We move tomorrow from Newel St. in Greenpoint and one question is bothering me. The street signs and most of the folk-signage (labeled garbage cans and the like) on Newel St. spell Newel just like that, with one l. However, in many online databases and many maps it is spelled “Newell” with two l’s. I also noticed a couple garbage cans with the the two l label. Also, a local business, Newell Fuel, has the two l spelling in its name, but publishes the address with a one l spelling. Google Maps and most other sites I’ve used insist on the two l spelling. I have found a few sites (including HopStop) that don’t recognize the two l spelling at all.

The best explanation I’ve heard so far is from Noel, who speculates that sellers of data (maps, databases, dictionaries, etc.) frequently put subtle, intentional errors in their databases to easily identify copies of their data. If this is the case, the incorrect data is also the data used on the US Post Office web site.

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