Oldest (first born) People whose FULL name is used to Name a Local Street

[michravera]

For this one I'm not interested in the parts of East Asia where just about everyone has a three-syllable or three-ji name. For example, I'd not be interested in a street in Taipei named after me called "La Wei Na Lu" ("La Wei Na" is my Chinese name), nor in a street in the Piedmont name "Rua Ravera" (which, I believe actually exists and is basically a church driveway named after my Great Uncle). No, I'm interested the phenomenon, as my wife and I were discussing this afternoon, of naming a street with the FULL name of the person so honored (or at least the name by which they are usually known) that appears to have started at about the time that my wife was born. So, a street named after me called "Mich Ravera Road" rather than "Michael Angelo Ravera Blvd" is OK.

For instance, Memphis has a street called "Elvis Presley Blvd". This counts. "Presley Blvd" wouldn't count. It doesn't have to be "Elvis Aaron Presley Blvd".
San Francisco has a street that was renamed "Cesar Chavez Street". It previously had a different street named "Chavez Street" that did not.
The US is filled with "Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd"s. Those count.

Let's omit royalty unless their full name is used "Dianne Frances Spencer Windsor Way" counts, but "Lady Diana Way" doesn't.

As usual, the full name designation must appear on at least 36% of all written references (blades, BGSs, distance signs, guide signs, etc) or it doesn't count.

Someone with knowledge can also point up how this phenomenon got started. But, I'm looking for the oldest people so honored.

[1995hoo]

There's a Peyton Randolph Drive in Northern Virginia. He was born in September 1721.

I assume King David Boulevard (named for the biblical king) doesn't count.

Or do you mean the earliest road to be named using a person's full name?

[michravera]

There's a Peyton Randolph Drive in Northern Virginia. He was born in September 1721.

I assume King David Boulevard (named for the biblical king) doesn't count.

Or do you mean the earliest road to be named using a person's full name?

Yes. He would certainly count as being old. Was this done in Virginia in colonial times, road construction times, or my lifetime?

[1995hoo]

I don't know when the road was built, but I assume it was after World War II as the suburbs grew. froggie might know.

[US 89]

Atlanta would be Exhibit A for this. They have a huge number of streets that have been renamed with full names, usually of prominent civil rights figures, with no shorter option used. Things like Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway, Joseph E. Lowery Blvd, John Wesley Dobbs Ave, Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd, Ralph David Abernathy Blvd...

See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_Atlanta_street_names

[Mapmikey]

I don't know when the road was built, but I assume it was after World War II as the suburbs grew. froggie might know.

1951 aerial shows it.  The 1949 aerial shows a field.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Minneapolis:
Theodore Wirth Parkway (guy who spearheaded Minneapolis's world-class park system), designated 1938

[Big John]

Ponce de Leon Ave in Atlanta (born 15th Century)

[1995hoo]

A few more that occurred to me, all of which are named after people born later than Peyton Randolph (per my prior example) and omitting any named for Martin Luther King just because there are so many:

• In the same neighborhood as the aforementioned Peyton Randolph Drive, you can also find Patrick Henry Drive (born 1736) and John Marshall Drive (born 1755).
• Nearby, one of Arlington County's major arterials is George Mason Drive (born 1725).
• Also in Arlington is Walter Reed Drive (born 1851). He's better-known for the military hospital named for him in DC.
• VA-53 southeast of Charlottesville is named Thomas Jefferson Parkway (the road runs past Monticello). He was born in 1743.
• James Monroe Parkway splits off Thomas Jefferson Parkway and serves Monroe's residence at Ash Lawn. Monroe was born in 1758. (No doubt it rankles a far more recent former president that the road is not named after him instead, as the road also leads to the Trump Winery.)
• The Charlottesville-area road that was long planned as the "Meadowcreek Parkway" opened as the John W. Warner Parkway, named for the now-deceased US senator from Virginia (born 1927).
• The District of Columbia recently renamed Good Hope Road SE as Marion Barry Avenue SE (born 1936). It's the only road that's all it's cracked up to be.
• There is a residential street in a neighborhood not too far from mine named John Thomas Drive. I suspect it's named for a British politician given that it intersects Royal Patents Lane, but I can't help but snicker when I see the street sign because "John Thomas" is also British slang for "penis" (watch the scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life where the Protestant man talks about condoms if you want an example of that usage).

