It's funny how opposite the titles are. Miracle on 34th Street and Nightmare on Elm Street are similar sounding titles. I wonder if Wes Craven may have subconsciously been thinking of that classic film when he came up with the title of this.
shareI mean, it's possible.
I've never seen claims anywhere that the title was a deliberate parody, or that there was any symbolic comparisons between the two. But I guess it's possible that Wes was somehow thinking of that title, when he decided the name of this film.
Bear in mind, outside of the title, the name Elm Street is never spoken, written or in any other way mentioned in this movie.
I'm not writing off the correlation with the 34th Street title, but I took Elm street's name as being a double-entendre on the horror genre's (especially in the 80's) use of the word nightmare in titles. Like the murders are a nightmare just as much as the whole thing is also a dream nightmare.
EDIT: Furthermore the use of "Elm Street" in the title makes more sense if "Nightmare" is supposed to partly describe the horrible scenario of murders happening.
I always thought the Elm Street in the name was just meant to represent suburbia. Somewhere normal.
Like I say, in the first film no real allusions are made to the street that they live on. The Street Name didn't matter to the plot. It's just meant to represent Anywheresville. Makes it more scary to think this could happen somewhere near to you.