Street Address
Purpose
The Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission under state law has the authority to assign or approve new house numbers and street names and to rename any street or renumber any house, for most of Prince George’s County. For the remaining area, changing a structure number or street name located within a municipality must either have the prior approval of the governing body of the municipality or upon appeal, a County Council resolution authorizing the change.
Further, the Commission’s addressing authority in Prince George’s County is limited to the extent of the Maryland-Washington Regional District, which excludes the City of Laurel as that city existed as of July 1, 2013. The Commission may assign street names to that portion of the City of Laurel only upon official request by that city’s authority.
Duties and Obligations
Provide a master list of approved or reserved street names (Excel format)
Prevent the creation of duplicate or similar street names (i.e., Brown Street and Brown Road; Main Street and Maine Street)
Identify approved street name suffixes
Provide access to the address regulations
Clarify address definitions and describe the history of addressing for Prince George’s County
List government agencies that are notified when an address is created or changed
Provide access to GIS address web map
Provide a detailed workflow for entering new or correcting existing addresses in the Department of Assessments and Taxation database
Provide helpful resources:
Street Name Guidelines
Please review the guidelines below for acceptable street names as set out in M-NCPPC policies. The
Address Team encourages the use of street names that are appropriate to the history or culture within
the local community.
If you have a question about whether a proposed street name meets our policies, contact the Address
Team for help.
Note: Some street names currently in use in Prince George’s County were named before the guidelines
were implemented.
Streets Eligible To Be Renamed
The Address Team approves street names for County-owned roads only and, therefore, will reject name
changes for the following:
- federal and state highways
- federally-owned properties, such as Joint Base Andrews, Goddard Space Flight Center, etc., or
- streets within the municipal boundary of the City of Laurel
Name Length
Street names should not include: - more than 21 characters (including spaces);
- fewer than 3 characters; or
- more than 3 words.
The Address Team may make exceptions for street names honoring a person, place, or historical event
of local significance.
No Duplicates or Soundalike Names
The Address Team will reject proposed street names that: - are already in use or reserved for future development within the County; or
- sound like or have minor spelling variations of an existing street’s name (for example, “Ashley”
and “Ashlee” or “Bay View” and “Bayview”).
Prohibited Names
The Address Team will reject proposed street names that are inappropriate or impractical.
For example, the Address Team will reject names that: - it considers to be offensive, obscene, profane, or derogatory of any class, race, religion, ethnic
group, gender, or age group (in any language); - express a partisan political opinion or affiliation;
- duplicate commercial or private facilities;
- are institutional or corporate names, brand names, or names that could be considered
advertising (examples of this include “Coca Cola Avenue” and “Safeway Terrace”); - are difficult to pronounce or spell; or
- include word combinations the Address Team considers to be nonsensical (examples of this
include “Piano Aardvark” and “Hotsauce Embarkation”).
Restricted Words
There are also certain words that are restricted for use as a street name. These include: - street modifiers, such as Old, New, and Spur;
- street types, such as Avenue, Drive, and Terrace. Examples of this include “Townshend
Terrace Avenue” and “Boulevard Rose”; and - street directionals, such as North, South, East, and West.
Personal Names
Street names honoring a person require that the individual be deceased for at least five years and was
someone of local, state, national, or international historical, cultural, or social importance. Street names
should not contain honorifics, courtesy titles, middle initials, or suffixes.
The Address Team will also reject a street name that is the family name of individuals who currently live
on the street.
Punctuation
The Address Team will reject street names that contain punctuation, accent marks, symbols, or special
characters.
Abbreviations and Contractions
The Address Team will reject street names that are abbreviations or contractions. Examples of this
include “St.” for “Saint,” “Dr.” for “Doctor,” and “Mt.” for “Mount.”
Numbers and Letters
The Address Team will reject proposed street names that are named after numbers or letters. Examples
of this include “52nd Avenue” and “J Street.”
To ensure that a proposed name meets the guidelines above, check M-NCPPC’s Street Index Listin
Anyone requesting a new street name should review the above list of previously approved street names and street suffixes prior to submitting a new street name request.
The street name listing is updated once a quarter therefore there may be an instance where the listing is superseded by a recent street name request.
The Planning Department relies on the United States Postal Service’s ZIP Code when assigning a primary postal city name to a premise address. This is required to ensure our stakeholders’ databases can communicate with each other. For example, government agencies such as Public Safety, Tax Assessment, and delivery companies such as Amazon, UPS and FedEx rely on the Planning Department’s addressing data. This can create confusion with property owners because one city or town can be called different names.
