Generic terms

Generic terms are the part of a place name used to describe the type of place the name refers to.

Examples include:

  • road
  • court
  • highway
  • mountain
  • hill
  • creek
  • floodplain
  • lagoon.

The generic term used will depend upon the type of place the name is applied to.

Road naming

Although a large variety of generic terms have been used for roads in the past, for consistency across the Northern Territory (NT), the Place Names Committee will predominantly recommend the following generic terms for roads.

Any departures from the below are considered having regard to road types set out in Appendix A of the AS/NZS 4819:2011 Rural and urban addressing.

Through roads (open ended roads with 2 or more entrances)

Road typeDefinition
Avenue Broad thoroughfare, usually planted on each side
Crescent Feeder road, usually within a suburb with entrances off different roads
Drive Wide thoroughfare allowing a steady flow of traffic, usually without many cross streets
Road Through road
Street Connecting road between two or more other roads
Terrace Through feeder road, usually within a suburb with entrances off different roads

Cul-de-sacs (enclosed roads with single entrances)

Road typeDefinition
Close Cul-de-sac, can loop back on itself
Court Cul-de-sac, can loop back on itself
Place Cul-de-sac, can loop back on itself
Diagram showing examples of common road types as explained in tables above.
Diagram with example of common road types

Feature naming

Considerable work has been done on developing a standardised list of generic terms for geographic and topographic feature names in use in the NT.

For more information contact us.

The Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping’s (ICSM) website has a comprehensive list of generic terms that includes feature types.

This information may be used to identify possible generic terms for place naming requests. Read the glossary of generic terms on the ICSM website.

Aboriginal or dual naming of a geographic feature

While it is usual for a geographic feature to be named including a generic term for the feature type, the committee recognises that this may not apply in the case of Aboriginal place names.

An example of where this has been implemented is Uluru/Ayers Rock, where the generic term only applies to the non-Aboriginal part of the name.

Find out more about Aboriginal or dual naming of a geographic feature.

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