Quote:
Originally Posted by animatedmartian
Well, hey, Detroit has French roots so of course a few Frenchmen needed some streets named after them.
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In fact, lots of ancient major streets are named after Catho saints like St Antoine that must be like a French-speaking version of Anthony or Antonio. I wouldn't bet that many of these religious characters were from France proper. For instance, St Augustin, a huge figure of early Christianity was actually born in what's currently Algeria in North Africa.
Just to say that Catholic religious customs are widely responsible for that branding / naming thing to the streets. You'll notice that Protestantism and later religious reformations partly broke that old tradition, taking it as some sort of idolatry, which is wiser IMHO.
Names like nth avenue/street are certainly much more consensual, but I think the French basically deeply despise consensus. It doesn't fit their concept of so called revolution. They probably find it boring and like rough debates and tough political controversies better. That's more entertaining to them.