Unusual place names are names for cities, towns, and other regions which are considered non-ordinary in some manner. This can include place names which are also
offensive words, inadvertently humorous or highly charged words,
as well as place names of unorthodox spelling and pronunciation, including especially
short or
long names. These names often have an unintended effect or double-meaning when read by someone who speaks another language.
Profane, humorous, and highly charged words
A number of settlements have names that are offensive or humorous in other languages, such as
Rottenegg or
Fucking (renamed to Fugging in 2021) in Austria, or
Fjuckby
Fjuckby () is a village in Uppsala Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden, located about 15 km (9.3 km) north of the central city Uppsala along European route E4. The village has a population of 65 people (as of 2000) within an area of ...
in Sweden, where the name can be associated with the word "
fuck".
Although as a place name ''Fucking'' is benign in
German, in English the word is usually vulgar. Similarly, when they hear of the French town of
Condom, English speakers will likely associate it with
condoms
A condom is a sheath-shaped barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both male and female condoms. With proper use—and use at every act of inte ...
.
Hel, Poland is a Polish seaside resort on the
Hel Peninsula, while
Hell, Norway
Hell (, ) is a village in the Lånke area of the municipality of Stjørdal in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the western part of the municipality, about south of the town of Stjørdalshalsen. The village has a population (201 ...
, comes from the
old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
word ''
hellir'', which means "overhang" or "cliff cave". In modern
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
, the word ' means "hell", while the Norwegian word ''hell'' can mean "luck".
Conversely, a number of place names can be considered humorous or offensive by their inhabitants, such as the Italian town of
Bastardo ("Bastard") and
Troia ("Slut", literally the female of the
pig; the same name is used in Italian for the ancient city of
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
), the German towns Affendorf ("Monkey Village"), Faulebutter ("Rancid Butter"), Fickmühlen ("Fuck Mills"), Himmelreich ("
Kingdom of Heaven"), which appropriately lies at the edge of the
Höllental ("Hell's Valley"), Katzenhirn ("Cat Brain", nearest to
Mindelheim
Mindelheim (; Swabian: ''Mindelhoi'') is a town in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. The town is the capital of the Unterallgäu district. At various points in history it was the chief settlement of an eponymous state.
Geography
Mindelheim is locate ...
), Lederhose (''
Lederhosen
Lederhosen (; , ; singular in German usage: ''Lederhose'') are short or knee-length leather breeches that are worn as traditional garments in some regions of German-speaking countries. The longer ones are generally called ''Bundhosen'' or ''Kn ...
'', leather trousers), Neger ("Negro"), Plöd ( means "stupid", renamed in 2009), Regenmantel ("
Raincoat
A raincoat is a waterproof or water-resistant garment worn on the upper body to shield the wearer from rain. The term rain jacket is sometimes used to refer to raincoats with long sleeves that are waist-length. A rain jacket may be combined with ...
"), and Warzen ("Warts"), or the Swedish villages of "Porrarp" (in which "porr" translates to "porn"), "Mensträsk ("
Menstruation lake"), "Fittja" ("Fitta" translates to "
cunt"), and "Rövhålet" ("Asshole"). The Austrian municipality
Unterstinkenbrunn and the
cadastral
A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref>
Often it is represented graphically in a cad ...
community Oberstinkenbrunn ("Lower Stinking Well" and "Upper Stinking Well", respectively) can also be considered offensive by residents. In the Czech Republic, there are villages called Šukačka ("Fucking") and Onen Svět ("The Other World"), which are located 2 kilometres from each other. In Hong Kong, place names containing the words "shi" (屎 - shit) and "niu" (尿 - piss) are common, and there are a number of place names actually containing profanities along the coast such as Gau Tau (lit. ''penis head''), Ham Lun Kok (含倫角 - lit. "oral sex corner" which the character 倫 is a substitute of the profanity word 𡳞 meaning dick) which the common name has since been changed to
Shek Ngau Chau (石牛洲) and
Yau Lung Kok Yau may refer to:
* Yau (surname), Hong Kong surname
* Yau language, a Finisterre language of New Guinea
* Yau language (Torricelli), a Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea
* Hodï language (ISO 639-3: yau), a language of Venezuela
* Kattiniq/Do ...
