This really doesn’t have anything to do with maps per se, but I think you’ll be interested in it anyway. Last week’s Los Angeles Times had a profile of John Trichak, whose job it is to approve all the proposed street names in Riverside County. No mean task in the fastest-growing county in the U.S.

Trichak has a few hard-and-fast rules. If the street is a cul-de-sac, for example, he requires that the name end with “Court” or “Circle.”

If a street within 10 miles has the same name as the proposed name of a new street, the proposed name is rejected. He recently threw out Cypress Drive because there is a Cypress Avenue nearby. He also rejected Merriman Drive because a Merrimac Court exists 6½ miles away.

“Everything is the same but one letter,” Trichak said, so if it was said in a hurry, it could be misunderstood.

And if the name doesn’t roll off Trichak’s tongue easily, then it probably won’t get a place on a map.

“If I can’t pronounce it, you can’t have it,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Via atlas(t).

See previous entry: LA Times: Maps Outpaced by Suburban Growth.