This would be a boring story if my name were 'Avenue'

Folks named "Main" or "Street" (there really are some) will not appreciate how thrilled I was to discover an actual paved road with my name on it.

I will now dedicate my life to riding my bicycle on Trentelman Place, a 400-foot ramble just off Scohon Drive in Central Saanich, a rural community north of Victoria, British Columbia.

I found Trentelman Place randomly cruising the Internet and figured it had to be named for a relative.

Trentelfolk are few. Counting grandchildren and spouses who adopted the name, there are 12 in my branch of the family. A few dozen others litter the United States. My German cousins spell it "Trentelmann." In Holland they spell it like I do.

There are others in Australia and South Africa. We're all descended from a pig farmer who lived near the current German-Dutch border in the late 1700s. A helpful woman in the Central Saanich planning department had no clue how Trentelman Place came to be. She suggested Fred Trentelman on Wallace Drive, Central Saanich, might know.

Fred died three years ago, but his widow, Ilene, said Trentelman Place was indeed named for her husband.

I'd heard of Fred before. Years ago my Uncle George got interested in the family name and looked up distant cousins. Fred was one.

Ilene said Fred came to Canada from East Germany in 1953. Ilene followed in 1957. He worked on a farm, then at an aluminum plant. They moved to Victoria in 1964 and put down roots farming.

Instead of crops, Central Saanich now grows subdivisions. Fred sold land to a developer who returned the favor by naming a street for him.

Alas, fame is a pain.

"I wish he wouldn't have," said Ilene. "I have no more privacy. More people ask me why and how."

While I was bragging about Trentelman Place, friends asked how streets in Ogden got their names. "Politics, religion or who lived there," I said.

Mormon settlers named Ogden's major roads Wall, Franklin, Young, Main, Spring, Pearl, Green and East. When the anti-Mormon "Liberal" party took power under Mayor Fred Kiesel in 1889, it kept Wall but changed others to Lincoln, Grant, Washington and so on. The goal was to irritate their religious opponents, who disliked the federal government.

Later pro-LDS administrations got even with Kiesel by naming an intermittent half-street after him.

But, "Who was Harrop?" asked one friend. "Is Hudson named after Henry Hudson? Who was Kershaw? Who was Tomlinson? Why, in the middle of all the president avenues and boulevards is there one named Gramercy?"

I consulted an 1895-96 Ogden City Directory. I can't find any mention of people named Gramercy or Tomlinson, and no Hudsons lived on Hudson Street by 1896.

If you know who Gramercy and Tomlinson were, give me a call.

Harrop runs east from Washington Boulevard between 4th and 5th streets. Sure enough, there's Joseph Harrop, a farmer, at 419 4th St. Another Harrop, James, was foreman of the Five Points Fire Company around the corner.

Kershaw is between 28th and 29th streets. The directory shows Mary E. Kershaw, widow of Andrew, at 1051 Kershaw Ave. Newspaper references show Andrew in court proceedings for adultery, and I wonder if that's pre-statehood anti-polygamy stuff.

The more common your name, the more likely you are to find a street with your name. For example, Google says there are 216 people in Utah whose last name is "Street."

I hope some of those people call their children "Main" or "State." No matter where they go, they'll always find a street named after themselves.

Wasatch Rambler is the opinion of Charles Trentelman. You can call him at 801-625-4232 or email ctrentelman@standard.net. He also blogs at www.standard.net.