(游龍角) respectively. The name
Kau Shi Wai (狗屎圍 in Cantonese - in which 狗屎 means "dog shit") was changed as it was indecent and could cause embarrassment. In the US, the name of the town of
Effingham, Illinois
Effingham is a city in and the county seat of Effingham County, Illinois, United States. It is in South Central Illinois. Its population was 12,252 at the 2020 census. The city is part of the Effingham, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area.
The ...
contains a
minced oath for "
fuck".
Some place names are deemed to be offensive or unacceptable, often through historic
semantic changes in what is tolerated.
An example of this would be the once common English street name
Gropecunt Lane, whose etymology is a historical use of the street by
prostitutes to ply their trade. During the Middle Ages the word ''cunt'' may often have been considered merely vulgar, having been in common use in its anatomical sense since at least the 13th century. Its steady disappearance from the English vernacular may have been the result of a gradual cleaning-up of the name; Gropecunt Lane in 13th-century
Wells became Grope Lane, and then in the 19th century, Grove Lane.
In the city of
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, Grapcunt Lane (''grāp'' being the Old English word for "grope") was renamed Grope Lane and is now called Grape Lane.
A similar case was in the town of
Sasmuan, Pampanga, in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, formerly known as "Sexmoan" based on attempts by Spanish friars to transcribe ''Sasmuan''; it was unanimously changed into Sasmuan in 1991 because of negative sexual connotations associated with the place name.
In Canada, the town of
Swastika, Ontario, founded in 1908, adopted its name years before
the Nazi Party adopted the
swastika as a symbol.
In Spain, a municipality was named
Castrillo Matajudíos ("Jew-killer Camp") from 1627 to 2015.
Matamoros (
Moor killer), however, remains a common place name,
surname, and even the name of several businesses in Spanish-speaking countries.
A few place names in the United States and Canada historically used the word "
nigger
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
", a derogatory term for
black people. Over the course of the 20th century, many of these place names were changed because of the racist connotations of the word. One example is
Dead Nigger Creek in Texas (named to commemorate the
Buffalo Soldier tragedy of 1877) which was changed to Dead Negro Draw in 1963, then to
Buffalo Soldier Draw in 2020. Another is Niggerhead Mountain near Malibu, California, which was changed to Negrohead Mountain in the 1960s and finally to Ballard Mountain in 2010 for an early African American settler. In Canada, Quebec decided in 2015 to rename 11 places within the province that contained the word "nigger" or the French equivalent, ''nègre''. In 2016 New Zealand renamed three locations which were found to be offensive, Niggerhead, Nigger Hill, and Nigger Stream.
Likewise there is pressure to remove the word "
squaw" from place names, a traditional term for a Native American woman now considered derogatory. In 2003, Squaw Peak in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States, and the on ...
, was renamed to
Piestewa Peak
Piestewa Peak ( ; ood, Vainom Do'ag, formerly Squaw Peak), at is the second highest point in the Phoenix Mountains, after Camelback Mountain, and the third highest in the city of Phoenix, Arizona. It is located in the Piestewa Peak Recreation ...
, after Specialist
Lori Ann Piestewa, killed in action during
Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Name changes
Sometimes settlement names are changed as a
publicity stunt
In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilize ...
or to promote tourism.
Kindai University in
Osaka
is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
,
Japan, changed its English-language name from Kinki University (pronounced
kinky) in 2014, which, in the English language, has a provocative meaning. The Japanese-language name of the university, , was left unchanged. The change was globally reported, though since its founding in 1949, the original name was not a problem within Japan. However, with the dramatic globalization of Japanese universities in recent decades, including the presence of hundreds of foreign students, staff, faculty, and visiting scholars on campus, the leadership of the university made the change in 2016, after deciding to do so in 2014.
Waters, Arkansas, changed its name to
Pine Ridge, Arkansas, after it became known that the fictional town
Pine Ridge in the radio sitcom ''
Lum and Abner
''Lum and Abner'' was an American network radio comedy program created by Chester Lauck and Norris Goff that was aired from 1931 to 1954. Modeled on life in the small town of Waters, Arkansas, near where Lauck and Goff grew up, the show proved ...
'' was based on Waters. Now a sparsely populated and no longer incorporated community, Pine Ridge is home to a Lum and Abner museum.
Truth or Consequences
''Truth or Consequences'' is an American game show originally hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards (1940–1957) and later on television by Edwards (1950–1954), Jack Bailey (1954–1956), Bob Barker (1956–1975), Steve Dunne (1957–1958), ...
