Some of Ramona’s Street Names Lack Initiative

The most common street name can be found right here in the center of Ramona. You guessed it – Main Street. Every town has one, a main street, that is. And the name didn’t go away. While some town fathers were more inventive in naming their streets, the majority of towns across the country put up the signs, officially dubbing the major thoroughfare, Main Street.

Other common names for streets were derived from trees. Some towns go in alphabetical order with the street names, such as in San Diego with Ash to Walnut streets between downtown San Diego and uptown Hillcrest.

Not so in Ramona. Our tree streets — in no particular order, although some are near each other — are: Elm, Ash, Cedar, Oak, Pine, Olive, Maple, Orange and Magnolia.

And let’s not forget the alphabetical and numerical street names. These do go in order but they are not all there. Alphabetically, we have A, B (no C, that’s Main Street) and D through I streets; then it stops. The streets tagged numerically go from First to 16th Street, with the exception of 15th Street. According to local lore, there used to be a 15th Street, but somewhere along the line it was changed to Montecito Road, a Spanish word meaning “little hill” or “little knoll.”

Then there are the streets that honor neighboring communities. Again, not much initiative here. There’s San Diego Avenue with a bit more distinction by being called an avenue than, say, nearby El Cajon Lane. Other town names tapped for prosperity are Wynola, Julian (not to be confused with Old Julian Highway; that’s another story) and, of course, Ramona Street. All of these can be found within a few blocks of each other.

These are just some of the more common street names found on Ramona maps. Many more streets are named for early pioneers, entrepreneurs and ranchers. Some have catchy names with specific meanings behind them. Others took the name of the family living on that street while others have only first names.

But there is one street that really shows someone had an adventurous nature. Or, perhaps a vivid imagination. Or, maybe fond recollections of a faraway trip. It’s Burma Road. Truly a country road, it seems to go on forever and forever on its way out of town.

History of street names was researched at Ramona Library and in old copies of Ramona News, a weekly newspaper that served the community in the early 1980s.