Naming and renaming of streets is quite a vast subject! I wasn't aware of that till recently when we were faced with a 'hot' controversy regarding the naming of a street after a living person.
Usually, streets are named in honor of distinguished people after their death. However, as it happens with everything else, pressure is present here too: pressure from politicians and from ethnical groups that wish to make sure they're not forgotten, ignored, or discriminated. So, naming after a living person is probably no longer a taboo, but not popular either. (I myself am against naming after a living person).
Streets/roads are often named after trees (especially in rural areas), vital occupations and professions, famous institutions, historical/archeological sites and events. Still, naming after human figures is the most popular. The emphasis used to be on heads of state, scientists, writers, explorers, war heroes. Nowadays, there's a tendency to include more celebrities from the culturally entertaining world (singers, composers, actors etc...).
The city or district council is responsible for naming streets and placing adequate signage. I guess it's quite a 'headache': debates on the various proposals, decisions on the signs to be displayed, dealing with opposition of residents or other factors of interest in the respective area etc.. Well, someone has to do it, and it's the local authorities' doing from start to finish.
Our standard sign is written in two languages: Hebrew and Arabic, and employ three scripts: hebrew, arabic, latin.
Here's an example: Bialik street sign.( Bialik was a famous israeli poet).
