DENTON, TEXAS - Has anyone else given any thought to how we name subdivisions?

I mean, some of them make perfect sense: Colorado Sierra, for example. Colorado: obvious. Sierra means “mountain range,” so also relevant.

Dory Lakes, Aspen Springs, Missouri Lakes – also logical. But where did Quien Sabe (“Who knows?”) come from?

I know about the Pita subdivision, because I owned one of the two lots in it – the name came from a response to the County’s red tape involved in subdividing one large parcel: it turned out to be a Pain In The A**.

Some names are boring, but clearly related to something meaningful: Wheeler, for example, or Roosevelt Ridge. Some seemed designed to facilitate real estate brokers in selling prime lots: Chalet Park, for example (no chalets there that I know of) or Paradise Valley. (Have they sold any more homesites there since I left six years ago?)

Some names are lovable, like Mountain Meadows or Meadowlake Mountain Acres. Some are descriptive, like Snowline Ranch or Skydale.

But there’s one that simply baffles me: Bun-Gun Zhing-Wak. Now, I guess it’s an attempt to sound Native American. But for me, Bun-Gun inevitably brings to mind the image from a Loony Tunes cartoon of Bugs Bunny tussling with Elmer Fudd over a big rifle.

Since moving to North Texas six years ago, I’ve been faced with a whole new set of subdivision and street names that seem to have nothing to do with reality at all. The poster child, for me, is a subdivision between Forth Worth and Denton on a road I frequently travel: Canyon Falls.

Now, the stretch of road between these two Texas cities is flat as any prairie can be. There’s neither canyon nor, logically, falls within miles (I think you have to go up to the Arbuckle “Mountains” in southern Oklahoma to find either).

Following through with this line of thought, I have hypothesized the following: Texas real estate developers have a list of names of physical attributes mixed with adjectives describing those attributes.

When they decide what to name a subdivision, or a street, they just go to the list and pick two words at random. Let’s see: there’s Northlake, Westlake, and Southlake, none of which has a lake. There’s Highland Village, which has no high land and is one of the larger suburbs, not a village at all.

There’s Flower Mound – but that one is, surprisingly, real: there was once a flower garden on a slight elevation in the town. There’s Vista Ridge – guess what? No vista; no ridge. Castle Hills; well Colorado has a castle, but North Texas does not. And so on.

I have fun, as I drive around, noting the absurd street and neighborhood names around here. Meanwhile, I live in very dull, very boring Mack Park in Denton…quite near an actual park named after someone called Mack.