Seeing all those snowplows rumbling their way up Nashua’s main thoroughfares and crisscrossing in various neighborhoods during Thursday’s blizzard, I wondered if the drivers, perhaps to break the monotony or fend off fatigue after so many hours, ever thought about the names of the streets they were clearing.

Not so much where the names came from – some are obvious, like Main Street, Bridge Street (leads to and from what was once the area’s only river crossing), and Factory Street (lined on both sides with factories in the industrial era).

Of course, many are named for high-profile folks, both local and national, a pretty common trend in most every city or town.

It’s said that back in the early 1800s, when Daniel Abbot et al were building the vast textile mill they named Nashua Manufacturing Company, they laid out several new streets surrounding the mill and named them Washington, Harrison and Clay – for the “Father of Our Country” and two leaders of the Whig Party, with which the local men were politically aligned.

Because they were educated, industrious and rich, Abbot et al carried a lot of political and social clout back in the day, and it’s quite possible they had a hand in the naming of two little dead-end streets way over off Bridge Street – Jackson and Van Buren – for presidents whose politics didn’t exactly line up with the local men’s preferences.

Street name origins were researched and reported several years ago by Nashua High School South advanced-placement history students, a project that provided some valuable, and sometimes fascinating, insight into where the names came from.

But it’s not so much the origin of the names that I was thinking about the other day, but rather coincidences, ironies and idiosyncrasies that popped up as I floated along a random stream of consciousness.

A century ago, there was a little spate of land called “Deer Park,” where Lynn, Waverly and Melrose streets come together, just off Taylor Street. My guess is this park occupied the square-shaped parcel where four homes share today.

Nashua has long had, and still has, a Lovell, a Lovewell and a Lowell street, but apparently the similarities were never deemed a problem for emergency responders. Years ago there was also a Lowell Road, which has been Daniel Webster Highway since the 1920s.

We have a bunch of streets with the same name that are differentiated by their designation, such as Russell Street and Russell Avenue; Robinson Road and Robinson Court; Ridge Street and Ridge Road; Mechanic Street once had a “Mechanic Street Court” attached to it; there’s Paige Avenue in French Hill, and once upon a time there was a Page Avenue, which was off Eastman Street and sandwiched between East Dunstable Road and a little dead-end called Holt Avenue.

We had, and still have, a Groton Road and Groton Street; a Pearson Avenue and Pearson Street, Spalding Street and Spalding Avenue; Williams Street and Williams Court; and of course Cottage Street and Cottage Avenue.

I wonder if anyone gets Morton and Norton streets mixed up? Or Bowery and Bowers, Wason and Watson, Merrill and Morrill, Lynn and Lynde?

Or maybe Lund and Lumb, Field and Fifield, Gray and May, Benton and Denton, Derry, Terry, Kerry and Ferry, Lake and Luke, Clark and Park, Satin and Saturn?

Here’s a tongue twister: Burritt, Burnett, Burton, Bennett, Brinton, Byron. And there’s Holden, Holman, Holmes. And there was once a Willie, Willow and Wilson, but Willie, which ran between Kinsley and Gilman, is no longer with us.

Speaking of Kinsley, you know how we natives hate it when someone from away pronounces it “Kingsley?” Well, about 110 years ago there existed a hilltop enclave, probably just west of where St.

Joseph Hospital is now, called “Kingsley Heights.”

Go figure.

Today, all four seasons are represented in Nashua street names – with an asterisk. Spring, Summer and Winter are long established, while the closest we come to naming a street for the fourth season are Autumn Leaf Drive and Autumn Glen Circle.

When it comes to cardinal directions – points on the compass – we have a fairly odd assortment of street names.

There’s no North Street in Nashua, but there are boulevards named Northeastern and Northwest. Nor do we have an East Street or West Street, but both are part of the name of a bunch of streets, like East Hollis, West Pearl and so forth.

We do, however, have a South Street.

Now, what I want to know is how come Nashua has a Moe Street (it’s off Conant Road), but no Larry, Curly, Shemp or even a Joe Besser or Joe DeRita street?

Besides Moe, at least we have a Howard Street, which was the stage surname that Moe, Curly and Shemp used. (Their given surname was Horowitz – no street by that name either).

Nor is there one named for Larry – born Louis Fienberg. The closest we come is Louisburg Square, which is a stretch. No Besser or DeRita streets, which is fine with this old Curly devotee, although

we do have a Rita Street over in Crown Hill.

Back to the subject of presidential street names: Washington, Clay and Harrison no longer exist, having years ago become unnamed walkways connecting Water, Factory and High streets.

Van Buren and Jackson are still with us, and over the years we’ve added Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Tyler, Taylor, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Cleveland, Taft, Wilson, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton.

We did have a Grant Street at one time; it ran between Charlotte and Beauview avenues, the first in a series of parallel streets named after prominent Civil War officers.

It was there in the 1930s, but I can’t find when, and why, it disappeared. No signs of it remain today.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears Sundays in The Telegraph. He can be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.