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Harla Ave: On November 4, 1968, Planning Commission had an item on the agenda to renaming Orange Street so that visitors would not get confused with Orange Avenue. Planning commissioner H.J. "Jimmie" Wood had his daughter with him at the meeting and the Department Head of Planning, Bill Dunn, suggested to name the street after his daughter, Harla Wood. The commissioners agreed and passed the motion to rename Orange street to Harla Avenue. 

Bristol: Although it was separated from the northern section of the road for a long time, Bristol in Costa Mesa is the continuation of the road from Santa Ana which had originally been named for a Santa Ana family that owned a drug store. The southern part of Bristol, south of Newport Boulevard, originally was Palisades Road (until it meets with Jamboree Road).

Baker: Baker Street is named for the M. E. Baker family which had a farm on the corner of what is now Bristol and Baker Street in the early 1900s.

Adams: William L. Adams purchased land from the Gabriel Allen heirs in 1901. He had hoped that his daughter might live in the Diego Sepulveda Adobe, but she declined. Adams Road was named for him.

Wilson: Wilson Street is named for President Wilson, although Wilson Park (which is on Wilson Street) is named for City Councilman Robert Wilson. The street is shown on a 1930 map, long before Mr. Wilson moved to Costa Mesa.

Harbor Boulevard: The part of Harbor Boulevard that is in Costa Mesa was formerly named Fairview Road. Fairview Road started in Santa Ana, and joined that town with the 1887 town of Fairview (between Gisler and Wilson along present Harbor Boulevard) by jogging east. When the bridge was built across the Santa Ana River connecting the Costa Mesa section with the northern part of Harbor Boulevard about 1935, the street was then named “Harbor Boulevard”.

Fairview Road: After the town of Fairview was started in what is now Costa Mesa in 1887, a road from Santa Ana went south and then jogged east and then south on what is now Harbor Boulevard. This road was called Fairview Road. Later, in 1935, the bridge on the Santa Ana River joined the two parts of what is now Harbor Boulevard, and that part was no longer called Fairview Road. Instead, what used to be called Old Santa Ana Road, (or even sometimes Old Newport Road – for the community of Newport that later was called Greenville) became the southern continuation of Fairview Road.

Placentia Avenue: Placentia Avenue has had this name at least since 1931. However, it originally only went as far north as about Wilson Street. Many streets in Orange County towns are named for the communities and/or cities here. This is one of them. The name is usually translated as "a pleasant place".

Victoria Street: This street has been listed on Costa Mesa maps and in city directories since at least 1931.

Fair Drive: This street is named for the Orange County Fairgrounds which has its main entrance on Fair Drive.

Newport Boulevard: This street has its name as it was the original road to Newport Beach.

Bear Street: This street is named for the Bear family that lived in Costa Mesa.

North of Adams names (South Pacific Island explorers, Irish names, Presidents names, States and Colleges/Universities)

Triangle Square area (number streets 15th-23th)

Bird Streets: immediately south of Adams Ave. and between Golf Course Dr. and the Santa Ana River are a series of streets with bird names. Those east of Placentia Ave. are known as the upper Bird Streets as they are on the Mesa. Those west of Placentia Ave. are known as the lower Bird Streets as they are below the Mesa and near the riverbed.

College Park: the streets in this subdivision, which is bounded roughly by Merrimac Way on the north, Wilson St. on the south, Harbor on the west and Fairview on the east, are named after prestigious universities and colleges.

Revolutionary War: immediately east of College Park across Fairview Ave. are townhomes whose street names conjure up place names from the Revolutionary War.

Early California: follow Adams Ave. to its end and east of Fairview Ave. and you enter the El Camino subdivision whose street names hearken to the Mission and Rancho periods.

Civil War: two streets recall the dual between the most famous ironclad ships of the Civil War. Appropriately at the northern end of Orange Coast College is an access road off Fairview Ave. named Monitor Way. Aptly forming the southern border of OCC is Merrimac Way. In between these two streets and extending east of Fairview Ave is Arlington Drive, recalling the United States’ most famous National Cemetery, which had it’s origins during the Civil War and was originally a plantation belonging to descendants of Martha Washington.