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Hauptstraße, Schulstraße and Gartenstraße are the most common street names

Here the name (hopefully) says it all.

When it comes to street names, Germans aren't exactly creative. If you search for the most common street names, Hauptstraße, Schulstraße and Gartenstraße are right at the front. In contrast to the rather boring names, however, unusual street names do not always make it easy for the residents: Mafia street or the beatings path are certainly often topics of conversation.

Ranking list with the most frequent street names

Do you live on Hauptstrasse, like many others? She is represented in the ranking as the lone leader 6,325 times. This is followed by Schulstrasse, Gartenstrasse, Bahnhofstrasse, Dorfstrasse and Bergstrasse. With 1.2 million streets in Germany, creativity is certainly not that easy, especially since new streets, paths, alleys and squares are added every day. These rather unimaginative names are followed by the classics: poets, musicians, flora and fauna. The most popular people in street names are undisputed Schiller (2,134 times) and Goethe (2,021 times). Among the musicians, Bach (1,418 times), Mozart (1,395 times) and Beethoven (1,251 times) are among the favorites.

Plants are extremely popular. Number 1 is Birkenweg (3,107 times), followed by Lindenstraße (2,907 times) and Buchenweg (1,922 times). The front runner when it comes to flowers is the rose: There are 1,629 Rosenstrasse and Rosenweg 1,378. Incidentally, plants are much more popular than animals. And here it is noticeable that there are almost only birds: Blackbird, finch, lark, thrush and tit are most often named after.

Schlossallee and Poststrasse

Incidentally, some good friends from the Monopoly game also appear in the rankings, be it Poststraße, Lessingstraße, Schillerstraße, Goethestraße, Hauptstraße or Bahnhofstraße. The coveted Schloßallee is less represented. Incidentally, it is controversial whether the name always says something about the value of the residential area.

In addition to the most common street names, there are a number of funny names - whether braking distance, slide or whipping path. After all, it is easier for residents to fill out forms than residents of the street with the longest name: This is Bischöflich-Geistlicher-Rat-Josef-Zinnbauer-Straße in Dingolfing. Here, however, the "common" abbreviation "BGR" for Episcopal-Spiritual Council comes into play. If no abbreviations are taken into account, the road “Staatswald Distrikt 13 Huchenf. and Reichenb. Nagoldhalde ”the field unchallenged. The shortest street names are really surprising: "A" to "F". These streets exist in Elstertrebnitz.

What about our neighbors in Austria?

The Austrians are not much more creative when it comes to assigning street names. There the top five are Hauptstraße (588 times), Feldgasse (450 times), Bahnhofsstraße (369 times), Kirchgasse (335 times) and Schulgasse (307 times). By the way, Monopoly comes into play again with Hauptstrasse and Bahnhofstrasse. The sister of the Schloßallee, the "Schloßstraße", is represented here a total of 16 times.

When they do get creative, the Austrians look to nature or to artists: So it goes from “Am Hang” (56 times) to “Südhang” (28 times) to “Am Berg” (74 times) and "Vineyard" (46). As in Germany, the famous Austrian artist Mozart is used as the namesake. This then extends from “Mozartstrasse” (72 times) through “Mozartgasse” (62 times) to “Mozartweg” (18 times) and “Mozartplatz” (6 times). Taken together, Mozart lands in thirtieth place in the list of all streets. The “Glück-Auf-Straße” or the “3-houses-street” should be mentioned as rather funny examples.

Place names from Oed to Schabernack

Have you ever ended up in the wrong Neustadt? No wonder! Neustadt is the most common place name in Germany - from Schleswig-Holstein to Bavaria this city name is used 18 times. Followed by Hausen (11 times) and Buchholz (10 times). Cities like Oberhausen are not represented once in Germany either, but 6 times. In the districts, "Berg" is at the top of the ranking with 92 times - as the name suggests. Followed by the counterpart below: "Grub" is available 78 times. Although it doesn't sound very promising, the district “Oed” can be found 40 times in Germany - not to be confused with “Öd”, which exists 35 times. You'd rather live in Lachen, Witzighausen or Schabernack instead of Oberhäslich and Deppendorf.

With the most common place names, the Austrians are rather boring with a few exceptions such as “Übelback” or “Überackern”. What is striking, however, is that they like to orientate themselves towards saints. For example, “Sankt Georgen” is available in a wide variety of variations such as “St. Georgen am Reith” or “Sankt Georg am Längsee ”are available. There are a total of 90 cities that begin with “Sankt” or “St.”. In the districts, “An” is at the top with 41 times. Followed by “Moos” (38 times) or “Grub” (36 times). Instead of living in such standard districts, people prefer to live in “Pfaffendorf” or “Poppendorf”.

Dr. Tore Grünert Team Porträt
We use address directories from many different sources in order to carry out geocoding in many countries with TransIT as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Dr. Tore Grünert

Who gives the names?

This is a matter for the municipalities and district councils. When a new road is built, every citizen can make suggestions. The community representatives decide on the name. By the way, some small towns have no street names, the houses are simply numbered. Even islands like the little Baltrum have no street names - but at 6.5 square kilometers you can find the house you are looking for.

Geocoding

“We use address directories from many different sources for the TransIT route planning software in order to carry out geocoding in many countries with TransIT as efficiently and as efficiently as possible. Almost every country has its own challenges - be it abbreviations, frequently occurring names that are almost identical, or very short or long street names. The biggest challenge, however, is to find the correct address in the database for misspelled addresses. To do this, we use methods of pattern recognition and artificial intelligence, ”explains Dr. Tore Grünert, managing partner of gts systems.

Are you looking for Raiffeisenstraße? There are 1,437 of them in Germany and 88 in Austria - but only 1 in Aachen. Here we would like to show you how we use the lists with all roads and places for geocoding, route evaluation and planning and route optimisation and we look forward to seeing you at Uersfeld 24 in 52072 Aachen.

The student Elias Heckt from Pius-Gymnasium Aachen compiled the facts about Austria during an internship at gts systems.

Hauptstraße, Schulstraße and Gartenstraße are the most common street names - gts systems
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