106,942 different streets, squares, alleys, avenues, and boulevards are spread across the different municipalities of Catalonia. The origin of their names is "natural and spontaneous," explains Miquel Parella, head of the Toponymy Unit of the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC) at the ACN (National Geographic Association of Catalonia), and is found in the descriptions that, centuries ago, the citizens of each place made out of the "need to identify themselves." Although there is a tendency to think that most streets are named after people, the reality is that most names respond to descriptions of the surrounding environment. "It wasn't until major urban developments that the need to name streets arose, since names no longer emerged spontaneously from the people. That's when city councils began to name them," explains the expert.