What's in a Name?
Recently, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, residents had very strong reactions to the renaming of a major city street. Sistrunk Boulevard, named after African American Dr. James Sistrunk who founded a hospital for blacks in the 1930s, is a major street in what has been a largely black community for several decades. Until now, Sistrunk Boulevard ended at a set of railroad tracks and became Northeast Sixth Street when the neighborhood shifted into a much more economically prosperous (and white) community.
People in favor of continuing the name Sistrunk Boulevard past the railroad tracks saw the name change as a way to bridge the two communities, to continue to honor an important figure in Fort Lauderdale's history, and help ease confusion people may have looking for either street. It would bring more people into the neighborhood, local business owners argued.
People against the renaming of Northeast Sixth Street worried that the name Sistrunk Boulevard had too many negative associations. Over the past several years, Sistrunk had suffered economically, and the neighborhood had fallen into disrepair as businesses closed and people moved away. The street was seen by many as unsafe and rundown. The name Sistrunk eventually won out, though, and the street name now extends along its entire length.
'What's in a name?' Juliet says about Romeo's family name of Montague in Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Juliet argues that names aren't as important as we think, as 'That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.' But, like the communities in Fort Lauderdale, both for and against the street name change, what we call things is almost always packed with meaning.
Denotation and Connotation
Denotation is a word's literal meaning. For example, were Juliet to look up the word 'rose' in the dictionary, she would find something like, 'a bush or shrub that produces flowers, usually red, pink, white or yellow in color.' Similarly, street names, like Sistrunk Boulevard or Northeast Sixth Street, tell people where they are and help them get to where they want to go.
On the other hand, connotation is a word's underlying meanings; it is all the stuff we associate with a word. So, while a rose is indeed a type of flower, we also associate roses with romantic love, beauty and even special days, like Valentine's Day or anniversaries. Connotations go beyond the literal to what we think and feel when we hear or see a word.
So, while Sistrunk Boulevard tells people in Fort Lauderdale where they are (denotation), the name also makes some people feel pride because it honors a well-regarded local figure in the black community (connotation). Others see the name Sistrunk as having negative connotations because of its history of blight and crime. For some in the community, that which we call a rose, by any other name does not smell as sweet.