Welcome to L.A. Street Names, the origin stories of street names across Los Angeles County, from the shortest cul-de-sacs to the longest boulevards. Mysteries solved, myths debunked, scandals exposed, history revealed. This is an ongoing project with more than 1,700 streets – and growing. See FAQ for more information.
Featured Major Street
Saticoy Street
In 1916, a year after the City of Los Angeles annexed the San Fernando Valley, there was a need to rename Valley roadways such as 1st Street, Central Avenue, etc. because they conflicted with existing ones in L.A. Civil engineers looked to Ventura County place names for inspiration, and thus we have Saticoy, Moorpark, Oxnard, Camarillo, Nordhoff, and Strathern streets. (A street named after Leesdale, a sugar beet dump near Oxnard, later became Victory Blvd.) Ventura County’s Saticoy, an unincorporated community, was once an ancient Chumash village; modern historians like to spell it “Sa’aqtik’oy”, but since the Ventureño Chumash language had no written form, it’s effectively the same as “Saticoy”, used by Spanish settlers by 1826. Some believe the name means “sheltered from the wind”; others have translated it as “the place is here”, “I have found it”, and “the springs”. Since the Ventureño Chumash language was killed off many years ago, we’ll never really know.