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Originally posted by ericlboyd

Here's what Ed says ...

Sure. Out-of-game, someone used City System to cram TSR staff names onto every street and alley of Waterdeep they thought didn't have a name, but they didn't refer to my master maps, so a lot of streets they thought were unnamed had perfectly good names that were referenced elsewhere. (So in this case, the street renamed for Scott Haring already had a name, the Street of Six Casks.)
Some of those commemorate-TSR-staff names were a bit clunky/sounded 'wrong' for the setting, and with passing time some heralded staff who'd since departed (like Scott), so over time, for later products, names were taken from my originals.

In-game, here's what I long ago came up with to cover this (and cleared with Julia Martin at the time, and Kij Johnson later, so that TSR/WotC would be on the same page as I was):

Just as some noble families sold their titles for a brief period, there have been at least two brief periods where "naming rights" to a street, or several blocks of a street, were sold off by city clerks at the Palace. Usually this meant someone wealthy, who wanted to buy prestige, would give several thousands in gold to the city in return for renaming the block of a street their residence fronted on, plus a few adjacent blocks to take the renamed street to an intersection with a major street. Then they could change their address, so "Melevart Thalundavur, Mending-Cobbler-For-Hire, Slut Street" would become "Melevart Thalundavur, Exclusive Fine Footwear For The Discerning, Thalunavur Way."
This practice was stopped to dispel confusion, and most of the older names were reinstated (yes, twice...or more). So in this case, Haring's Way went away, and the Street of Six Casks returned. The "Six Casks" were six competing coopers whose businesses once fronted on this street (so they made barrels, large and small, for Waterdhavian businesses and shippers). Two family lines died out long ago, and their businesses dwindled and closed down, two were bought by rivals, one being moved elsewhere in the city (North Ward) and the other being closed down (bought in order to close it down and so put it out of business and do away with its competition), and two of the Six Casks remain in business to this day (the firms survive, having been passed down through generations of the same families of owner/operators). They are: Lithandy Fine Casks and Burnleir's Barrels, both westfront (their front doors stand on the west side of the Street of Six Casks, to the north of the dogleg), one two doors south of Presper Street and the other four doors down). These days, both cooperages concentrate on small hangkegs and ornamental-finish "show" barrels; the "heavy" work of mass-making larger casks has been moved to larger premises outside the city where staves can be cut, dried, steamed, and stored in bulk.

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Originally posted by sleyvas
Please tell me there are a Boyd and Schend streets somewhere on those maps then.

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Originally posted by perlmugp

This is great. I was expecting a shoulder shrug of an answer. The more light you shine in the dark corners the more there is to see.

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