Caught up in the mood of the landings, Dublin Corporation broke with tradition and Armstrong Walk was born. A typical suburban road, its lunar moniker now seems something of an oddity. The whimsy didn’t stop there. Neighbouring Tranquillity Grove and Apollo Way followed in Armstrong’s footsteps, preserving a piece of 1960s nostalgia forever in the unlikely setting of Dublin 5.
For homeowners wondering what’s in a name, the answer could be thousands of euros when it comes to time to sell. From the lunar to the loony, misleading or grating names put potential buyers on their guard and can jeopardise a sale, according to estate agents.
Builders and estate agents have known this for years. “Naming an estate is now considered part of the overall marketing of a development,” says Gill O’Neill of Sherry FitzGerald. “A good name makes it all the easier to sell the idea that it’s a nice place to live.”
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, developers favoured grandiose titles to bestow an aura of gentility on schemes. Buyers were seduced and snapped up houses in the likes of Tiffany Downs in Cork, Windermere Villas in Limerick and Linton Hall in Kilkenny.
Ronan O’Driscoll of CB Hamilton Osborne King says: “In Dublin there was certainly a shift in the culture of naming estates three to five years ago. It wasn’t written in law, but authorities began to veto some of the more pompous names.
“In some cases, their decisions were for practical reasons — there are three Sycamore Avenues in Dublin already, for example — but in most cases, it was a matter of taste. Geographical or historical references were encouraged, so builders had to compromise.
“Today, when deciding on a name, we hire a local historian to draw up a list of names linked to the area’s heritage, and the developer will put forward their favourites to the local authority.”
The backlash against grander titles has continued. In Kilkenny, bylaws were passed last year to wrest the power to name new housing estates away from developers. Elected officials would, the council said, now be able to “stamp out cheap attempts at grandeur”.
In reality, a diminishing public appetite for living in a Windsor Heights or Cambridge Downs may have already taken care of the problem. In Kilkenny, Alderman Michael Lanigan admitted that giving places names beyond their station would simply embarrass residents in the future.
Kilkenny’s stand has been taken up by the Department of the Environment and Local Government, which has vowed to end what it calls Tuscany Downs syndrome.
The changing attitude towards bloated titles has caused some developers to return to the safe ground of nature. The 1950s and 1960s favourites — Birch Lawns, Maple Avenue and Beech Grove — have made a comeback in Dublin in recent years with schemes such as Larch Hill in Santry, Hollybrook in Foxrock and Woodview in Blackrock.
Religion and politics remain taboo topics, though. Republican figures, national heroes and well-known saints have consistently been ignored in recent years.
Estate agents say this has less to do with the changing political climate and more to do with links to local authority housing estates of the past. “Those names sound old-fashioned now, which is not the impression you want to create,” says O’Neill.
“Before launching a scheme, an estate agent and builder will sit down and come up with dozens of names. Some developers like Irish names but others do not. The key is to pick something that stands out but that has relevance to the area.”
The best-known example of an estate that got it wrong is Cyber Plains in Leixlip. Marketed as a high-tech development, each show house was fitted with a “computer studio” suitable for teleworking. In reality, though, the only real concession to technology was an extra phone line enabling residents to hook up to the internet.
The estate agent and builder may argue that the name was inspired — after all, the houses sold out in days — but within months a majority of residents had agreed to change its name to Rinawade.
The upwardly mobile residents of Ballymun Avenue did the same in the 1960s, when they changed their address to Glasnevin Avenue to dissociate themselves from new flats. They understood the importance of a name.
O’Driscoll says: “It’s impossible to put a monetary value on a good name, but a bad name is a sure way to discourage buyers.”
Move over sticks and stones. Names really can hurt you.
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