Nelson Street had a rather curious origin. This street was planned in 1841, and it was intended to call it Parnell Street, after Sir Henry Parnell, who had been M.P. for Dundee from 1837 until he was raised to the House of Lords with the title of Baron Congleton in the year 1841, when the street was being constructed.
But in the following year, after a long period of ill-health he committed suicide, and the Town Council decided that this street should be named after Admiral Lord Nelson, and another thoroughfare in the neighbourhood should be called Wellington Street, after the famous military hero, the Duke of Wellington.
Source: ‘Glimpses of Old and New Dundee’ – A.H. Millar, January 1925