How a street is named

To name a street, proposals are submitted to the local council and, eventually, go before the local community board for final approval. Developers cannot use existing street names or name streets after themselves. Short streets cannot have a name that will not fit on the map – although this rule appears to have been relaxed for Cashmere’s tiny Torvill and Dean Lane.

Many names celebrate the country’s royal connections, early settlers, famous writers, poets families and developers or mark war heroes.

Old family pets can sometimes make the cut, as was the case for Westmorland’s Briar’s Track, where a much-loved family dog walked the accessway daily until its death in 2001.

So too can animals, such as Heron, Kea, Peacock, Tui and Penguin streets; Bellbird, Bluebell, Phoenix, Kingfisher and Gazelle lanes; Stallion Ave, Swanns Rd and Takahe Drive.

Changing the name of an established street requires 85 per cent approval from its residents, a dilemma for those bothered by the typo on Woolston’s Edmond St.

A Christchurch City Council spokeswoman said it was not clear what the oldest street name in the city was, but Antigua, Barbadoes, Cashel, Gloucester, Salisbury, Tuam and St Asaph streets, and Cambridge Tce and Cranmer Square were recorded as ‘‘the original streets’’.

Newer streets, built in subdivisions, were generally themed, she said.