What's your favourite place name?

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I like Indian names for states and rivers, like Massachusetts, Susquehanna and Onondaga. They seem more like what words ought to be.

― Maria, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Arthur Kill Rd.

― Arthur, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Beat that.

Is that in New Hampshire?

― Dan Perry, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Heavens no, Dan, that's in Vermont. You're thinking of the sister town, Rub This.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

DaN P. SeZ:

Beat that.

Is that in New Hampshire?

NNNnnnngggg.....

― Norman Fay, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

....Arrrg groan etc

I just remembered this interenting (well, I thought so, anyway) factlet that I saw on TV years ago, abt place names in N America. It referred to the opening of long-distance railways in either the US or Canada (it was on a long time ago, so I can't quite remember) Apparently towns built along the route of certain railways were named alphabetically -albany, belmont, cawthorn etc etc. Supposedly to this day, along certain stretches of track (or where track once was) the alphabetical naming still persists, tho' w/the odd gap where a town has failed. Absolutely of no concievable use, this knowledge, but somehow interesting and poignant (the missing alphabet letters, that is) IMO.

Anything in yr library referring to that, Ned, or web links, anyone?

xoxo

― NorMaNFaY, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

NNNnnnngggg

Blimey. First one without vowels.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

interenting? -=INTERESTING=- gaaaah etc

― HE WHO TYPO-ES, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Those dodgy European ones:
Wankdorf in Germany. Surely everyone knows this one? (The Wank is Germany's 2nd highest mountain I kid you not.)
Apparently there's a place called Pervyshagg in Russia. (It was pronounced that way, not sure on the spelling).
Yes, and in the area of Piddletrenthide there are many villages with 'piddle' in their names.

― Bill, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Beaver Creek. Sorry.

― Trevor, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sorry, I'm partial to the highly imaginative "Upper Slaughter" and "Lower Slaughter" of the Cotswolds.

Though travelling from Manchester to Sheffield, we did get three cars of Americans giggling over Peniston.

― kate, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Is there a town called Me? Cos I've been to Paradise (Pennsylvania)

― Madchen, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Twat.

(small isle N. of Scotland)

― DavidM, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Side road right by me is called 'Happy Land West'. Which ain't bad!

(actually, I think Twat is the name of a town in an isle N. of Scotland)

― DavidM, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Lisha Kill

― Pennysong Hanle y, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Non-Stick Frying Pan.

― emil.y, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Lisha Kill! Hah! I love upstate NY old Dutch place names. Catskill is just so great. I love my mum's address, it's so violent - we shall KILL those dirty KRUMS and SLING them from our LANDS!!!

― kate, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

And there's the River Piddle. I'm pretty sure it was "Piddletown" and "Tolpiddle" until they became Puddletown and Tolpuddle to spare the embarrassment of one particular king (maybe George III) who was visiting the area. So it is only this that saved history from a vital foundation stone of the Labour / trade union movement having an incredibly embarrassing sniggery name rather than a quite pretty one.

Isn't there somewhere else in the north-east called Wide Open?

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, there is, as well as Tow Law (yr guess is as good as mine) Esh Winning, and (near esh winning) Quebec - a hamlet ov abt 5 houses.

― nfaY, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Byrsons book on the American Language has a whole chapter on fucked up place names. Its a comic masterpiece .

― anthony, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Where upstate does your mom live, Kate? I am curious about my proximity.

― Maria, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hi Kate you botard. What about Valatie ( vuh lay sha). Or Lebanon Valley.

― Pennysong Hanle y, Friday, 14 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

buttfucke, montana

― Geoff, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Minnesota: good for silly names.

Brainerd, MN (no brains, no nerds). My mother's house backs on to Minnehaha Creek. St Paul has Cretin High School.

and aND AND! I cannot believe the lack of mention for...

INTERCOURSE, Pennsylvania.

― suzy, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tow Law, Esh Winning and Wideopen all very real. In deepest darkest county Durham in the heart of the old coal mining industries, parts of which are close to Tony Blairs constituency. They're about as different from Tuscany as you could probably get.

