Why all of the Madison stuff?

This is a question which has always intrigued me, and so I finally decided to ask about it. Of the SL last names that I can immediately think of, the following five are all related to Madison, WI. Is this just coincidence? Or does someone on the staff have a connection to good ol' Madison?

1. Linden - Street in the campus area of Madison
2. Madison - The city...
3. Mifflin - Downtown street
4. Gorham - Another street
5. Gilman - Also a street

Many of the same are also streets in San Francisco and the surrounding area, so it may just be a coincidence, as I believe a lot of the naming of sims etc.. has been California influenced.

http://www.sluniverse.com/kb/article.aspx?id=10047

Linden Alley, eh? I guess it is just a coincidence.

except the newest in the north east - all named after places in the Lake District - a very beautiful part of the UK.

Latonia

i've been to linden, alabama a couple of times. it's a nice place to visit.

wonder how they settled on the name linden? is that published anywhere?

See the link above

When Doty platted Madison in, I think, 1848, he named the streets after signers of the Constitution; I always figured that's why they appeared as avatar last names. I chose "Few" because I live on the corner of Rutledge and Few, and I preferred the single syllable over "Rutledge". Every Madison street name I've seen in SL is a signer of the Constitution.

That explains a lot, Astrin. Just as Doty named the streets after constitutional signatories, it would seem many other city planners did as well.

Thanks for the small history lesson about the city, Astrin.

The snowlands/sims are all named after famous skiing places in Europe - like Voss is in the western part of Norway. There are a lot of sims with names of athlets too - Koss is a norwegian speed iceskater, and I know there are others too but unfortunately the map isnt visible from these webpages anymore and I am not at home to check - I do wish it was available tho... but thats another post

Quoted from the wiki:

The first sims (Bonifacio, Shipley, Natoma, etc.) are named after streets in the San Francisco south market area.

The northern sims (Argent, Purple, Tan, etc.) are named after colours.

The vehicle sims (Balance, Brilliance, Cordova, etc.) are named after ships buried below San Francisco.

The southern sims (Stinson, Davenport, Baker, etc.) are named after beach cities in California.

The newer southern sims (Phobos, Deimos, Tetheys, etc.) are named after moons in the solar system.

The Nova Albion sims (Barcola, Miramare, Sistiana and Grignano) are named after coastal towns near Trieste, Italy.

The sims in northeast (Aluluei, Riiki, Quat, etc.) are named after Micronesian Gods.

The sims in the east-southeast (Amida, Baku, Yamato, etc.) are named after gods and goddesses of Japanese mythology.

My Mom has an Aunt and a couple of cousins that live there

Many famous soccer players too...

Beckenbauer, Charlton, Cruyff, Ferdinand, Platini

And some rockers...

Altman, Hattfield, Page

- T -

On a related note, is the last name "Thetan" a reference to Scientology?

Some cases seem ambiguous... it's likely wishful thinking on my part, though, that the last name "Page" refers to Bob Page of a certain computer game. However, "Protagonist" is more obvious.

But where are the hyphenated last names, like Finkle-Mcgraw?