A Name in Memory and on the Map

This week, Israel celebrates the 78th anniversary of its independence, an excellent opportunity to try to find common ground between Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion, Nobel laureates, and plants.

That common ground is simple: they are all immortalized in the street names of Israeli cities and towns. Some names appear almost everywhere, turning the map into a record of collective memory, political culture, and everyday repetition.

Sensecom analyzes place names, compiles rankings of the most common names, and highlights regional characteristics, trends, and shifts over time.

Israeli street names contain more botanists than nerds, and the absolute leader is Ha-Zayit. Neither Ben-Gurion nor Jabotinsky comes close to the dominance of the olive tree on the map.

Next on the list come Ha-Rimon, Ha-Tamar, Ha-Shaked, Ha-Ela, and Ha-Dekel. Plants occupy the first 13 spots in the popularity rankings.

Only in 14th place does a non-botanical name appear: Ha-Meyasdim, dedicated to the founders of the state and found in 73 settlements.

After the plant names come the precious stones Israelis also love to preserve in the landscape: Bareket, Sapir, Odem, Yahalom, and Shoham.

Golda Meir appears in 26 cities, Peres in 27, and Rabin in 39. Many streets are also named after Jabotinsky, Sharett, Shamir, Trumpeldor, and Arlozorov.

Netanyahu appears in 14 cities, in memory of his brother Yoni, who died during the Entebbe rescue operation.

Shai Agnon is immortalized in 37 towns. Chaim Nachman Bialik appears in 52 towns, Shoshana Damari in 25, Ofra Haza in 28, Naomi Shemer in 21, and Arik Einstein in 10.

Some streets are named after cities and towns. Yerushalayim Street is found in 59 towns, though remarkably not in Jerusalem itself.

The names also preserve biblical figures, kings, patriarchs, matriarchs, prophets, judges, thinkers, rabbis, healers, military leaders, and major battles.