What's in a name? | Wesleyan Chase, Virginia Beach

What's up with all the weird street names in Wesleyan Chase?

You notice them right away, driving into the neighborhood near Virginia Wesleyan College. One entrance street is called Quarterpath Gate. Another is called Shire Reach. A third is called Hillock Crossing.

And that's not all. If you consult a map, you'll see there are no streets in the entire neighborhood called "road" or "street" or "avenue." They all have odd names like Gleaning Close and Thicket Wynd.

It's no accident. Joe Wharton, an engineer, named the streets when developer R.G. Moore ripped up the old Sajo Farm in the 1980s. "I think it's something that gives the area some character," Wharton said in a 1986 interview.

As with many neighborhoods' street names, there is a theme. Wharton wanted "something that's very homey or comfy in nature, something very rustic, of a country or rural nature." So there's a general horsey theme. Hence Freehold and Quarterpath and Hillock.

And Wharton abhorred the ordinary. "Shire Reach Road - doesn't that sound mundane?" he said.

So all the cul-de-sacs are "briefs." The "wynds" really do wind. And Shire Reach truly does reach into the neighborhood from Diamond Springs Road.

It was Wharton's last shot at naming streets. After Wesleyan Chase, he retired. He consciously sought out the unusual.

"Some of these terms, believe it or not," he said in 1986, "I took right out of a thesaurus."