10 Downing Street

The petition is entitled Give 10 Downing Street a name such as 'Britannia House' and the explanatory text reads

"Our elected head of government's official residence should have an official name and not just an address. Other nation's heads of government have official residences with names and so should ours. In broadcast items referring to the Prime Ministers Official Residence the whole world would know where 'Britannia House' is and know who lives and works there. When referring to the USA president’s official residence correspondents have no need to refer to it as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington DC, referring to it as the 'White House' is sufficient to convey the full meaning of where the USA president lives and works."

I have this astonishing feeling that "10 Downing Street" conveys quite clearly to anyone interested "residence of the British PM". (Canada's PM also has an official residences which is merely number-and-street - where India's PM's official residence has a "proper name" but is known by number-and-street anyway. According to Wikipedia, anyway.)

Renaming things to make them sound more imposing is a good way of looking like an idiot. A few years ago the University of Durham re-named their central admin building "University Office" - it having been called Old Shire Hall for the previous hundred years or so. I happened to notice on an invoice just recently that their own Treasurer's Department forms are still calling it Old Shire Hall ... Dooomed, doomed, DOOOMED I tell you.

Stick with calling it 10 Downing St.