Esh Winning is just a few miles from Langley Park which featured on a Prefab Sprout LP.

― Billy Dods, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Nagorno-Karabakh

― dave q, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"And there's the River Piddle. I'm pretty sure it was "Piddletown" and "Tolpiddle"" I live near villages called Wyre Piddle and Upper Piddle, which caused much merriment when I was a youngster.
Now though, I find very little amuses me.

― DavidM, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like the names:

Toronto
Acton

― jel, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mike, go sniff some glue out back behind the woodshop with the other botards.

Maria, my mum lives just West of Albany.

― kate, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There's a tiny rural hamlet in Holland called 'Hell'. I once spent a hazy summer's afternoon with a friend trying to locate it. After much map searching, and asking alarmed looking locals for directions, we finally found it. A small idyllic looking collection of farm houses one of which doubled up as a guest-house. Holiday in Hell anyone?

― stevo, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

According to some sources, Bay Shore (my home) was called Sodom for a brief moment in the 19th Century.

― Michael Daddino, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ever been to Pinvin, David?

― Robin Carmody, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There's a Hell in Michigan, too! I've been there, and sent postcards to my whole family saying "Well ya all thought I was goin' to Hell... well, now I'm finally here!"

― kate, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

St Louis Du Ha! Ha!

For real, see proof...

Picture taken two weeks ago in Quebec.

― Kim, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

oh, sorry... they must have just started blocking pictures. Used to work. :(

― Kim, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Suzy, I have a dog-eared copy of the Intercourse News somewhere at home. I went to Intercourse and then on to Paradise (they're neighbouring villages) - don't know why I mentioned one and not the other.

To the smut list I add Brest in France and to the non-dirty, Pity Me in County Durham (I think) - the name is thought to be a derivation of Petit Mer.

― Madchen, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I've always giggled like a little kid whenever I see the signs for "Crested Butte", but another favorite of mine is Gallup, New Mexico. I used to eat blue corn oatmeal there.

― Mandee Wright, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ouagadougou- capital of Burkina Faso

― ian, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I've always liked how so many of Philadelphia's suburbs have Welsh names or are named after places in Wales (Bala Cynwyd, Haverford, Elwyn, Moylan, Gwynedd Valley, Ambler, Penllyn). Someone else has mentioned Intercourse, Pennsylvania. Then there's also Jim Thorpe, PA. Pennsylvania is chockful of oddball town names.

I've also always been partial Bydgoszcz (a city in Poland), Brno (in the Czech Republic), Ticklenaked Pond (in Vermont), and that old standby Lake Titicaca.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Saturday, 15 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like the name Pasadena. Is it nice there?

― rainy, Sunday, 16 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Megalopolis. First ever really ambitious city-naming, i.e. it translates roughly as "fucking enormous city". Also sounds cool and futuristic despite being built in the 4th century BC.

And I'm partial to Ur. Start minimal, always a good idea.

― Tom, Sunday, 16 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hammerfest, Norway.

You just can't get any cooler than that!

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Sunday, 16 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I also forgot to mention a vital point, that the exclamation marks in 'St Louis Du Ha! Ha!' are NOT an embellishment.

Ardbeg is another oddball favourite.

Prettiest is Los Angeles.

― Kim, Sunday, 16 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

There's an air force base called Moron in Southern Spain according to today's Guardian.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I can't believe that Robin didn't mention Shitterton. I think Westward ho! has a little charm to it too.

― cabbage, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Nork (Nork related fact: in my bedroom, I have a massive A-Z map of London and my idiot brother and his lovely wife and I used to spend ages looking for places with funny names. Nork won)

I liked the thing about Surbiton sounding futuristic. Surbitron?

― jamesmichaelward, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

in new jersey:
creme ridge
mount holly
fresh kills
ong's hat
egg harbor
mahwah
ho-ho-kus
rancocas woods
shellpile
cheesequake
zarephath

― your null fame, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Spuyten Duyvil, a section of Riverdale in the Bronx.

― Benjamin, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It means "Spitting Devil" in old Dutch, which makes it even better. Because it's right by Hells Gate, the most tretcherous body of water in NYC (where the East River, Hudson River and Long Island Sound meet). Sorry I know so much about it, my ex's band used to be on a label named after it.

