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Dear Yahoo!:
What is the most common road name in the world?
Brion
Dear Brion:

Alas, we searched high and low, but couldn't determine the most popular street name in the world. We suspect that, like the most common surname in the world, the street name in question is Chinese. However, we did manage to find the most popular street name in the United States.

According to this 1996 NPR piece, the most popular U.S. street names are (in order):

Second, Third, First, Fourth, Park, Fifth, Main, Sixth, Oak, Seventh, Pine, Maple, Cedar, Eighth, Elm, View, Washington, Ninth, Lake, and Hill
Why is Second at the top of the list? Many towns prefer to give their first, or "main" street, a proper name.

As for the United Kingdom, the most popular road name is High Street. This isn't surprising, since High Street is the U.K. equivalent of Main Street. Other names making the top 50 include Pie Corner, Egg Lane, and plenty of royal monikers.

Chances are there's a directory of local street name origins in your city. We found some great online references for the Bronx, Liverpool, and Paris. We also enjoyed this pithy history of street naming in America by Lawrence Kestenbaum.

 
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