Name game gets harder

By RACHEL STULTS and CHARLES BOOTH • Staff Writers • February 3, 2008
The Tennessean - Williamson A.M.

Here's a challenge: Pretend you're a developer and you need to come up with a name for your new Williamson County subdivision and its streets.

Maybe you're a football fan looking to pay homage to your favorite player with Manning Lane.

Perhaps you're a politico and can't wait for your residents to live on Ronald Reagan Road.

Or maybe you're thinking of all the calm afternoons on Placid Drive.

Sorry, you'll have to try again. Those names are already taken.

It's a challenge that developers are increasingly struggling with as a result of the county's explosive growth in recent years. Traditional names such as Main Street and Maple Drive were gobbled up long ago, forcing today's developers to be a little more creative. Sometimes it works, and sometimes their choices leave people scratching their heads.

All new subdivision and street names must be cleared through the county's emergency communications department, where Jennie Irwin, a 911 geo-coding coordinator, approves and compiles a database of the monikers. If a proposed name has already been used, it's out. If it's so long that it would slow dispatchers down when calling for help, it's out. And, Irwin said, if the name is just plain weird, it's out.

That's just development in Williamson County these days, she said.

"Even three years ago people were getting things approved I wouldn't touch now because things have boomed so much," Irwin said. "It's just build, build, build."

When plans for a 500-home golf course community called Stillwater came before county planning commissioners last month, audience members chuckled as a nearby resident noted the developer's plans for street names in the community.

"I do wonder what a developer from Ohio is thinking when he comes to a ridge in Middle Tennessee and names the streets Admirals Cove, Cape Cod, Palm Air Drive, Sandlefoot Cove, Bayshore Drive, Pelican Marsh, Oyster Bay and Ocean Reef," resident Mark Stewart wrote in a letter to planning commissioners.

But the developer may have been smart, Irwin said. The names may not fit a land-locked community, she said, but they haven't been used before.

That's why Irwin has been approving subdivision and street names that are a little more off the beaten path, such as Brentwood's proposed Halcyon Estates, Spring Hill's proposed Echelon and the county's proposed Chardonnay subdivision. Unusual street names recently registered with the county include Do Drop In Lane, Far Fara Way and Amicalola Falls Drive.

But how weird is too weird?

As developers hit a wall to come up with unique names, some are beginning to turn to other languages. Irwin recently received a long list of Italian street names that were hard to pronounce and spell. She said she threw the whole thing in the trash.

"There was no way even a child or somebody visiting could pronounce them," Irwin said. "People don't think about kids having to call 911."

"(A developer) said to me one day, 'You dispatchers think the sky is falling,' " Irwin said. "After I got off the phone I thought that, for a lot of people in Williamson County, every day the sky does fall. Their child quits breathing, their dad won't stop throwing up, their parents are fighting and they're hiding under the bed. Some (developers) just want to get a name for their development and they don't think about getting help there."

Names set tone
When trying to set a community apart and create an identity that will attract potential residents, striking the balance between overuse and originality can be frustrating, developers say.

They often hire surveying firms to deal with the name game, or sometimes pull in throngs of co-workers for brainstorming sessions.

When planning for Westhaven was under way, Southern Land Co. spokesman Jim Cheney was tasked with coming up with unique street names for the community. He drew his inspiration from his personal interest: literature. Soon, streets with names such as Kerouac, Tennyson and Yeats will be home to Westhaven residents.

"It gets challenging to be more original — you can't be so far out there and say 'Grapefruit Street,' but it all depends," Cheney said. "It ties into how developers are positioning themselves. You don't want a generic street name — it doesn't do you any good. You want something that sticks out and people will remember."

Sometimes, it simply takes a fond memory for inspiration to strike. That's what happened to Angie Faulker, with Remax Elite, when a developer asked her to name an upcoming subdivision in Brentwood. She picked Halcyon Estates.

"It's a funny thing. There is a restaurant in Crossville, Tenn., called Halcyon Days," she said. "It's one of my very favorite restaurants. We were talking with the owner one night. He came to the table and we asked him how he came up with the name Halcyon. He said it meant peaceful, tranquil, serene."

She remembered that word when she saw the location for the proposed development.

"The setting where our subdivision is going to be, it's just tucked away, tree-lined, a pond in the back with a barn. That was what came to mind."

The calming theme will run throughout the development, with streets getting names such as Placid.

Some can backfire
While some developers may have thought they were being creative, the choices aren't always popular with the people who have to live there.

Michael Swanton once owned a house on Pigskin Court, but no longer.

"I hated (the name)," he said. "I wasn't real happy about it. I talked to some of the neighbors about having the street name changed."

Swanton wasn't as big a football fan as the developer of his community, McLemore Farms, and he almost stayed away from the neighborhood because of its gridiron theme.

"I was hesitant to buy the house in the first place because of the name," he said.

Developer Donnie Cameron said he was struggling to come up with unique names for his Goose Creek community and, being a football fan, he thought it would be an appropriate way to solve his problem. Today, McLemore Farms residents live on streets such as Stadium Way, Manning Lane and, yes, Pigskin Court.

"I had somebody say they didn't like Pigskin Court, but some people really liked it," Cameron said. "Most people just found it really amusing."

Simplicity works
What's next?

Jennie Irwin says the growth boom over the past three years has put developers in a unique position. They're now mining the thesaurus looking for fresh words they hope will fly through the approval process.

Irwin anticipates the county will see a reversion back to simpler names. It will be tough to avoid overused words such as maple, oak and forest, but some developers are hitting upon concepts that are simple, yet creative.

In Traditions, a new Brentwood subdivision, developers have chosen street names such as Raindrop, Parade and Carnival.

"They're really simple, and they're good names," Irwin said.

So what streets might Williamson County residents be living on in 10 years?

"At the end of the day, it can be a little different and it can be out there," Cheney said. "But if it sounds cool and people gravitate toward it, then you can be successful."

Contact Rachel Stults at rstults@tennessean.com. Contact Charles Booth at cbooth@tennessean.com.