Should You Capitalize Street Names?
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Should You Capitalize Street Names?
Grammatically speaking, the names of streets and roads can get a little bit tricky. Do you know when to capitalize them?
If you aren’t sure, this short grammar post will give you helpful guidance.
Street Name Capitalization Rules
When we consider capitalizing the names of streets and roads, we separate them into two categories.
The first are the names of specific places, such as Second Street, Oak Drive, or Roosevelt Highway.
The second refers to regular, nonspecific nouns such as road and avenue.
This distinction is important because the first group, specific places, is made up of proper nouns that need to be capitalized. Regular nouns, the second group, do not need to be capitalized.
At first glance this can seem a bit confusing or contradictory. However, it’s easily cleared up with a few examples.
Examples of Street Name Capitalization
Tammy bought a house that’s located on Pinecone Circle.
I left my car parked just down the street.
There’s a great record store on Lincoln Avenue.
I’ve been down that road, and it doesn’t lead anywhere good.
The streets in that town are all lined with flowers and trees.
Can you see the difference? In instances where our road or street name refers to a specific place that is a proper title, all words within it (including words such as Road, Street, and Avenue) are capitalized. If you’re speaking of a nonspecific place, or of many roads or streets as a general category, the words don’t need to be capitalized.
Now that you understand this subject more, let’s test your knowledge!
Pop Quiz
Choose the proper form of each word in the sentences below.
1. I’ll never know how my cat made it all the way to Montgomery [Street / street].
2. There is something special about being on the open [Road / road].
3. Jamie couldn’t find Mountain View [Avenue / avenue] with his car’s GPS.
4. My favorite restaurant delivers only as far as Juniper [street / Street].
5. The [Streets / streets] were still wet from the afternoon rain when I was cycling home.
Pop Quiz Answers
1. I’ll never know how my cat made it all the way to Montgomery Street.
2. There is something special about being on the open road.
3. Jamie couldn’t find Mountain View Avenue with his car’s GPS.
4. My favorite restaurant only delivers as far as Juniper Street.
5. The streets were still wet from the afternoon rain when I was cycling home.
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Thank you for this post. My question is, does the capitalisation rule still apply when talking about several streets.
For example:
If my roads are Ruby Street and Long Street – how would I write this?
“At the junction of Ruby and Long Streets.”
“At the junction of Ruby and Long streets.”
We would follow the Chicago Manual of Style and write “Ruby and Long Streets.” The Associated Press Stylebook would lowercase the common noun elements of names in plural uses. CMOS tends to be preferred style for more-formal formats such as books, medical journals, and white papers, and AP tends to prevail in daily mass communications such as magazines, newspapers, and blogs.
Can you please comment on where this standard comes from? Is it stylistic, is it merely the opinion of grammarbook, or is this indeed universally correct? Where is the ultimate authority? I’ve found other sources that say this example would be correct: “At the junction of Ruby and Long streets.”
We assume you are referring to our reply of December 20, 2021, to Kate. The Chicago Manual of Style’s Rule 8.56 says, “The names of streets, avenues, squares, parks, and so forth are capitalized. The generic term is lowercased when used alone but capitalized when used as part of a plural name.” One example given is “Fifty-Seventh and Fifty-Fifth Streets.”
It seems that the Associated Press Stylebook would lowercase the common noun elements of names in plural uses. CMOS tends to be preferred style for more-formal formats such as books, medical journals, and white papers, and AP tends to prevail in daily mass communications such as magazines, newspapers, and blogs.
I wouldn’t capitalize “streets” in the example given because “Ruby and Long Streets” is not a proper noun. Either say Ruby Street and Long Street or Ruby and Long streets.
Please see our August 24, 2022, reply to Jacob.
Highway 20? Route 66? Highway 26? or highway 20, route 66, and highway 26?
Names of specific highways and routes are capitalized.
Highway 20
Route 66
Highway 26
I have a question about street addresses, for example, “25 Main Street.” Sometimes street addresses include the word “Number” before the numeral in the address, e.g., “Number 25 Main Street.” Often “Number” is redundant, but sometimes it’s needed to make clear that the numeral that follows is part of a street address. For example, in a text about the years in which houses on Main Street were built, the writer might discuss each house on Main Street separately. They would not need to repeat the full address for each house, instead writing, for example, “Number 25 was built in 1943.” From the context, it’s clear that the house being referred to is 25 Main Street. If the writer wrote “25 was built in 1927” (i.e., without the word “Number” before the numeral), it would be much less clear. When used this way, we expect “Number” to have initial caps. My question is why? (Of course, initial caps may be required if the address is at the beginning of a sentence, as many style guides advise against starting a sentence with numerals.)
If the word “Number” is part of the official address recognized by the local postal service, it should be capitalized.