Calle de la Nao

Malasaña·Universidad

A phonetic corruption of the surname Henao. In 1589 the notary Diego de Henao owned several of the ninety-five plots that Juan de Victoria y Bracamonte developed in this area, and built the third, fourth and fifth houses of the Corredera de San Pablo, with access to a side lane that took his surname. Over time “Henao” shrank to “Enao” and then to “Nao”; eighteenth-century records also give it as “del Nabo” (of the turnip), a popular fix trying to make sense of a word with no known referent. The present name, “de la Nao” (of the ship), was fixed in the nineteenth century and has nothing to do with the sea.

Calle de la Nao (Ship Street) never saw a ship. Its name comes not from the sea but from a notary and the poor memory of Madrileños. It is little more than an alley, joining calle de la Puebla to calle de Loreto y Chicote, in the Universidad quarter. Diego de Henao, a notary of the town, built houses in 1589 opening onto a side passage that neighbours named after his surname. Here the fun begins: “Henao” lost its H and became “Enao”; “Enao” lost its first syllable and became “Nao”. By the eighteenth century, someone who had never heard of the notary decided the word must refer to the turnip. The present form, with its nautical ring, took hold in the nineteenth century. The childhood of Pedro Calderón de la Barca passed through this alley; his mother was the notary’s daughter, though the exact place of his birth remains undocumented.

Its names

  • Callejuela de Henaoc. 1589
  • Calle del Nao / Calle del Nabo18th century
  • Calle de la Nao19th century (fecha exacta no documentada)
Sources (7)

Crossings