The Streets of Charlottetown - Naming Patterns

The original streets if not having an obvious source like Water Street, carried associations with family names and titles of important individuals and those traditions continued when the town expanded. The family names honoured in newer areas became Island families whereas the original set were English individuals of prominence or high office. The use of royal titles was a pattern not unique to Charlottetown. King, Prince and Queen Streets as well as Queen's Square may have even had a specific association with incumbents on the day they were named but today they have lost any specific association with one individual and retain a broader association with the title of a regal office.

By contrast the later naming of Victoria Park was to honour a specific individual, as were the names Queen Elizabeth Drive and Prince Charles Drive both parts of newer subdivisions in Brighton. With Charlotte Drive part of the parallel streets in this same subdivision it is safe to assume that this was another association with a regal name but in this case an historical one being Charlottetown's namesake Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III.

Great George Street which once included the section now called University Ave from Euston to Grafton was the exact centre of the town with Prince and Queen on each adjcent side providing a symbolic and regal example of Georgian symmetry. While there would also be a King Street, Great George appears to have cemented a specific reference to George III, during his formidable 60 year reign. Although the street is shorter than the original, the name would last through time. The placement of Province House eventually on the very centre of the configuration in the middle of Queen's Square is equally an important symbolic placement of a center of power.

After geographic names like Water and West, and regal titles, the vast majority of original names were associated with nobility in important positions politically in London. These include Weymouth, Hillsborough, Fitzroy, Richmond, Grafton and Euston Streets. Total count seems to have also been a factor in the allocation with the Royal Family achieving four streets plus the primary square, not to mention central positioning within the town with three of the five broader streets all achieving royal association. The British Prime Minister Agustus H. Fitzroy, the Duke of Grafton whose family seat was Euston House came in second place with three streets allocated to his various family names.

The politics of placement of the remaining names and their closeness to the regal centre or to the comparative width of the street (five central north-south streets were extra wide), might be worthy of additional research. Sufficient to say that the allocation of street names in the original Charlotte Town both in quantity and placement was to honour significant individuals currently in power in London and was done with thought to ensure the status of the monarchy and the prime minister were held highest, in that order.

Association with family names or titles rather than specific individuals names (with the exception of Great George), was the tradition that became entrenched and when there was need for additional names these names were based on Island families. Individuals may have been associated with ownership of property in the area like the Beasley, McGill, Esher or Longworth families. Or they could be eminently involved with public life like Governor Dundas, or various generation of the Haviland family.

As the town grew the names of streets and neighbourhoods became associated with the names of houses of early owners. Names like Spring Park, Sidmount, Inkerman, Mount Edward all can be traced to a specific house or estate.

A third set of names developed for roads leading out of the town. These gained the obvious name of the destination thus Malpeque Rd. leading from Euston St., along what is now University Ave. was derived that way as was Lower Malpeque Rd. Both St. Peter's Rd., and North River Rd. derive the same source for their names. A curious addition to that list is Kensington Rd. which leads in the opposite direction from the town of Kensington. When we look closer we realize that the name Kensington associated with the Prince Co. community was first as a school district around 1863. Kensington Point is located on the Hillsborouth River and shows up on Bayfields maps of 1845. The Kensington Range (an early rifle range) would become another landmark on the Hillsborough south of Kensington Rd.

The fourth pattern which emerges is that of a geographic derivation with include West and Water. One may be left wondering if Greenfield and Green street are derived from a similar basis. Green being a family name on PEI would lead one to search more.

The current use of subdivision names related to nature is really a similar method of recognizing components of the environment. The subdivision of Sherwood was along this line in which tree names like Oak, Maple becaming the dominent motif for a large sections. The use of Robin Hood images like Friar Park, and other Sherwood Forest associations were part of this tree theme and playing on the Sherwood name.

Newer areas of Sherwood have recently adopted local naming traditions as family names like Barbour Circle, Rogers Lane, Dale Drive, Brow's Lane, Walsh Crescent, and Macausland Drive in growing areas.

One group of names seems to derive from the combining of two words to create a novel term, and a number of those exist. They include Westcomb and Westridge Crescents, Birchmount, Ferndale Rosemount Drive and Northridge Parkway. Although not all double barreled names are new creations - Falconwood has a long history on PEI.

The final very small group of names have been derived from individual names like Terry Fox Drive, Henri Blanchard Dr.,