By David Butterfield

You know where you are with a British street name. I dont mean literally. I mean theres a tacit humility to our islands street names： They are short， simple and unpretentious.2

Our street names are soundest away from the city.3 The High Street is thriving： Its the commonest name in England and Wales， while Main Street leads the field in Scotland.4 Great Britain has some 3600 of the two. A “street” used to refer to a properly paved road， a practice imported by the Romans for their great connecting roads.5 Medieval journeymen stared in wonder at such “stone streets，” which flaunted a longforgotten technology.6

By the time of Henry I， streets were a protected brand： They should be wide enough for two carriages， or 16 knights on horseback.7 Roads were late coming： Shakespeare was the first to use the word. Its a happy fact that the City of London is so ancient as to have no “Roads.” These age-old differences are fossilised8 in our language： there are 600 “The Streets，” but there is no “The Road.”

Given the antiquity of the parish church， its understandable that there are more Church Lanes than Church Streets or Roads， which number 5500 together.9 But second most common are the 2000 Station Roads， almost all of which appeared in the latter half of the 19th century. Add Mill and School to these dominant names， and you have some 14，000 streets—but still not even 2 per cent of the nations named roads.

Street-naming was for centuries the result of informal village vernacular； in urban communities， pragmatism pointed out civic features， business quarters and fartherflung directions.10 Take York， for instance. That rickety medieval street， The Shambles， actually reflects the“fleshammels，” the meat shelves； the quaint Blossom Street is a banalisation of Ploughswain Street.11 As for the bizarre12 Whipmawhopmagate， one of the nations shortest streets， it seems to mean “Neither-one-thing-nor-the-other-street.”Nineteenth-century urbanisation increasingly commemorated aristocratic landowners， parliamentarians worth their salt， and battles in which locals fell.13 Still， few individuals are widely recognised across the countrys streets： Victoria is much in the lead， followed by Albert， Alexandra and Edward. More pointedly timeless are the myriad King and Queen Streets.14

New roads in the 20th century preferred to honour developers. But in the 21st century we are beset with councils and their wideeyed mission statements： Leyland boasts a Sustainability Way， Norwich a Friendship Road， Warrington a Sunset Boulevard.15 For no-nonsense Scots， Loanheads Costkea Way frames for all time the shopping prospects of Costco and Ikea.16 Modern developments are mere guesswork.17 The Cherries and The Normans （Slough） sound like forgotten barbershop ensembles of the late 1960s； Mango Place and Coconut Grove （Salford） are just unsuitable.18

The history preserved by street names is substantial19 and worthy of pride； it is sufficient to say that the commonest street name in America is “2nd.” But some questions remain unanswered： Why are there so many more West Streets than East？

1. unpretentious： 不矯揉造作的，謙遜的。

2. 我想說的是，我們國家的街道名都有一種低調(diào)的謙遜，具備三個(gè)特點(diǎn)：短小、簡單、不做作。tacit：默認(rèn)的，不言而喻的；humility： 謙遜。

3. 我們的街道名和城市幾乎毫無關(guān)系。 sound： 充分的，徹底的。

4. 叫“高街”的街道有很多：它在英格蘭和威爾士最為常見，而在蘇格蘭，街道用得最多的名字是“主街”。

5.“街道”通常是指精心鋪設(shè)的道路，羅馬人最早使用了這種方式來建造他們的主干道。

6. in wonder： 驚訝地，驚奇地；flaunt： 夸示，炫耀。

7. carriage： 馬車；knight： 騎士。

8. fossilise： 使……成化石，此處指永久留存。

9. 考慮到牧區(qū)教堂悠久的歷史，我們便能很快理解為什么“教堂小巷”的數(shù)量要遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)多于“教堂街”和“教堂路”了，總共有5500個(gè)。antiquity： 久遠(yuǎn)的年代，古物；parish church： 牧區(qū)教堂。

10. 幾個(gè)世紀(jì)以來，給街道命名都深受非正式的鄉(xiāng)村方言的影響；實(shí)用主義理論則揭示了城市街道命名的三大特點(diǎn)：市民性、商業(yè)區(qū)的出現(xiàn)和廣泛的方向性。vernacular： 本地話，方言；pragmatism：實(shí)用主義；farther-flung： 廣泛的。

11. 破破爛爛的中世紀(jì)街道——謝姆伯街，事實(shí)上指的是“肉鋪街”；而古老的“花街”實(shí)則是“把犁人街”的一種庸俗化說法。rickety： 搖搖晃晃的，快散架的；fleshammel： 中世紀(jì)的肉類市場； banalisation： 庸俗化；ploughswain：把犁人。

12. bizarre： 古怪的。

13. 19世紀(jì)，隨著城市化的發(fā)展，道路名逐漸開始用于紀(jì)念貴族地主、值得尊敬的國會(huì)議員以及本國失敗的戰(zhàn)役。urbanisation： 城市化；commemorate： 紀(jì)念；aristocratic： 貴族的；parliamentarian：國會(huì)議員；worth sbs salt： 名副其實(shí)的，值得尊敬的。

14. pointedly： 明顯地，強(qiáng)調(diào)地；timeless： 經(jīng)久不衰，不受時(shí)間影響的；myriad： 極大數(shù)量的。

15. 然而，到了21世紀(jì)，道路名稱則充斥著委員會(huì)和他們雄心勃勃的宣告：萊蘭建設(shè)了一條“可持續(xù)大道”，諾里奇建設(shè)了一條“友誼大道”，而沃靈頓則建了一條“日落大道”。be beset with： 充滿；Leyland： 萊蘭，英國地名；Norwich： 諾里奇，英格蘭最古老的城鎮(zhèn)之一；Warrington：沃靈頓，英國地名；boulevard： 大道，林蔭大道。

16. 對(duì)于一本正經(jīng)的蘇格蘭人來說，倫黑德的科斯特基亞街一直以來都是倉儲(chǔ)量販店“好市多”和家具城“宜家”的經(jīng)營前景和方向。nononsense： 正經(jīng)的；Loanhead： 倫黑德，英國地名；prospect： 前景；Costco： 好市多，美國最大的連鎖會(huì)員制倉儲(chǔ)量販店；Ikea： 宜家，瑞典的全球知名的家具和家居零售商。

17. mere： 僅僅的；guesswork： 猜想，猜測。

18. 斯勞的“櫻桃路”和“諾曼人路”聽起來像20世紀(jì)60年代晚期已被遺忘的理發(fā)店名字的集合；而索爾福德的“芒果地路”和“椰子林路”則顯然完全不適合當(dāng)街道名使用。Slough： 斯勞，英國地名；barbershop： 理發(fā)店；ensemble： 集合，整體；coconut grove：椰子林；Salford： 索爾福德，英國地名。

19. substantial： 可觀的，數(shù)目巨大的。