I recently had a reason to drive by the nearest roadway named after Secretariat:

This is a short roadway. True to being a “court,” it is a cul-de-sac with roughly seven houses along it. According to Google Maps, it is about 250 feet long.

When I wrote about this one month ago, I had this road in mind. Did the name transform the surroundings and/or elevate the late 1980s suburban neighborhood due to the prestigious athlete? Not particularly. Is it a unique name? Yes, but one shared by over 200 other locations in the United States.

Perhaps the biggest difference between this specific street and those nearby is that it is a recognizable or more unique name. For example, here are some of the more anonymous streets within a mile or so in sprawling suburbia: George Street, Jeffrey Court, Hamilton Drive, Rose Court, and Christina Circle. These might be named after specific people but it is hard to know decades later.

Secretariat lives on in this suburb in a way that LeBron James or Tom Brady or other people in the running for the best in their sports probably never will.