In the town where I live now, they started with alphabetical streets, but
later gave them names of pioneers, keeping the first letters in order.
Adams, Baker, Cowls, Davis, Evans, Ford, Galloway, Hembree, Irvine -- and
so forth.
Later developments used different naming plans -- developers' names and their kids, trees, flowers, famous golf courses. There seems to be no rules, as long as the city council approves.
When Warsaw was rebuilt after WWII (98% destruction), some of the streets/squares kept their old names, and some got new ones (especially if a street no longer followed the path of a pre-war one). Some of the new ones were re-named when I was 7 (change in the political climate) and re-named again in '89 (another change in political climate <g>). But that was downtown.
When Warsaw started spreading outwards, the city planners decided to use names which would be "palatable" to everyone, forever after, for the new "settlements"/districts/quarters (whatever it's called in English). So, I have a friend who used to live on "Szekspira" (Shakespeare's) -- all the streets in his area used names of writers. I have a friend who lives on "Wodzirejow" (dance leaders'), corner of "Poleczki" (polka's) -- all the streets there are named after dances. Another lives on "Skrzypcowa" (violin's) -- all the streets in her area -- adjacent to the "dancing" one -- are named after instruments and composers. In the area around the road leading to the airport ("Zwirki i Wigury"), the streets are named after aviators and airplanes so he lives on "Lindbergha" (Lindbergh's). Etc.
Makes it quite easy, in general, to tell from an address in just which part of the city someone lives. But there are exceptions; people who live in the "music" settlement have never forgiven downtown for pre-empting "Szopena" (Chopin's)... :)
---- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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