[Talk-ca] Saints in street names in Ontario

[Jarek Piórkowski]

On Fri, 15 Mar 2019 at 13:02, Nate Wessel <bike756 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Don't forget about the various alternative naming tags like alt_name=*, short_name=*, loc_name=*, and also name:etymology=* to make things absolutely clear.
>
> Having either spelling in one of these alternatives as appropriate would likely satisfy any dissenters and make both the full and abbreviated name searchable.

Certainly, but my message is to suggest that "St. Clair Avenue West"
_is_ the full name. We could set up an "expanded name" tag I suppose?

Etymology wise, Wikipedia, citing (as far as I can tell) local
historians, suggests that St. Clair Avenue is named after Augustine
St. Clare, a character in Uncle Tom's Cabin, and the book spells the
last name "St. Clare", never expanded to "Saint".

In any case, suggesting etymology as being decisive for names seems to
me problematic in many ways, especially in Canada where we've
adopted/mangled many names and phrases from other languages.

Thanks,
--Jarek