Most government drawings of sample road signs will use fictional place names. This avoids confusion caused by unrealistic directions, and avoids any upset from places which do or don't want to be featured. This is especially important when dealing with motorway brands.
The place names below have been used on government drawings related to service areas. They are considered "fictional" because they are not based on any real-life roads; they are all designed to sound like realistic British place names, and many of them probably are the names of small villages, which may or may not be a coincidence.
The earliest motorway signs did use real examples in their demonstrations. For motorway service areas, a sign for Forton services was used in most documents, even in the Highway Code. The Forton name was used on drawings for A-road service areas too.
| Name | Type | Signs | Notes | Example |
| Puddleworth | Motorway service area and truckstop | All service area direction signs - Diagrams 2917.1, 2919.1, 2919.3, 2920.1, 2920.2, 2310.1, 2311.1, 2311.2, 2919.2 and 2929 |
The most common example, appears in the Highway Code. | |
| Axtley Westville |
Truckstop | Diagram 2919.2, Diagram 2919.4 |
Used in the Traffic Signs Manual | |
| Odford Westville Woodhouse |
Motorway service area | Diagram 2917.1, 2919.3 | Introduced in 2012, as the list sign now needed names and not operators. Woodhouse is on the M5 north, the other two are on the M4, Odford is also included on Diagram 2919.3. | |
| Odford Emberry Felick |
Motorway service area | 2917.1 | One drawing has Odford 1m away and Emberry 25m away. Another has Odford 8m away on the M40, Emberry 25m away on the M25 north and Felick 23m away on the M25 south. Those measurements could match a sign on the A40 heading out of London, but the regulations state this sign isn't allowed on A-roads. | |
| Good Food | Operator | Advance direction signs (diagrams 2919.1 and 2920.1) | The owner of Puddleworth and Odford services. One variant of diagram 2920.1, used to illustrate a stylised headerboard, had the operator named 'Goode Food' and owning Kirkby services. "Goode Egg" is used as Part 24, Item 15. | |
| Steakade Roadcook Woodhouse Fifty Good Egg |
Operators | Diagram 2917 (the list of forthcoming services) | Roadcook sounds suspiciously like Roadchef. No longer used. In recent years only the first one or two were shown, but in the 1980s all four were used on different drawings. | |
| Smith Bloggs Strongs Wrights Blakes Friers |
Operators | Diagram 838.2 | Used in the 1981 reports only. | |
| Kirkby | Rest area, services | New signs 2919.3, 2920.2, 2921.2, 2921.3, 2910.2, 2311.3, 2311.4 and 2310.2 (rest areas) | Currently only used in Circular 01/2008 as this is the only document to deal with rest areas. Shares its name with a town in Merseyside. An older drawing of diagram 2920.1 was also used for 'Kirkby services'. | |
| Northwood | Service area not on Primary or Motorway route | Direction signs on all-purpose roads, "Know your Traffic Signs" | Only featured in government document Know your Traffic Signs | |
| Thorpe St Michael | Village providing local facilities | Signs for local facilities - diagrams 2308.1 and 2309.1 | ||
| M41 | Motorway | Diagram 2330: 'No services on M41'. | Used to be a motorway in Central London; whilst it didn't have any service areas, it never had this sign. |
The example A-road service area signs don't normally give any names.