Northwood News ♦ December 2015

Seven of Our Neighborhood Streets Appear on ‘The 1,000 Most Popular Street Names in the U.S.’

By Jacquie Bokow

In an article in the 6 March 2015 Washington Post, Jeff Guo, using road data from the 2014 U.S. Census, “counted, literally, every road in America.”  The top name?  “Park,” which also is number one in Maryland.  (In Virginia, it’s “Lee.”)

“Out of over a million roads in the United States, 9,640 are named “Park.” Only 8,232 are named “2nd,” or “Second,” which had been considered the most popular from the 1993 Census report.”  But “Second” is still a more popular road name than “First,” probably, speculates Guo, because so many towns call their primary thoroughfare “Main” instead of “First.”

Trees, numbers, and presidents are the most popular names for streets.  Guo thinks this is understandable, given that these “are practical, inoffensive choices.”  Surnames are common too, he says.  “Or else we name our streets after landmarks:  Hill (3,942) or School (2,610) or Airport (2,393).”

Road names, says Guo, are “pieces of history.  They encode the culture and geography of America.  In Arizona, popular street names are Apache, Palo Verde, Mesquite.  In New Mexico, Cedar and Pinon top the list; in Colorado, it’s Aspen and Spruce.”  In the South, “Magnolia” and “Dogwood” are popular, while “Maple” heads lists in the North.

In the West and Midwest, the most common street name is a number, usually either “First” or “Second.”

Hawaii’s state flower is the Lehua; it’s also the most popular street name there.

“Jackson” is in the Top 10 in Alabama, Mississippi, and Virginia, “but not any other president, not even Washington,” says Guo.  “In his home state of Illinois, Lincoln makes the top 10, but Washington doesn’t.”

Compare our neighborhood streets below.

Top 10 Street Names in the United States		Top 10 Street Names in the State of Maryland		Our Neighborhood Roads Appearing on the U.S. List*
Rank/Street	No.	Rank/Street	No.	Rank	Street	No.
1.  Park	9,640	1.  Park	108	121.	Edgewood	2,332
2.  2nd/Second	8,232	2.  Oak	93	245.	Pinewood	1,588
3.  Oak	8,191	3.  Maple	91	479.	University	1,079
4.  1st/First	8,151	4.  Cedar	80	603.	Eastwood	943
5.  3rd/Third	7,748	5.  Holly	77	670.	Woodridge	907
6.  Maple	7,608	6.  Pine	76	723.	Northwood	857
7.  Pine	7,013	7.  Washington	72	884.	Dennis	743
8.  4th/Fourth	6,914	8.  Church	70
9.  Cedar	6,805	9.  Walnut	65
10.  Main	6,472	10.  1st/First	63

*These are the only roads in our neighborhood which appear on the U.S. list.   ■