NYC Honorary Street Names

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2021-05-30 22:00:06

Honorary or secondary street names, also called co-names or honorific names, can be found on hundreds of street signs throughout the five boroughs. Often they are immediately above or below the primary street-name sign. These designations can apply to a portion of a street, to an intersection, or to a corner.

A few of these signs bear names that most adult Americans would recognize: George Gershwin, Willie Mays, Humphrey Bogart. However, the great majority of them honor people or organizations of special significance to a particular community or neighborhood. A tragically large number, about a fifth of the total, commemorate people who died in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Under Local Law 28 of 1992, honorary street names do not require an alteration to the City Map, which can be a costly legal and bureaucratic procedure. But such names are official. Each name must be authorized in a bill that must be enacted by the City Council and signed by the Mayor. Each approved bill then becomes a "Local Law" (L.L.), which is referenced by year and by a sequential L.L. number within that year. Honorary names are also given to parks and to specific facilities within parks. Such names can be enacted by the City Council, in the same manner as street names, but they can also be chosen by the Commissioner of Parks.

The following listings cover all honorary names adopted since L.L. 28 of 1992. In the near future, we plan to add co-names authorized in earlier years.