One of the earliest named streets in Belfast, attested as Prince’s Street by 1715 (Maclanachan). The original singular form indicates that the name referred to a single prince. Later variants include Princes Street (from the late eighteenth century) and occasional Princess Street.
Following John J. Marshall, the name has been traditionally associated with Prince George of Denmark (1653–1708), husband of Queen Anne, who died seven years before the street is first recorded. While this chronology makes the attribution plausible, no primary documentary evidence has been identified to confirm it.
Given its early date—shortly after the accession of George I of Great Britain in 1714, and in the year of the Jacobite Rising of 1715—the name may alternatively reflect a broader convention of royal or pro-monarchical naming in early eighteenth-century Belfast.
Sources:
Maclanachan map of Belfast (1715)
BNL (1753)
Belfast town plan (1757)
Mulholland map (1788)
Directories and maps (1790, 1791)
BCM (1815, 1819)
Martin (1841)
I.E. Maps (1850)
Henderson (1856)
OS (1858; 1883–84; 1901; 2005)
Val. (1860)
Irish Historic Towns Atlas, Belfast Part I to 1840
John J. Marshall, Streets of Belfast