Road names in Singapore come under the purview of the Street and Building Names Board of the Urban Redevelopment Authority. In 1967, the Advisory Committee on the Naming of Roads and Streets was formed to name roads in Singapore. The committee was eventually renamed the Street and Building Names Board (SBNB) in 2003. The secretariat role of SBNB was taken over by Urban Redevelopment Authority in 2010 and SBNB is under the Ministry of National Development of Singapore.
Road names are either in the English language or Malay language, even though many names could be derived from other languages such as Chinese (The main Chinese languages in Singapore are Mandarin, Hokkien, Teochew) and Tamil due to the diverse cultures of the Singaporean society. All road names are also officially translated into Mandarin Chinese by the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI), although these translations are rarely displayed on road signs.
It is common for a long stretch of road to have different names at different sections; such changes in names usually, but not necessarily, occur at major junctions, or when the road passes over a river or canal. It is also possible for roads that are not directly connected to bear the same name; such cases usually arise from urban redevelopment which divides these initially connected roads into two or more unlinked sections.
Road names in Singapore usually, but not always, have a generic element and a specific element, the former of which could assume two forms: noun (e.g. "Taman", "Hill") or adjective (e.g. "Lengkok", "Rise").
History Under colonial rule In colonial Singapore, road naming was conducted by the Municipal Commission the road naming process. Official road names tended to follow several trends, with the majority of roads named after figures in the colony, either for commemorative purposes, or after the owners of the land or estates the roads were first laid out on. Many roads were also named after places in Malaya and Southeast Asia, to reflect Singapore's status as capital of the Straits Settlements and Malay States, while a small proportion of roads were named after landmarks or economic activities. In addition, roads in proximity to one another often received names that were similar or followed a common trend.
Roads in areas associated with specific ethnic groups also tended to receive names related to these ethnicities. This was initially done to demarcate the ethnic zones within the town area, but continued even after the racial makeup of the districts no longer reflected their specified ethnicity. Road naming trends also differed between Asian and European areas, with roads in European areas given names derived from places in England or which indicated the ideals of European colonists.
Besides the official names given by the colonial authorities, the Asian communities also had their own informal names for roads, which differed between ethnicities and dialect groups. These informal names mostly derived from landmarks along the roads, while others denoted the presence of certain economic activities or secret societies, and some were derived from descriptions of the roads or the area around the roads. The informal names were also imprecise, and differed from the official names in most cases.
Singapore post independence After Singapore's independence in 1965, the government adopted new road-naming policies as part of its nation-building effort. A Street Naming Advisory Committee was appointed in February 1967 by the Minister of Finance, and priority was given to local names and Malay names, while names of prominent figures and British places and people were discouraged. Consequently, all roads in newly built residential areas were given Malay names, with Malay generic elements like "Jalan" and "Lorong" frequently used. Opposition from property developers and residents in residential areas, and a lack of available Malay terms for naming new streets put paid to the policy, which was amended in 1968 to discourage the use of Malay in favour of names that reflected Singapore’s multi-ethnic society. In addition, a proposal to use numerical naming was taken up in the late 1960s. This proposal was vetoed by the Finance Minister, but numerical naming was subsequently used in public housing estates in Singapore from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Besides the adoption of new road-naming policies, the Singapore government also set about making official road names, which had hitherto only been provided in the Latin script, more accessible to the non-English speaking Chinese population. To that end, a Committee on the Standardisation of Street Names in Chinese was formed to provide official Chinese translations for the names of all roads in Singapore between 1967 and 1970. Subsequently, in the 1980s, the government attempted to change all Chinese place and road names to follow the Hanyu Pinyin system. This aroused debate and opposition within the government and among the general public, with concerns raised over the historical significance of dialect names and the ease of understanding of Pinyin names. As a result, the government halted efforts to change names to Pinyin in 1987.
Types of road names
Roads names in Singapore typically fall under six categories: road names with a prefix (generic element) followed by a specific element; road names with a specific element followed by a suffix (generic element); road names that include acronyms; road names that consist only of a single word; road names with the definite article "the" followed by a specific element; and road names without any prefix or suffix (generic element).
Due to the differences in the grammatical structure, prefixes could either be in English or Malay, while suffixes are generally in English.
Malay-derived generic elements Road names in Singapore do not utilise many Malay generic elements commonly found in neighbouring Malaysia, such as Lebuh ("street"), Tingkat ("terrace"), Cangkat ("rise"), Lebuhraya ("avenue", "highway" or "expressway"), etc. The generic element "Persiaran" ("drive") was used in the road "Persiaran Keliling" in Singapore, but this road has been renamed to "Circuit Road".
Generic elementAbbreviation used in road signsPronunciation in Singapore EnglishDefinition in EnglishTransliteration in ChineseTranslation/transliteration in TamilExample(s)Remark(s)BukitBtHill武吉புக்கிட்Bukit Ayer Molek, Bukit PurmeiWhile "Bukit" is used as a generic element, it is also used as part of a specific element such as in the case of Bukit Batok Road.JalanJlnRoad惹兰ஜலான்Jalan Besar, Jalan Jurong KechilKampongKgVillage甘榜கம்போங்Kampong Bugis, Kampong SirehWhile "Kampong" is used as a generic element, it is also used as part of a specific element such as in the case of Kampong Java Road. "Kampong" is an archaic variant of the Malay word "kampung".LengkokArc, crescent麟谷Lengkok Angsa, Lengkok MerakWhile "Lengkok" is used as a generic element, it is also used as part of a specific element such as in the case of Jalan Lengkok Sembawang.LengkongArc, crescent麟光Lengkong Dua, Lengkong Lima"Lengkong" is an archaic variant of "Lengkok".LorongLorAlley, laneEither 罗弄 or 巷Lorong 1 Toa Payoh, Lorong Chuan, Lorong HalusWhile "Lorong" translates to "alley" or "lane" in English, some roads that bear this prefix are actually major roads, such as in the case of Lorong Chuan.PadangField马东Padang Chancery, Padang JeringauTamanGarden达曼தாமான்Taman Ho Swee, Taman WarnaWhile "Taman" is used as a generic element, it is also used as part of a specific element such as in the case of Jalan Taman.TanjongTgCape丹戎தஞ்சோங் Tanjong PenjuruWhile "Tanjong" is used as a generic element, it is also used as part of a specific element such as in the case of Tanjong Katong Road. "Tanjong" as a generic element is used only once, and is an archaic variant of the Malay word "tanjung".TelokBay直落தேலோக்Telok Kurau, Telok Ayer
English-derived generic elements