fortunately, but in a couple of nearby villages (Devon and Dorset) we have a Bim Bom Lane and an Upper and Lower Tink Tonks.
It is thought that they derive either from the sound of church bells or from some feudal tintinabulation ordering the start and finish of the agricultural working day.

[MrGongGong]

Here's an e-petition seeking to restore the old names of many roads in the UK:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/36111

One of the best known is Magpie Lane in Oxford (which has also been Grape Lane, or Grope Lane), but Shrewsbury still has Grope Lane (which also had an incarnation as Grope Countlane).

or even

[Beef Oven]

or even

Love your business card MrGG!!