Off University Street, there is an Eblana Street, named in 1874 (IHTA xvii, p. 18) from a town listed on the east coast of Ireland on Ptolemy’s map. It is very likely that Belfast’s Eblana Street was so named in the belief that Ptolemy’s EBLANA was the earliest recorded name for the locality of Dublin.
Eblana Street (BT7, Botanic/Queen’s) – classical/antiquarian naming
In the same decades that Belfast gained streets commemorating imperial battles and figures, others reflected antiquarian and classical fashions. “Eblana” was the name given by the geographer Ptolemy (2nd century AD) to a settlement on Ireland’s east coast, long assumed by scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries to be Dublin.
First reference: Eblana Street is recorded from 1874. It was laid out in the Botanic/Queen’s area, part of the wave of southward expansion that also produced University Street and Cromwell Road.
Name origin: The choice of “Eblana” follows a 19th-century taste for classical and pseudo-classical references, especially those thought to connect Ireland to the wider ancient world. In Dublin itself, “Eblana” was used as a poetic or scholarly name, and Belfast’s use fits this antiquarian tradition rather than any imperial commemoration.
Context: Eblana Street contrasts with the nearby cluster of Indian Mutiny street names (Cawnpore, Lucknow, Havelock, Outram, Lawrence), showing the variety of influences on Victorian street naming. Where those names enshrined Britain’s imperial wars, Eblana Street reflected an older antiquarian interest in Ireland’s supposed classical past.
Sources:
Belfast Street Names database (belfaststreetnames.com)
Ptolemy’s Geography, Book II, c. 150 AD (reference to “Eblana” on Ireland’s east coast)
Ptolemy's Map of Ireland and Street Names in Belfast - blog by Peter Crawford