4 ms·

As an aside...where does the UK practice of naming things "Shield House", "Terminus House", etc come from?

chrisseaton 6y ago
How do you name buildings where you live? ‘House’ just means building in this case. And then it was probably built by a terminus of some kind, or there’s some notable shield from the area.
- vidanay 6y ago
  The majority of buildings in the US simply do not have names.
  - chrisseaton 6y ago
    Blair House in Washington DC for example? Seems the same naming convention doesn’t it? It’s not particular to the UK.
    - rst 6y ago
      Blair House is... a house. A family named Blair used to live in it. So, not really parallel to the British usage of "House" for structures like the BBC headquarters, "Broadcasting House", which have never had residential usage, and are in no way suited for it.
      - chrisseaton 6y ago
        As I already explained, ‘house’ in this context means ‘building’ not ‘home’. It’s a little old fashioned that’s all.
    - vidanay 6y ago
      Sure, I can name lots of structures in the US that have names, but they are far from the majority, and I an unaware of any legal weight for the name (IDK if UK building names have legal weight either though...)
  - the-dude 6y ago
    In some parts of the UK, there are no clear addresses ( Ireland comes to mind ). You address your mail to 'Shield House'. Maybe this has something to do with it.
  - kwhitefoot 6y ago
    Sounds a bit boring.
  - war1025 6y ago
    Maybe they should? It seems like people name their cars often enough. Our house is unit 8 in our development, so we've taken to calling it "The eight house." Something about it having a name is just... nice.
- alistairSH 6y ago
  In the US, we mostly don't name buildings. There are some high profile exceptions, but largely, you'd send mail to a numbered address: Joe Smith, Unit 123B, 1234 Something Street, Virginia, 20191, USA And in conversation, when describing where you live, you'd say the street name or neighborhood name. And, if needed, the street address as above. Apartment buildings often have names, but, in my experience, they're rarely used outside real estate listings.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
    In NYC, most of the housing projects have names like "the donovan houses" or "clairmont estates." It might not be super common like in britain but we do have it here.
    - alistairSH 6y ago
      Yeah, same here in DC. But, at least here, you rarely refer to the building that way. Mail will be the numerical street address, not building name. In casual discussion, we'd likely say "I live on the 2000 block of Constitution Ave" instead of "I live the Yuppiemont Building" (Watergate and similar high profile boilings being the exception).
  - arethuza 6y ago
    what about farms and houses in rural areas? Do they have numerical addresses?
    - vidanay 6y ago
      Yes
    - maxerickson 6y ago
      For the most part, yes. The farm might also have a name (chosen by the current owners, not particularly in common use, etc). There was also a nationwide initiative to make addresses more standardized inside a county. So the address for a house might be on a numbered road and reflect the location of that property along the road (this is just a common pattern, not a top down standard).
DanBC 6y ago
The people paying to put the building up like to name things because it's part of their branding (so, a security company building a head office may call that office "shield house"), or because they're trying to tie their development into local history to appeal to planning officers (so, this building is near a bus terminal, and it's on terminus street), or because the person paying the money wants to leave a bit of legacy.
crazygringo 6y ago
It's really funny... there are big cultural "differences" everyone knows -- like driving of right vs. left side, or whether once you walk in a building and up a flight of stairs, you're on the first floor or the second floor. But then another one is that in some countries, every building is legally required to have a name... and in others it's not. I'm from the US where the idea of giving a "name" to an average building seems bizarre -- it makes as much sense as giving a name to your sofa or to your mailbox. The building has an address, so what does it need a name for? (Unless it's a famous landmark or corporate skyscraper or something.) But then I moved to Brazil and son of a gun, every building (even small apartment buildings) has a name, the same way a corporation is legally required to have a name. I still don't quite understand the reason. But it's similarly "common sense" there of course it has a name, it's a building! I suppose in the same way it's common sense that roads have names too, or something. Just another one of these entirely arbitrary yet funny cultural differences.
- helianer 6y ago
  These cultural differences may even depend on where you are in the US. Nearly every apartment building around me in Seattle has a name. Much of this is for marketing I’m sure, but this includes many of the buildings built in the 60s and 70s.
- donw 6y ago
  Buildings in Japan tend to have names as well: Mori Building, Takakawa Building, etc.
- jagged-chisel 6y ago
  Branding. I've found that many newer buildings in Atlanta, GA are "named." I use quotes because I don't think there's any official registry behind the name. But branding your building and marketing that brand seems to be a good way to attract tenants. I also find that many apartment and condominium complexes are named, and maybe even the separate building (but not the individual apartments, of course.) And any houses used as museums or event spaces are named: The Margaret Mitchell House, The Castle, The Wimbish House. Branding.
arethuza 6y ago
A lot of aristocratic stately homes are XYZ House - there only being one privately owned palace in the UK. So I think it's just an attempt to make an office block sound way classier than it actually is. As an example, here's a "House" not far from where I live: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopetoun_House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopetoun_House

