The modern Abu Dhabi has never lacked for street names. It is not at all unusual for streets on the island to have three names.

And those that did not? They now have a third. Or a second, at least.

How can a street have three names? Like this:

What came first, as far as I can tell, was the popular name of a street from the early history of Abu Dhabi. (And “early” history means about the 1970s, or thereabouts.)

Thus, several major streets are known by names that perhaps were never official, but had meaning to early inhabitants. Passport street, for instance, was where the passport office was.

Others tell-tale streets (at least, once upon a time) include Electric and Defence and Najda, all names still very much in circulation and names any cab driver would know.

But Najda, for instance, has two other names. Bani Yas, the name of a tribe as well as an island, if the official name (and never used); and Sixth Street.

Same for Electric, also known as Seventh Street as well as Sheikh Zayed the First.

So, the city decided to give new names to 14 streets, and the street signs have gone up to back it.

Thus, the main road from the newspaper to where I live is now known, officially, as Sheikh Sultan bin Zayed the First Street.

That mouthful is meant to replace the fairly simple “Muroor Road”, which also is known as East Road — as well as Fourth Street.

Many of the changes are meant to honor royals from history, which is fine. Except that the names tend to be long, which suggests popular usage will be slow to follow. And others refer to geographical areas, particularly for roads in the part of the island more recently developed — where roads were known by numbers.

The reality is that nearly 1 million people live in Abu Dhabi, and they are not going to start using the new names any time soon. It would mean forgetting what they know and replacing it with something new.

Indeed, the fact that Najda and Defence and Passport and Electric are still widely known and used — despite having no official sanction for a long time — shows how the force of habit is hard to break.

It will be a long time before Muroor Road is known by its new name. I think we can all be sure of that. If/when I find a cab driver who is stumped when I ask him to take me down Muroor … I will let you know.