A street or road name or odonym is an identifying name given to a street. The street name usually forms part of the address (though addresses in some parts of the world, notably most of Japan, make no reference to street names). Buildings are often given numbers along the street to further help identify them. Names are often given in a two-part form: an individual name known as the specific, and an indicator of the type of street, known as the generic. Examples include “Main Road”, “Fleet Street” and “Park Avenue”. The type of street stated, however, can sometimes be misleading: a street named “Park Avenue” need not have the characteristics of an avenue in the generic sense. Some streets are given a name without a street type designation, such as Broadway or The Mall. A street name can also include a direction (the cardinal points east, west, north, south, or the quadrants NW, NE, SW, SE) especially in cities with a grid-numbering system. Examples include “E Roosevelt Boulevard” and “14th Street NW”. These directions are often (though not always) used to differentiate two sections of a street. Other qualifiers may be used for that purpose as well. Examples: upper/lower, old/new, or adding “extension”. “Main Street” and “High Street” are common names for the major road in the middle of a shopping area in the United States and the United Kingdom, respectively. The most common street name in the US is “2nd” or “Second”.