[WillWeaverRVA]

A few more that occurred to me, all of which are named after people born later than Peyton Randolph (per my prior example) and omitting any named for Martin Luther King just because there are so many:

• In the same neighborhood as the aforementioned Peyton Randolph Drive, you can also find Patrick Henry Drive (born 1736) and John Marshall Drive (born 1755).
• Nearby, one of Arlington County's major arterials is George Mason Drive (born 1725).
• Also in Arlington is Walter Reed Drive (born 1851). He's better-known for the military hospital named for him in DC.
• VA-53 southeast of Charlottesville is named Thomas Jefferson Parkway (the road runs past Monticello). He was born in 1743.
• James Monroe Parkway splits off Thomas Jefferson Parkway and serves Monroe's residence at Ash Lawn. Monroe was born in 1758. (No doubt it rankles a far more recent former president that the road is not named after him instead, as the road also leads to the Trump Winery.)
• The Charlottesville-area road that was long planned as the "Meadowcreek Parkway" opened as the John W. Warner Parkway, named for the now-deceased US senator from Virginia (born 1927).
• The District of Columbia recently renamed Good Hope Road SE as Marion Barry Avenue SE (born 1936). It's the only road that's all it's cracked up to be.
• There is a residential street in a neighborhood not too far from mine named John Thomas Drive. I suspect it's named for a British politician given that it intersects Royal Patents Lane, but I can't help but snicker when I see the street sign because "John Thomas" is also British slang for "penis" (watch the scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life where the Protestant man talks about condoms if you want an example of that usage).

VA 5 outside of Henrico County is John Tyler (Memorial) Highway (born 1790).

Pocahontas has a number of streets and roads named after her, though Pocahontas wasn't even her birth name - her birth name was Amonute or Matoaka. There are some streets named Matoaka or alternative spellings (such as in the area of Chesterfield County known as Matoaca). She was born in 1598.

A number of neighborhoods near Jamestown have VDOT-maintained streets named after Jamestown colonists, using their full names and no suffixes (Robert Hunt, William Bedford, etc). The most notable are Richard Buck, who was a minister in Jamestown who served as the first chaplain of what is now the Virginia General Assembly, born in 1582; and Robert Hunt, another minister who was born in 1568.

Thomas Gates, a former governor of the Virginia Colony, has a street named for him in Williamsburg (called simply "Thomas Gates" with no suffix), but his birth year is unknown. He may have been born before Robert Hunt, but he first appears in the historical record in 1585. This street isn't publicly accessible, though, as it's in the large gated (heh heh) community of Kingsmill just south of VA 199.

In the same neighborhood is a street simply named "John Ratcliffe" - he was born in 1549 and is certainly the oldest person in Virginia to have a street named after them.

While I was researching info for this post, I found that Stephen Hopkins was a merchant who lived in Jamestown for a while, then went back to England, and sailed back to North America on the Mayflower. A number of streets in Rhode Island and Massachusetts are named with his full name, and he was born before 1579.

[roadman65]

Ponce de Leon Ave in Atlanta (born 15th Century)

Be glad you're not on Rothman's list, or else he'd be pointing out that Ponce de Leon is a surname as his full name is Juan Ponce de Leon.

No issues from me, but if I posted that he would be on my post like flies to maple syrup. 

[Big John]

Ponce de Leon Ave in Atlanta (born 15th Century)

Be glad you're not on Rothman's list, or else he'd be pointing out that Ponce de Leon is a surname as his full name is Juan Ponce de Leon.

No issues from me, but if I posted that he would be on my post like flies to maple syrup. 

learned something new today. I thought Ponce was the first name.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Some Googling turned up Leif Erikson Drive in Astoria, Oregon (though all the street signs misspell the first name as "Lief"). Leif Erikson was born around 970.

[Bitmapped]

In rural areas, it's not uncommon to see roads that got their names based off someone who lived along the road. Often, they would go with the person who lived along the road the longest. Growing up in NE Ohio, we had friends who lived on Lastname Road, where the road was named after the guy's father because he had lived on it the longest.

On example that springs to mind with a Firstname Lastname Road is Ralph Livengood Road in Preston County, West Virginia. It was named after Ralph Livengood, who was born in 1904 and died in 1986. He is buried in a cemetery on Bruce Reckart Road, which also contains the grave of Bruce Reckart, born 1905.

[The Nature Boy]

I don't know when the road was built, but I assume it was after World War II as the suburbs grew. froggie might know.

Just ran a search through Newspapers.com and its first mention was 1950. I would bet that it was a post-WWII construction (unless it somehow avoided newspaper mention before then).

Do you get bonus points if the person has genuine ties to the state in question? In that case, I suspect the answer to this question would be somewhere that was colonized pretty early on - so either New England or Virginia/North Carolina. You could theoretically create a subdivision in Arizona where the road name theme is "early Americans" but it wouldn't feel as authentic.

There's also:

John Winthrop Street (born 1588) in Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Sir Walter Raleigh St. (born 1552) in Manteo, North Carolina

[1995hoo]

There is a street in Rome named after Marco Polo (born around 1254), although he was from Venice.

[oscar]

In California, the Junipero Serra Freeway (part of I-280). He was born in 1713. But technically not his full name, as the second part of his surname was "y Ferrer".

A decommissioned state highway, a major park, and other landmarks in San Diego are named for Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa (b. 1475). However, only "Balboa" is used in those place names.

[michravera]

In California, the Junipero Serra Freeway (part of I-280). He was born in 1713. But technically not his full name, as the second part of his surname was "y Ferrer".

