Recently, a Frisian municipality decided to use Frisian names for the localities and streets, in stead of their Dutch versions. (Frisian is a language that is spoken in the province Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands.)
In some cases, this means only a little change in the street type; so for example, ‘Van Sytzamaweg’ is changed to ‘Van Sytzamawei’. In other cases the resemblance is only knowledgeable for people who know both Dutch and Frisian: ‘Spreeuwenstraat’ is changed to ‘Protterstrjitte’.
Language preference issues like this form one of the reasons why streets or localities get a new name. There are also some other situations: sometimes people give a street a new name because they want to remember someone; sometimes it is the reverse: they want to forget the person who was in the old name. (more…)