How do you name buildings where you live? ‘House’ just means building in this case. And then it was probably built by a terminus of some kind, or there’s some notable shield from the area.

vidanay 6y ago
The majority of buildings in the US simply do not have names.
- chrisseaton 6y ago
  Blair House in Washington DC for example? Seems the same naming convention doesn’t it? It’s not particular to the UK.
  - rst 6y ago
    Blair House is... a house. A family named Blair used to live in it. So, not really parallel to the British usage of "House" for structures like the BBC headquarters, "Broadcasting House", which have never had residential usage, and are in no way suited for it.
    - chrisseaton 6y ago
      As I already explained, ‘house’ in this context means ‘building’ not ‘home’. It’s a little old fashioned that’s all.
  - vidanay 6y ago
    Sure, I can name lots of structures in the US that have names, but they are far from the majority, and I an unaware of any legal weight for the name (IDK if UK building names have legal weight either though...)
- the-dude 6y ago
  In some parts of the UK, there are no clear addresses ( Ireland comes to mind ). You address your mail to 'Shield House'. Maybe this has something to do with it.
- kwhitefoot 6y ago
  Sounds a bit boring.
- war1025 6y ago
  Maybe they should? It seems like people name their cars often enough. Our house is unit 8 in our development, so we've taken to calling it "The eight house." Something about it having a name is just... nice.
alistairSH 6y ago
In the US, we mostly don't name buildings. There are some high profile exceptions, but largely, you'd send mail to a numbered address: Joe Smith, Unit 123B, 1234 Something Street, Virginia, 20191, USA And in conversation, when describing where you live, you'd say the street name or neighborhood name. And, if needed, the street address as above. Apartment buildings often have names, but, in my experience, they're rarely used outside real estate listings.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
  In NYC, most of the housing projects have names like "the donovan houses" or "clairmont estates." It might not be super common like in britain but we do have it here.
  - alistairSH 6y ago
    Yeah, same here in DC. But, at least here, you rarely refer to the building that way. Mail will be the numerical street address, not building name. In casual discussion, we'd likely say "I live on the 2000 block of Constitution Ave" instead of "I live the Yuppiemont Building" (Watergate and similar high profile boilings being the exception).
- arethuza 6y ago
  what about farms and houses in rural areas? Do they have numerical addresses?
  - vidanay 6y ago
    Yes
  - maxerickson 6y ago
    For the most part, yes. The farm might also have a name (chosen by the current owners, not particularly in common use, etc). There was also a nationwide initiative to make addresses more standardized inside a county. So the address for a house might be on a numbered road and reflect the location of that property along the road (this is just a common pattern, not a top down standard).

DanBC 6y ago

The people paying to put the building up like to name things because it's part of their branding (so, a security company building a head office may call that office "shield house"), or because they're trying to tie their development into local history to appeal to planning officers (so, this building is near a bus terminal, and it's on terminus street), or because the person paying the money wants to leave a bit of legacy.

crazygringo 6y ago

It's really funny... there are big cultural "differences" everyone knows -- like driving of right vs. left side, or whether once you walk in a building and up a flight of stairs, you're on the first floor or the second floor. But then another one is that in some countries, every building is legally required to have a name... and in others it's not. I'm from the US where the idea of giving a "name" to an average building seems bizarre -- it makes as much sense as giving a name to your sofa or to your mailbox. The building has an address, so what does it need a name for? (Unless it's a famous landmark or corporate skyscraper or something.) But then I moved to Brazil and son of a gun, every building (even small apartment buildings) has a name, the same way a corporation is legally required to have a name. I still don't quite understand the reason. But it's similarly "common sense" there of course it has a name, it's a building! I suppose in the same way it's common sense that roads have names too, or something. Just another one of these entirely arbitrary yet funny cultural differences.

helianer 6y ago
These cultural differences may even depend on where you are in the US. Nearly every apartment building around me in Seattle has a name. Much of this is for marketing I’m sure, but this includes many of the buildings built in the 60s and 70s.
donw 6y ago
Buildings in Japan tend to have names as well: Mori Building, Takakawa Building, etc.
jagged-chisel 6y ago
Branding. I've found that many newer buildings in Atlanta, GA are "named." I use quotes because I don't think there's any official registry behind the name. But branding your building and marketing that brand seems to be a good way to attract tenants. I also find that many apartment and condominium complexes are named, and maybe even the separate building (but not the individual apartments, of course.) And any houses used as museums or event spaces are named: The Margaret Mitchell House, The Castle, The Wimbish House. Branding.

arethuza 6y ago

A lot of aristocratic stately homes are XYZ House - there only being one privately owned palace in the UK. So I think it's just an attempt to make an office block sound way classier than it actually is. As an example, here's a "House" not far from where I live: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopetoun_House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopetoun_House