Research finds your street name shows how Scottish you feel

Scots living on streets commemorating Britain are less likely to define themsleves as Scottish only, new research has revealed.

Those with union-themed street names are less likely to identify themselves as Scottish only

The findings by Dr Daniel Oto-Peralias from the University of St Andrews, is part of new research focusing on what street names have to tell us about our culture and identity.

Dr Oto-Peralias, from the university’s School of Management, compared street names of Scottish Westminster parliamentary constituencies with a recent population census asking people to identify their national identity.

In areas with a lower number of union-themed street names, containing words such as ‘Queen’, ‘Royal’ and Regent’, people were more likely to describe themselves as having a “Scottish identity only”.

The study also revealed that religion remains an important topic with the word ‘church’ featuring in the top four of the ranking of most frequent British street names. The research also found that people in areas with a high percentage of religious-related street names, such as ‘church’ or ‘chapel’, were more likely to identify as Christian.

Dr Oto-Peralias said: “Street names are cultural markers of a town and its history, and can be used as a rich source of information to create socio-cultural indicators at the regional and local level.

“With the help of data software with text analysis capabilities, it is feasible to analyse hundreds of thousands of street names to extract themes and trends capturing the culture and history of the population.”