Image from PlanItMetro.

Loudoun County wants your help in picking names for new Metro stations on the Silver Line.

Route 606 and Route 772 have been the placeholder names for the two stations west of Dulles Airport, but they’re not going to be the permanent ones. Loudoun wants names that are “relevant, brief, unique, and evocative.” Officials have presented some possibilities.

For Route 606, the suggestions include “Broad Run,” “Dulles Gateway,” and three that all have “Loudoun” in the name (“Loudoun East,” “Loudoun Gateway,” and “Loudoun Dulles North”).

Route 772 just has three options: “Ashburn,” “Loudoun,” and “Loudoun Gateway West.”

Station names are important. They can easily identify an area and even change its identity in some ways, like “Van Ness,” which has become the name for the whole area around a station just named for a street nearby.

There was a lot of outcry over the the orginal boring station name proposals for the first phase of the Silver Line (“Tysons-McLean,” “Tysons I&II,” “Tysons Central,” “Tysons-Spring Hill Road,” “Reston-Wiehle Avenue,” “Reston Town Center,” “Herndon-Reston West,” and “Herndon-Dulles East.”) All four Tysons stations were variants on the word “Tysons,” while two contained “Reston” and two “Herndon.”

Fairfax changed them to more descriptive, unique names that will eventually help the surrounding areas develop distinct identities.

Loudoun might miss that opportunity if both stations end up the word “Loudoun” in the station names as well, or if there are two stations with the word “Dulles.” Also, a name that just refers to a large area (Loudoun) with a word like “East” or “West” also doesn’t create a neighborhood-level identity the way a unique name can.

Matt Johnson and David Alpert made this map of what the Metro system might look like if every station had a name that sounded like the now-rejected Fairfax options or some of the more boring Loudoun suggestions:

Image by Matt Johnson and David Alpert. Click to enlarge.

WMATA has also struggled with keeping names short, and now has a policy of limiting them to 19 characters. Some of the names are longer.

You can give your opinions at Loudoun’s survey, picking from these or adding your own suggestions. And tell us what you like in the comments.

Canaan Merchant was born and raised in Powhatan, Virginia and attended George Mason University where he studied English. He became interested in urban design and transportation issues when listening to a presentation by Jeff Speck while attending GMU. He lives in Reston.