Ireland’s Housing Name Game

Try Kingsbry in Maynooth (and yes, I have spelt it correctly). Originally conceived and permission obtained by a developer called “King”, hence the megalomaniac name of the estate.

Out of these ten, I’d guess 99% of Ireland knows at least one….or lives in one!!!

Willow Park
Grove Park
Pinewood
The Fairways
The Elms
Oak Park
The Copings
Shrewsbury
Ailesbury (Yes there is more than one!!!)
The Copse

Irish placenames seem to have no ‘place’ in modern suburbia… 🙁

A shoddy heap of steaming Tudoresque has gone up near me entitled ‘The Loaker’

What in the name of holy mother of God is a loaker?

Image having to say I live at no 3 The Loakers!

If it meant sleeping on the street, I would’nt live there.

There is an estate in south Dublin called Farmleigh. A new development 2 miles away was to be called Fernleigh. After objections they renamed the new estate but used the name Fernleigh in another new development a few miles further away.

If that is as creative they can get with naming houses how can we expect them to be capable of designing creative buildings.

Monaghan has a few tree estates

Ash Grove
Elm Grove
Beech Grove

Not an English Home Counties wannabe name, but I just love “Cyber Plains” in Leixlip

Originally posted by garethace

Old council estates, always freedom fighters etc.

Or in Mullingar, Dalton Park afer Cardinal Dalton.

Council estates in Dundalk – I there’s about 3 Pearse Parks.

I said Loaker earlier on – I meant Loakers – which is even worse.

I looked it up in the dictionary – theres no such word!

Buried deep in the minutes of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council’s Transportation committee minutes from 2001, you will find a proposal that the (then still to be constructed) LUAS bridge in Dundrum should be named the “Blessed Abbot Marmion Bridge”

That never came to pass, but not to be denied, whoever proposed the name had a second try – and the new bridge constructed to carry the Ballinteer Road over the Dundrum Bypass now has a plaque naming it as “Don Marmion Bridge”

But back on the original thread of common names, there seem to be Grange Roads everywhere.

Gabriel

Don’t forget “The Brambles”, which of course were bulldozed out.

How about Coolock’s ‘Moonwalk’ streets (presumably built in 1969 or thereabouts) –

Armstrong Walk,

Aldrin Walk,

Tranquility Grove (after The Sea Of).

I’m sure there are more…

in EL ARCHITINOs home city. there are may EL ARCHITINO grand boulevards

do you have these in ireland?

What about naming roads after politicians such as Oscar Traynor Road in Coolock or Tom Bellew Road in Dundalk? Could anyone tell me who Oscar Traynor was? I gather that he was a minister.

Does anyone not yet know that the most-stolen signpost in England is the one in Kent indicating the way to the villages of

Ham
Sandwich

what about some of the maritime related names:

Here is a few from Dun Laoghaire:
Clearwater Cove (which overlooks the Coal Harbour)
Marina View
The Anchorage

Or the renaming of Stack A to CHQ
(What does CHQ stand for?)

Customs House Quay. More informative name than Stack A, I’d contend.

Thanks for that. I would think it is because keeping the name ‘Stack A’ would not really have fitted in with the whole upmarket shopping image that it is going for. I think alot can be told by the renaming of either a building or a street.

Being told aged twleve that I couldn’t post leaflets in a street in Harolds cross because it was a private road called corporation place

The famous definition of a housing estate. A place where they cut the trees down and then name the streets after them.

There is a subhurb in Sydney called Killarney Heights where many of the streets have Irish names Donegal Road, Galway Avenue, Shamrock Parade etc. – I kid you not.

Half of North London is either named after trees or Irish people or towns; I looked at a place on Ranelagh Road W5recently and in comparison to its namesake it was poor!!!

Then you have all those housing estates littered throughout the country called Kennedy Park, or similar.

One thing I find rather annoying is the name of my local Luas stop; Blackhorse. It’s named after the Black Horse Inn, which is fine, as it has always been a major landmark for people driving in from the Naas Road, but changing it to a single word gives the impression that someone thought a name that sounds like a London Underground station might be less ‘common’. Besides, there’s already a Blackhorse Avenue at the other side of the city.

I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before a Blackhorse Court apartment building makes an appearance.

[align=center:28xxtapc]The Irish Housing Estate Name Generator.

Building a new development, but don't want to wear out your brain inventing an original or relevant name?

At long last YOU can name an Irish housing estate the same way the professionals do!

How it works: 1. Choose a random word from Column A
2. Choose a random word from Column B
3. You're Done!

Column A

Rock
Pine
St. Patrick's
Wood
Grange
River
Elm
Pearse
Forest
Oak
Stone
Grove
Fair
Brehon
St. Joseph's
Rath
Glen
Dun
Beech
Brook
Maple
King's
Meadow
Hill
Bally
Summer
Castle
Copse
Old
Bel
Wheat
Cherry
Ard
Mount
Clover
Fox
Spring
Willow
Carrig
Ross
Kil
South
Farm
Abbey
Temple

Column B

View
Hall
Field
Brook
Court
Valley
Gate
Meadows
Well
Wood
Villas
Hill
Abhainn
Park
Grange
Mews
Cross
Gardens
Quay
Ford
Downs
Heights
Lawns
Side
Dale
Boro
Vale
Mere
Mount
Manor
Orchard
Ville
More
Grove
Glen
Green
Lodge
Bawn
Square
Cottages
Abbey
Point
Ross
Leigh
Roan

Examples: Maple Lawns, Castlewood etc.
If your estate requires a 3 word name simply choose 3 words and join the first 2 together e.g Riverwood Court, Willowpark Grove etc.

