Stupid Place Names

[silversword]

Having just read through the thread relating to Morris Dancing and Og's reference to the Loose Women, a Morris Dancing group. I was also reading another thread about unusual names.

Putting the two together, I began to think of some of the more unusual place names and there usage. I know we in Brittain have a great number.

One of my favourites has to be in a town near Braford called Idle. As with most towns up North it has a working mens club, and I think you guessed it it's quite simply called the Idle Working Mens Club.

You couldn't make it up could you!

 

[oggbashan]

Kent has a few:

Pratt's Bottom

Pluckley

Green Street Green which they thought so good they called two places by that name only a few miles apart. (Was also a hit song by The New Vaudeville Band in 1967. The band saw a signpost on the way back from a performance and wrote the song on the tour bus.)

Old Wives Lees

Hardes which has Upper Hardes and Lower Hardes

Paddlesworth - for the spanking aficionados

Lynsore Bottom - after she'd been paddled?

Sandwich is close to a village called Ham. There is a protected signpost saying "Ham | Sandwich".

Dorset has a few more - particularly towns on the River Piddle or Puddle (or Trent).

Piddlehinton; Puddletown, Tolpuddle (famous for trade union history because the Tolpuddle Martyrs were convicted of belonging to a trade union and transported to Australia), Affpuddle, Briantspuddle, Turners Puddle, Tincleton and the place which couldn't decide on the river's name - Piddletrenthide.

Og

 

[Wicked-N-Erotic]

This guy has a book about odd names of places. Some of them are really funny. Here's a link to see some of the weird names.

Passing Gas - By Gary Gladstone

Wicked

 

[DurtGurl]

Headline

There are two small towns, not far apart in Minnesota. They are Fertile and Climax. Of course the headline appeared in the newspaper, "Fertile Woman Killed in Climax."

Hur, hur,
DG

 

[pointless]

i always liked gnaw bone, indiana. not because it's stupid really, but because i can't figure out why anyone would want to live in a place called gnaw bone. i was born in the general area and i still don't have a clue besides people in indiana are bored and a bit crazy thanks to all the flatland and white people. gas city is another good one from indiana. god, i hate indiana.

 

[CrownJoolz]

there used to be a small town in NY called Cheesekock. For some reason, they changed the name.

 

[MathGirl]

Cock cheese

there used to be a small town in NY called Cheesekock. For some reason, they changed the name.

They changed it to "Smegma" didn't they?
MG

 

[wildsweetone]

try getting your tongue around this gem

here's my favourite... i think it's one of the longest place names in the world.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu

it means: the place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as 'landeater,' played his flute to his loved one.

oh, i can say the name too though only if i'm reading it, i tend to get the 'tamatea' and 'pokai' around the wrong way otherwise.

 

[karmadog]

For those going through divorce, there is a Hell, Michigan. They have an annual 10k run through Hell.

There is also a Climax, Mi. From I-69 take the Big Beaver Road exit.

 

[SlaveMasterUK]

The Westcountry is full of interesting little villages with interesting little names. Here's two of my faves, not far from my workplace:

Buttcombe

Nempnett Thrubwell. Now does that sound like some kind of fungal infection..?

ax

 

[gauchecritic]

Not an infection, a local place name

Criddling Stubbs

Now that's gotta hurt.

Gauche

 

[MathGirl]

Irish towns

There are some really weirdly named places is Ireland. Names like Ballymoralthrustingibbit. The road signs are in both English and Celtic, and that makes things even more confusing.
MG

 

[snooper]

UK wins again

Ufton Nervet which looks as though the sign maker was just given a few letters and told to make the name pronounceable.

Fictional, but on a model railway I know there are two villages. One is called "Hard Shoulder Narrows' and the other is called 'Loose Chippings'. This latter is twinned with an equally fictional village in France called 'Ceder-le-Passage'.

And finally, in North Wales we really do have Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwynrdrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

 

[Alex De Kok]

A bit boring around here really. We have Wallsend, which is at one end of the Roman Wall which used to be the Northern extremity of the Roman Empire. Then there's Benton, and Longbenton, which seem to amuse adolescent teenage boys. There's Coalburns, which seems to be rather stating the obvious. Of course, New York is just down the road from me, and Washington across the river. Tyne, not Potomac.

Alex

 

[CrownJoolz]

Re: Cock cheese

They changed it to "Smegma" didn't they?
MG

Yeah, and you should have seen their high school mascot!

 

[English Lady]

On my yearly family holiday to scarborough my mum takes us the long way round dowwn all the "A" roads(mum is allergic to motorways) and every year we go by Eck and great Eck and Little Eck also we go through The Land of Nod. Seriously we do!

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't think the US can compete with the UK in this category. You guys have us beat.

However, mention of the mascot of Smegma High made me think of a weird mascot story.

A friend of mine grew up in Vincennes, Indiana (there you go, Pointless) whose only claim to fame was some poem about a woman named Alice (I think it was called something like "A Lady of Old Vincennes", some sort of 19th century patriotic swill)

As a consequence, the name of their high school football team was "The Fighting Alices"

The woman's softball team was called "The Lady Alices".


---dr.M.

 

[MathGirl]

As a consequence, the name of their high school football team was "The Fighting Alices"

I'll bet that name really struck fear into the hearts of their opponents.

The Whittier College teams are called the "Poets."

I've heard of teams called "Hoyas." Does anyone perchance know what a "hoya" is?

MG

 

[karmadog]

There is a Hot Coffee, Ms and a Waveland which is at least twenty miles from a wave.

In MIchigan again, there is Kalamazoo (called by the locals Kazoo) and down the road, Battle Creek. Not funny in and of itself, but we used to speculate that the two towns would eventually grow together and become Battle Kazoo.

 

[Singularity]

Interesting Geographic Names

If you scrutinize the topographic maps of southern Utah, you will find a goodly number of names for geographic formations such as:

The Bishop's Prick

Molly's Nipple

and more than a few other women's nipples....


As as far as rock formations can go, the names fit pretty well, too.


Singularity

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I'll bet that name really struck fear into the hearts of their opponents.

The Whittier College teams are called the "Poets."

I've heard of teams called "Hoyas." Does anyone perchance know what a "hoya" is?

MG

Dear MG,

THIS is a Hoya.

 

[MathGirl]

Gd Grf!

No, no, Svenska. That's an Oscar de la Hoya. I wonder if he would know what a Hoya is?
MG

 

[CrownJoolz]

Pennsylvania Dutch country

Amish country, aka Pennsylvania Dutch country, is loaded with interesting names such as Intercourse and Blue Ball.

Joolz

 

[snooper]

Does anyone perchance know what a "hoya" is?

It named after the English gardener Thomas Hoy and is defined as:
Any of various chiefly climbing or twining plants of the genus Hoya (family Asclepiadaceae), natives of the Far East, bearing dense umbels of fleshy or waxy pink, white, or yellow flowers. Also called wax flower, wax plant.


PS Sorry to inject reality into an interesting set of conjectures.

 

[snooper]

Different countries

THe Belgians have a few. my favourite is

Erps-Kwerps

which is a station on the railway line between Brussels and Leuven.