,
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
, changed its name from Hot Springs in 1950, after the host of the radio program ''
Truth or Consequences
''Truth or Consequences'' is an American game show originally hosted on NBC radio by Ralph Edwards (1940–1957) and later on television by Edwards (1950–1954), Jack Bailey (1954–1956), Bob Barker (1956–1975), Steve Dunne (1957–1958), ...
'' promised free publicity to any town willing to change its name to that of the show.
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
Jim Thorpe is a borough and the county seat of Carbon County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is historically known as the burial site of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe.
Jim Thorpe is l ...
, changed its name from Mauch Chunk in honor of the
famous athlete when his widow agreed to allow his remains to be buried there. The former community of Clark, Texas changed its name to
DISH as part of a marketing agreement with
Dish Network whereby the town's residents (roughly 200) would get free satellite TV service from the company.
In 1999, the town of
Halfway, Oregon
Halfway is a city in Baker County, Oregon, United States. The city took its name from the location of its post office, on the Alexander Stalker ranch, halfway between Pine and Jim Town. The population was 288 at the 2010 census.
During the do ...
, changed its name to Half.com for one year after the
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...
start-up
of the same name offered 20 computers, as well as $110,000 for the school, and other financial subsidies.
Saint Augusta,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
, was for a short time named Ventura after the then-governor
Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura (born James George Janos; July 15, 1951) is an American politician, actor, and retired professional wrestler. After achieving fame in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), he served as the 38th governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2 ...
(whose
ring name was in turn named after the city of
Ventura, California) to draw attention in avoiding annexation by the nearby city of
Saint Cloud. The name was reverted to the original name after the crisis passed.
In the late 1990s, the town of
Granville, North Dakota
Granville is a city in McHenry County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 240 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Minot Micropolitan Statistical Area. Granville was founded in 1900.
History
Granville was laid out and platted i ...
, agreed to change its name temporarily to McGillicuddy City as part of a promotion for
Dr. McGillicuddy's schnapps.
In March 2010,
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central U ...
, temporarily changed its name to
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
, after
the technology company, in an attempt to secure the installation of
Google Fiber in the city.
Lexically unusual place names
Unorthodox spelling or pronunciation, particularly
short or
long names, and names derived from unusual sources are often seen as unusual, especially by people outside the culture which named them. The Welsh village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll changed its name to the longer
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch ("The church of
t.Mary (Llanfair)
f thepool (pwll) of the white hazels (gwyn gyll) near
it. "over against"(go ger) the fierce whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll)
ndthe church of
t.Tysilio (Llantysilio) of the red cave") in the 1860s for publicity reasons. At 58 letters, it has the longest place name in the UK. The body of fresh water in
Webster, Massachusetts
Webster is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,776 at the 2020 census.
Named after statesman Daniel Webster, the town was founded by industrialist Samuel Slater, and was home to several early Ameri ...
, that has historically (since at least 1921) borne the apparently
Native American 45-letter/fourteen-syllable name Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg is usually shortened, for instance on road maps, to using only the final six syllables from its "long form"; as
Lake Chaubunagungamaug, or even more simply to "Webster Lake". The
longest single-word place name in the world is
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a hill in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
Conversely, there are several settlements whose name consists of only one letter. A number of Norwegian towns are named ''Å''. The name often comes from the
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...
word ''Ár'', meaning small river. Examples include:
Å, Åfjord
Å is a village in the municipality of Åfjord in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is also called Årnes or Å i Åfjord or just Åfjord. It is the administrative center of the municipality. The village is located at the end of the Åfjor ...
;
Å, Meldal
Å or Å Sentrum is a village in the municipality of Orkland in Trøndelag county, Norway. It lies along the Orkla River, about north of the border with the municipality of Rennebu.
Å, has the postal address 7335 Jerpstad, to distinguish it f ...
;
Å, Lavangen; and
Å, Tranøy (also compare rivers named
Aa). A village in northern France has been called
Y since the 13th century. The Netherlands has ''
IJ (Amsterdam)
The IJ (; sometimes shown on old maps as ''Y'' or ''Ye'') is a body of water, formerly a bay, in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is known for being Amsterdam's waterfront.
Etymology
The name IJ is derived from the West Frisian word ...
'', formerly spelled ''Y''. The Dutch digraph
IJ, although typed using two characters, is sometimes considered a ligature, or even a single letter in itself.