― kate, Monday, 17 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

not East River Pipe? i'm afraid i don't know any other bands on that label.

― gareth, Tuesday, 18 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Skipping 124 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Atholl is pretty good. As is Ware.

― aimurchie, Wednesday, 13 October 2004 01:52 (nineteen years ago) link

three years pass...

OMG, how did I not know before that the capital of Bahrain is called Manama.

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 8 December 2007 02:22 (sixteen years ago) link

Yalumlum

― Heave Ho, Saturday, 8 December 2007 02:41 (sixteen years ago) link

COCKFOSTERS!

The first thing that came to mind was the first answer on this thread!

Place name once seen on a Chilean road sign: Peor es nada (Better than nothing).

― jim, Saturday, 8 December 2007 03:26 (sixteen years ago) link

Warsaw

― CaptainLorax, Saturday, 8 December 2007 03:49 (sixteen years ago) link

Sequim

― gabbneb, Saturday, 8 December 2007 04:00 (sixteen years ago) link

MAN-A-MA! MAN-A-MA-OH-OH-OH-AH-AH!

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 8 December 2007 04:02 (sixteen years ago) link

Big Bone Lick, KY for the win

― Euler, Saturday, 8 December 2007 04:04 (sixteen years ago) link

The city of BATMAN, Turkey !!!

― JTS, Saturday, 8 December 2007 14:55 (sixteen years ago) link

Westward Ho!

Gotta love a place with an exclamation mark in its name.

― Noodle Vague, Saturday, 8 December 2007 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link

Manama is like: Mon as in money,AA mah

― Heave Ho, Saturday, 8 December 2007 15:13 (sixteen years ago) link

there's a restaurant here called Grumpy Dicks

― Bo Jackson Overdrive, Saturday, 8 December 2007 15:16 (sixteen years ago) link

oconomowoc ot$

― Oilyrags, Saturday, 8 December 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link

Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard

― Heave Ho, Sunday, 9 December 2007 00:41 (sixteen years ago) link

McLeod Ganj
Crocodilopolis

Best names to roll round the mouth - Vanuatu & Guatemala, but to really milk Guatemala you need to go American and turn the t to d.

― ogmor, Sunday, 9 December 2007 03:32 (sixteen years ago) link

Squibnocket, Martha's Vineyard.

― gr8080, Sunday, 9 December 2007 03:34 (sixteen years ago) link

three years pass...

The city of BATMAN, Turkey !!!

― JTS, Saturday, 8 December 2007 14:55 (3 years ago)

I just found this while idly surfing a world atlas on the bog. Awesome.

― acoleuthic, Saturday, 29 January 2011 19:30 (thirteen years ago) link

http://www.qwantz.com/comics/comic2-1361.png

― totally small truffles (Abbbottt), Sunday, 30 January 2011 03:08 (thirteen years ago) link

COCKFOSTERS reigns supreme

― VegemiteGrrrl, Sunday, 30 January 2011 03:13 (thirteen years ago) link

Butt, Montana

― beer, beer, beer (Pillbox), Sunday, 30 January 2011 03:32 (thirteen years ago) link

I just random articled my way to Orroroo, South Australia.

― Antoine Bugleboy (Merdeyeux), Sunday, 30 January 2011 03:33 (thirteen years ago) link

three years pass...

Beeston Bump

― ogmor, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 19:53 (nine years ago) link

Blubberhouses

― ogmor, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 19:54 (nine years ago) link

Mevagissey.

Not least because it comes out something like "Mega-vizzy" when I try to say it.

― Shugazi (Branwell with an N), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 19:59 (nine years ago) link

Me vag is see

― a spectrum is taunting ur OP (wins), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 20:17 (nine years ago) link

Wetwang

― Daphnis Celesta, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 21:14 (nine years ago) link

stranraer

― saer, Tuesday, 26 August 2014 21:16 (nine years ago) link

Humptulips, WA.

― Tomás Piñon (Ryan), Tuesday, 26 August 2014 21:21 (nine years ago) link

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