Toponymy is the study of place names (toponyms), their origins, meanings, use, and typology.
One of my relatives lived on a street in Montreal called Campden Place. Looking on Google street map it looked odd, tucked in behind the Cote-Ste-Catherine Metro, like it was on a back alley instead of a main street. So I wanted to know more about it.
What I found out is this IS the back alley. The front of the houses open to a court yard accessed only by a foot path - no street.
It is apparently one of three streets in Côte des Neiges (with Beaminster Place and Bradford Place) making up what was then called Coxwold Village by the developer Terrace Construction in 1936.
The City of Montreal Heritage section on their site has a portal titled La Toponymie for looking up the names of streets and how they got their name. You can even suggest a street name here.
If your ancestors (or you) lived in Montreal you may want to check out this site... It is in French, and don't be fooled by the English link on the menu, as it takes you to a whole other place - but I found that a page translator works well (I open in Chrome and use Google Translator). This is what I learned about Campden Place.
Go to the Toponymy portal to search a street name, the page looks like this...
If you DO click on English in the menu it takes you to a page called: "Downtown moves Uptown - A Place Names Expedition". From there you click on TÉLÉCHARGER to download the English PDF, which tells the who and how of some street and place names in Montreal.
City of Montreal Topomyny
Submit a suggestion for a street name
Coxwold Village at Cultural Weekly
Related post: Postcard Address Mystery
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