There are a number of place names that seem unusual to English speakers because they do not conform to standard English orthography rules. Examples include the Welsh towns of
Ysbyty Ystwyth and
Bwlchgwyn
Bwlchgwyn is a village in Wrexham County Borough, Wales, on the A525 road, west of the city of Wrexham and south-east of the town of Ruthin. Bwlchgwyn is part of the community of Brymbo. In the 2011 Census the population of the village was ...
which appear to English speakers to contain no vowel characters, although ''y'' and ''w'' represent vowel sounds in
Welsh.
Aioi, Japan;
Eiao, Marquesas Islands;
Aiea, Hawaii
Aiea (; haw, ʻAiea, ) is a census-designated place (CDP) located in the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the CDP had a total population of 9,338.
Geography
Aiea is located at (21.385900, −1 ...
;
[Aiea has an initial glottal stop in Hawaiian, which was dropped in English orthography.] Oia, Greece;
Oia, Spain
Oia is a municipality in the province of Pontevedra in the autonomous community of Galicia, in Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plu ...
;
Aia and
Ea,
Spanish Basque Country
The Basque Country (; eu, Euskadi ; es, País Vasco ), also called Basque Autonomous Community ( eu, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa, links=no, EAE; es, Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco, links=no, CAPV), is an autonomous community of Spain. It ...
;
Ae,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
;
Eu, France and
Ii, Finland
Ii (; sv, Ijo) is a municipality of Finland. It is situated by the Bothnian Bay, at the mouth of river Iijoki, and it is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is wat ...
, on the other hand, contain only vowels and no consonants. Triples of any letter in English are considered rare; although the French Polynesian commune
Fa'a'ā and its airport
Faa'a International Airport
Faa'a International Airport (french: Aéroport international de Tahiti-Faaa), also known as Tahiti International Airport , is the international airport of French Polynesia, located in the commune of Faaa, on the island of Tahiti. It is situated ...
both appear to contain a triple ''a'', the apostrophes represent glottal stops in Tahitian.
Unusual names may also be created as a result of error by the naming authority. An example is
Rednaxela Terrace in
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
, which is believed to be the name
Alexander
Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.
Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
but erroneously written right-to-left (the normal practice for writing Chinese in the past); the name has stayed and even been transcribed back to Chinese phonetically.
Road sign theft
As a result of increased notoriety, road signs are commonly stolen in
Fucking, Austria, as souvenirs
– the only crime which has been reported in the village.
It cost some 300
euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
s to replace each stolen sign, and the costs were reflected in the taxes that local residents pay.
In 2004, owing mainly to the stolen signs, a vote was held on changing the village's name, but the residents voted against doing so.
Tarsdorf municipality's mayor Siegfried Höppl stated that it was decided to keep the name as it had existed for 800 years,
["Brits steal carloads of F**king Austrian roadsigns"](_blank)
''The Register'', 15 August 2005. and further stated that "everyone here knows what it means in English, but for us Fucking is Fucking – and it's going to stay Fucking."
In November 2020, the council of Tarsdorf voted to have the village's name officially changed to ''Fugging'' (pronounced the same as ''Fucking'' in the dialect spoken in the region), effective 1 January 2021.
In 2010, the inhabitants of
Shitterton,
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
, purchased a 1.5-ton block of
Purbeck stone
Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck ...
to place at the entrance to Shitterton, carved with the hamlet's name to prevent theft.
A truck and crane were hired by volunteers to put the stone in place at a total cost of £680.
See also
*
List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations
*
List of long place names
*
List of short place names
*
Gag name
A gag name is a pseudonym intended to be humorous through its similarity to both a real name and a term or phrase that is funny, strange, or vulgar. The source of humor stems from the double meaning behind the phrase, although use of the name wit ...
*
Toponymy
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
, the study of place names
*
List of chemical compounds with unusual names
Chemical nomenclature, replete as it is with compounds with complex names, is a repository for some names that may be considered unusual. A browse through the ''Physical Constants of Organic Compounds'' in the ''CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Phy ...
*
Wikipedia:Unusual place names
Notes
References
External links
University of Calgary pressTopeka, Kansas, named Google, Kansas for one monthList of Weird Place NamesRude Hong KongBritain's silliest place names (The Telegraph)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Place Names Considered Unusual
Place names
Lists of things considered unusual