Abstract:

Knowing the sources of place names are important for the new generations in order to possess their cultural elements, to understand and perceive their living space. Aydın has a fertile land, rich historical past as being many different civilizations’ living space. The city as being located in a convenient location in terms of physical and human geography, an assessment of the neighborhood street, avenue and boulevard names were done by using the principles of toponymy science. An assessment was made concerning the previous place names in the central Aydın. The most important reference source was the data taken from the General Directorate of Development and Planning by Aydin Metropolitan Municipality. As a result, it was found that some neighborhoods’ street names were classified within common features of plants, underground resources/rocks or people’s names and so on. However, many street names have no common criteria. Therefore, it has been determined that the naming of streets in Aydın in general was irregular rather than systematic. In addition, neighborhood, boulevard and avenue naming emphasized human geography elements; while street names work more in terms of physical geography which were determined to keep up to 40%

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