A decommissioned state highway, a major park, and other landmarks in San Diego are named for Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa (b. 1475). However, only "Balboa" is used in those place names.

Most freeways are not of interest, since, first, they don't normally meet the 36% criterion, and, second, I specifically asked for local streets.

I will settle for some representation of the honoree's given names and one or more family names. "Kate Middleton" or "Diana Spencer" would be fine. But, it needs to be "Madonna Ciconne Drive" not just "Madonna Street" or "Ciconne Blvd".

[hbelkins]

In Kentucky, Tim Couch Pass (named after the UK player who was drafted by the expansion Cleveland Browns) connects to the Hal Rogers Parkway in Couch's home county of Leslie.

In my area, there's a road named Randa Smith Road. I remember Mr. Smith from my youth. We pronounced his name "Randy."

[gonealookin]

While there's nobody on this list born before 1900, the Palm Springs/Cathedral City/Rancho Mirage area has a number of local arterials named after celebrities who had a major connection to the area.

Fred Waring Drive (Fred was born in 1900)
Bob Hope Drive (1903)
Gene Autry Trail (1907) (yeah, the "Singing Cowboy" gets a "Trail" rather than a "Drive")
Gerald Ford Drive (1913)
Frank Sinatra Drive (1915)
Dinah Shore Drive (1916)

Of course Las Vegas also has quite a few of these (Frank Sinatra Drive, Dean Martin Drive, Jerry Tarkanian Way, Roy Horn Way and others).  For "oldest person so honored" you could have a separate category for places like the desert communities.

[Dirt Roads]

Charleston, West Virginia has one well-known contender along with some more obscure ones:

• John Wesley (noted Anglican evangelist, born 1703)
• Esther Stone Way (resident, born 1874)
• Camp Virgil Tate Road (Virgil Tate, dairy farmer and local 4-H benefactor, born 1896)
• Emery S. Fisher Lane (resident and tool factory worker, born 1918)
• Leon Sullivan Way (Baptist minister and notable civil rights leader, born 1929)
• Cleon Ferrell Drive (coal miner and WWII Navy gunner at Normandy Beach, born 1925)
• Angus E. Peyton Drive (State Commerce Commissioner, born 1927)
• Gus R. Douglass Lane (State Agriculture Commissioner, born 1927)
• John Norman Lane (famed cardiovascular surgeon and pioneer of the artificial heart, born 1929)
• Jim Derrick Lane (welder and Korean War paratrooper, born 1930)
• Danny Ray Lane (personal valet and emcee for James Brown, born 1933)
• Dan Slater Hollow (resident, still living, birthdate redacted)
• John Fouts Drive (local school bus driver and volunteer firefighter, born 1941)
• John Harper Lane (college professor, born 1946)
• Curtis Price Way (youngest college basketball coach at age 21, born about 1950)
• Zach Summers Lane (resident, killed in four wheeler accident at age 15, born 1988)

[CNGL-Leudimin]

In California, the Junipero Serra Freeway (part of I-280). He was born in 1713. But technically not his full name, as the his second part of his surname was "y Ferrer".

FTFY. Spanish people like me have two surnames . We don't use middle names as a result.

Precisely due to this, in Spain streets named after people usually omit the second surname, unless the first one is too common (like Garcia). More recently, though, some streets use the full name.

[kphoger]

In California, the Junipero Serra Freeway (part of I-280). He was born in 1713. But technically not his full name, as the his second part of his surname was "y Ferrer".

FTFY. Spanish people like me have two surnames . We don't use middle names as a result.

Precisely due to this, in Spain streets named after people usually omit the second surname, unless the first one is too common (like Garcia). More recently, though, some streets use the full name.

In Latin America, it's very common for people to have both a middle name and two surnames.

I used to have a Mexican roommate named Miguel Ángel Soto González, and a Peruvian roommate named Ronald Darwin Apaza Apaza (his parents had the same paternal surname, even though one was Aymara and the other was Quechua).

[NWI_Irish96]

Indianapolis has the Sam Jones Expressway.
Jeffersonville has Thomas V Bryant Dr.
Munster has Otis Bowen Dr and Richard S McClaughtry Jr Dr.
Chicago has Ida B Wells Dr and Bessie Coleman Dr

[1995hoo]

In California, the Junipero Serra Freeway (part of I-280). He was born in 1713. But technically not his full name, as the his second part of his surname was "y Ferrer".

FTFY. Spanish people like me have two surnames . We don't use middle names as a result.

Precisely due to this, in Spain streets named after people usually omit the second surname, unless the first one is too common (like Garcia). More recently, though, some streets use the full name.

In Latin America, it's very common for people to have both a middle name and two surnames.

I used to have a Mexican roommate named Miguel Ángel Soto González, and a Peruvian roommate named Ronald Darwin Apaza Apaza (his parents had the same paternal surname, even though one was Aymara and the other was Quechua).

Miranda Veracruz de la Jolla Cardinal!