Which name is better?

These 10 famous American streets had different names

Few things are more beloved by politicians than naming things—even when those things already have names. Streets, in particular, often become prime candidates for renaming. The following 10 examples showcase streets that have undergone such changes. Have you ever been to any of them?

Pershing Avenue in Indianapolis was formerly known as Bismarck Avenue. The name was changed during World War I because Bismarck was closely associated with Imperial Germany, which drew unwanted attention to the street. The new name honored the most renowned U.S. general of the war, General John J. Pershing.

There was no marker or other indication of Pershing Avenue’s former name until the 1990s, when two city councilors pushed for recognition of the original name.

In 1984, 125th Street in New York City was co-named Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to honor the civil rights leader. 125th Street is one of the most famous streets in Harlem, known for its deep ties to political activism and cultural life, featuring landmarks such as the Apollo Theater.

Until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Grant Avenue was known as Du Pont Street. After the city was rebuilt, the street was widened and renamed in honor of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States. Grant Avenue is now one of the most iconic streets in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Today, the intersection of Grant Avenue and Bush Street marks the southern entrance to Chinatown. Grant Avenue is still written and said in Chinese as "Du Pon Gai" (Du Pont Street).

The second San Francisco entry on our list dates back to 1988, when city officials chose to honor the writer Dashiell Hammett on a street where he had actually lived. The former Monroe Street is a short, one-block road that begins at Pine Street and slopes steeply downhill to Bush Street. Today, the street signs read "Dashiell Hammett Place."

Atlanta’s former Boulevard was renamed Monroe Drive in honor of the Monroe Landscaping Company, which enhanced the area with extensive plantings that contributed to its beauty. Apparently, if you do a good job, you might just get a street named after you.

Another New York street on our list is the famous Broadway Avenue, which was originally called Heeren Wegh by the Dutch until the early 1700s. It was renamed Broadway due to its great width compared to other streets in early New York.

New York City has a habit of renaming its streets. In Harlem, Lenox Avenue—originally named after philanthropist James Lenox—was co-named Malcolm X Boulevard in 1987 to honor the prominent civil rights activist.

Philadelphia’s Market Street was originally called High Street but was renamed in 1754 because of the many shops and markets located there. This is one example of a common reason for street name changes.

Brooklyn Avenue was a major street in East Los Angeles, historically home to Jewish, Japanese, and later Mexican American communities. Over time, the area became a center for Latino culture and activism.

In 1994, the street was renamed Cesar E. Chavez Avenue to honor the civil rights leader and farmworker advocate. The change reflected Chavez’s deep connection to the Latino community in East L.A.

In New Orleans, St. Charles Avenue wasn’t always known by that name. In the early 1800s, parts of it were called Nyades Street, a name that reflected the city’s blend of French and Spanish influences.

As the city expanded and urban planning took shape, Nyades was renamed St. Charles Avenue, honoring Charles Borromeo, a Catholic saint.

Color me intrigued

Before the pantone: 10 color shades with old names

Colors come in a multitude of shades, most of them with a very specific name. Some of these names are a reference to a common object of that color —for example, ruby, maize, or lavender— while others, much more modern, are just a product of marketing, popular use, or just imagination —such as razzle dazzle rose, school bus yellow, or French blue. But some specific shade names have a story that goes back centuries, across different cultures and traditions. Here are ten color shades and the history behind their name.

This vibrant red-orange shade takes its name from an ancient pigment, highly toxic, made from cinnabar, a form of mercury. Its name comes from the Old French vermeillon, derived from vermiculus, a diminutive of the Latin vermis (‘worm’). What did this toxic pigment have to do with worms? An insect called Kermes vermilio was used to make a natural dye in a similar shade, but much more common than cinnabar, so its name became popular and was used for all similar red-orange shades.

Described as a shade that goes from light-brown to brownish-orange, tawny is associated with tanned leather, not only in color but in the origin of its name. Celts used tannum or crushed oak bark to treat animal hides and produce leather. Though Latin, this word made its way into Old French as tauné, ‘tan leather colored’, and then into English.

With a name that alludes to the sea, the origin of this deep blue shade seems to be quite straightforward, except it isn’t. Ultramarine blue takes its name from the Ultramarine pigment, made from grinding lapis lazuli stone. This pigment, as costly as gold, was imported from Afghanistan by Venetian merchants, who called it (azzurro) oltramarino or ‘(blue) from beyond the sea’.

Now described as cream or grayish yellow, ecru was initially used to describe the color of unbleached linen. Before bleached into a creamy white color, linen would retain the color of the dried flax fibers used to weave it. The French word écru, meaning ‘raw’ or ‘unbleached’, initially served as a mere descriptor of the fabric's state, but was eventually associated with its color.

To no one’s surprise, the name of this blueish-green shade comes from French. But although its French equivalent, vert-de-gris, means ‘green of gray’, there is no gray in its origin. There are two possible origins for this name: the first one is vert d'aigre or ‘green made with vinegar’, because a pigment of this name was made using copper and vinegar. The second one ties this shade to art objects imported from Greece, which gave way to the name vert-de-Grèce, ‘green of Greece’.

Indigo is used to describe a variety of blue shades, from the dark blue in the rainbow to various blue hues that can be achieved using indigo dye. Originally, the term indigo, from the Latin indicum (‘Indian’), was specifically used for a pigment made from the Indigofera plant and exported from India. Later on, the term became synonymous with the various blue shades resulting from that dye.

Nowadays, we automatically associate the color sepia with old photographs, but did you know its name and hue come from a fish? In ancient Greece and Rome, the ink of the sepia cuttlefish was used for writing, and it remained a commonly used drawing ink up until the early 19th century, when it started being used for watercolors and oil paints.

This one is tricky. As a color, auburn is a shade of brown, though it is often used to describe a specific type of red hair that has a mixture of red and brown tones. The term auburn, however, has nothing to do with red nor with brown. It comes from the French alborne, derived from the Latin alburnus or ‘off-white’, and it was used for blond people. How did it come to mean reddish-brown? Auburn and brown sounded similar.

Technically, there is no color named purpura in modern English, but there used to be. Made from crushed sea snails, the purpura dye was extremely expensive, and it became associated with royalty. Originally called porphura by the Greeks, the word was latinized as purpura, and was later adopted into English as purpul, from where we get the modern ‘purple’. So, while purpura is the original purple, it is nowadays called Tyrian or royal purple to avoid confusion.

This reddish-orange shade gets its name from the jasper, a semiprecious quartz known for having a pattern. The name ‘jasper’ comes from the Greek iaspis, meaning ‘spotted or speckled stone’. While there are multiple colors of jasper stones, the most common one is red, so the name of the stone became synonymous with that shade.