Congrat, you're ready to pave over the countryside![/align:28xxtapc]

Brilliant scheme indeed Mr Jackwade, though not without its faults

If your estate requires a 3 word name simply choose 3 words and join the first 2 together e.g Riverwood Court, Willowpark Grove etc.

Eg. St Patrick’sSt Joseph’sboro
Glenbally Glen.

No-one seems to have mentioned the Irish names which are just as crappily pieced together. A development in my locality is called Páirc na gCapaill even though the previous owner of the land tells us that there has been nothing but tillage on the land for the past twenty years. The main reason I don’t like them is because they seem far too fabricated, despite their attempt to be more ‘authentic’ than the more anglicised placenames

Street name in Dungarvan in an area known locally as Lands End – wait for it Finister Lawn

@David Chambers wrote:

Could anyone tell me who Oscar Traynor was? I gather that he was a minister.

He was among our nation’s founders, and a good foreign games man to boot. Read some books.

http://www.politics.ie/wiki/index.php?title=Oscar_Traynor

I believe I won the Oscar traynor Cup aged 10 or 11 in the North Dublin League. I thought it was named after the road, unaware of the man himself. Well at that age!

A long-established plant nursery outside Kenmare became known to all and sundry locally as “The Glasshouses.” When the inevitable sale and redevelopment came about, the new address became “Pairc na Gloinne” (“the park of glass” for the non-gaelgoiri.)

Other gems are Orchard Grove Court, and at Sneem one called Atlantic Gateway, not within an ass’ roar of the sea, let alone the Atlantic, and built facing a mountain.
KB2

@KerryBog2 wrote:

…and at Sneem one called Atlantic Gateway, not within an ass’ roar of the sea, let alone the Atlantic, and built facing a mountain.

@The Urban Forum wrote:

Urban Forum Calls For Review of the National Spatial Strategy

Greater Dublin will soon occupy the same surface area as Los Angeles, but with less than a quarter of its population, the Urban Forum warned today (Tuesday, 13 February 2007). In this context, the Forum is calling on whoever forms the next Government to develop a review of the National Spatial Strategy with the central objective of developing the Atlantic Gateway to counter-balance Dublin.

Looks like the canny folk of the Kingdom are one step ahead of The Planners Up In Dublin yet again. 🙂

(From here: http://www.riai.ie/index.html?id=7219)

*** *** ***

Strange that the ‘surname’ of my road doesn’t feature on the list posted by jackwade – the oh-so-suburban Close – though the first half is present and correct.

@KerryBog2 wrote:

A long-established plant nursery outside Kenmare became known to all and sundry locally as “The Glasshouses.” When the inevitable sale and redevelopment came about, the new address became “Pairc na Gloinne” (“the park of glass” for the non-gaelgoiri.)

Other gems are Orchard Grove Court, and at Sneem one called Atlantic Gateway, not within an ass’ roar of the sea, let alone the Atlantic, and built facing a mountain.
KB2

Did it even have a gate?

I do remember my Irish teacher rambling on about some inaccurate or downright wrong translations of english language placenames. I cant remember exactly the examples he gave us, but one was something like there being a field called Littlerock and it was changed into ‘An Carraigín’, which is the word for carrageen moss.

@PTB wrote:

…….a field called Littlerock and it was changed into ‘An Carraigín’, which is the word for carrageen moss.

I think it would be stretching it a bit to limit An Carraigin just to the moss. Even better than that is the way the French have appropriated it. Anglicized as carrigeen, it is used as a thickening ingredient in yoghurt. Dannone print it in French as “carrighene,” complete with accent.:confused:

Does anyone know if the craze for Italian names (Sorrento,Vico, Torca, etc.) in Dalkey created any furore in the 1800’s?? I
While I think of it, Barnhill is a big contributor in Dalkey, also with its Gaelic derrivative, Saval.
KB2

The roads in 1930’s Crumlin are called after monastic related ‘stuff’ for want of a better explination. All except for Captains Road.

Drimnagh are named after Mountains.

My own Ravensdale Drive is named after one of the many mills which once lined the banks of the poddle river, along with Larkfield Road….

The estates up in Templeogue are named after local houses eg Orwell, Rossmore, Kennington, Osprey, all of which can be traced back a long way according to Handcocks history of Templeogue / Tallaght.

Wellington Lane (templeogue) is named after the Duke of wellington, however Willington was a variation on that due to some of the locals being very anti british… Similar to the case of part of Exchequar street being renamed to Wicklow street to increase rents…. (correct me on that please Ive only half heard the story)…

The liberties comes from Henry the 8th granting the people from this area the LIBERTY to trade both inside and outside the pale, while not paying the taxes of the pale…

A very interesting one is whitehall road in Terenure…. The irish on the road is ‘Bóthar na Racadair’ (recorders road),,,,, a small little extension to the road into the old kimmage manor was then named ‘The Recorders’…

There are so so many more around my area its a list i muct compile!

Not all house names in Dublin are unoriginal.
There’s a house in Clonskeagh called “Muff”.

One end of the mews lane behind Beresford Place, Dublin 1, reads “Frenchman’s Lane” and the other end reads “Frenchmen’s Lane”.

@Devin wrote:

One end of the mews lane behind Beresford Place, Dublin 1, reads “Frenchman’s Lane” and the other end reads “Frenchmen’s Lane”.

there is no plural or possessive version of “frenchmen” so the latter is obviously a typo or the result of a moron making signs.

@Devin wrote:

One end of the mews lane behind Beresford Place, Dublin 1, reads “Frenchman’s Lane” and the other end reads “Frenchmen’s Lane”.

The old street directories always give it as Frenchman’s Lane
Kb