Unusual Place Names
Following the place names listed in the Where You Are thread (Cities & Travel).
I'm cheating because I'm asking people to post place names they know, whereas I was simply sent these. I have been to some of them, but am offering the list as a thread starter:
· Ae near Dumfries. The shortest place name in Britain.
· Badger's Mount near Farnborough.
· Balls Cross, West Sussex.
· Barton in the Beans, west of Leicester.
· Botusfleming, near SaltashCornwall.
· Bozomzeal near Dartmouth, Devon.
· Briantspuddle near Dorchester.
· Broadwoodwidger near Launceston.
· Catbrain near Cribb's Causeway, north of Bristol.
· Chaldron Herring near Lulworth Cove.
· Chignall Smeally near Chelmsford, Essex.
· Compton Pauncefoot near Yeovil.
· Dog Village near Exeter.
· Eccup north of Leeds.
· Foul Mile near Hailsham, East Sussex.
· Frenchbeer on Dartmoor.
· Goonbell near Redruth, Cornwall.
· Grimness on South Ronaldsay, Orkney.
· Great Snoring near Walsingham, Norfolk.
· Gussage St. Michael near Blandford Forum, Dorset.
· Heanton Punchardon near Barnstaple.
· Heckmondwike east of Halifax, West Yorkshire.
· Heglibister on the Mainland of Shetland.
· Helions Bumpstead near Saffron Walden.
· Hinton-in-the-Hedges near Banbury, Oxfordshire.
· Hole in the Wall near Ross-on-Wye.
· Hoyland Swaine west of Barnsley.
· Huish Episcopi near Langport, Somerset.
· Idle near Bradford.
· Kettlesing Bottom west of Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
· Killiecrankie near Pitlochrie.
· Leake Hurn's End near Boston, west of the Wash.
· Lower Slaughter near Bourton on the Water.
· Mabe Burnthouse, Falmouth, Cornwall.
· Mumps, Oldham, Greater Manchester.
· Nasty near Stevenage.
· Nempnett Thrubwell between Bath and Weston super Mare.
· Netherthong near Huddersfield.
· Nether Wallop near Andover.
· Old Wives Lees near Canterbury.
· Oswaldtwistle near Blackburn.
· Piddlehinton near Dorchester.
· Pity Me north of Durham.
· Pratt's Bottom near Farnborough.
· Praze-an-Beeble near Cambourne.
· Ruyton-XI-Towns Shropshire.
· Ryme Intrinsica near Yeovil.
· Sheepy Parva near Nuneaton.
· Shellow Bowells near Chelmsford, Essex.
· Six Mile Bottom near Cambridge.
· The Dicker near Hailsham, East Sussex.
· Throcking near Stevenage.
· Thrupp near Stroud (also one near Oxford)
· Thwing near Bridlington.
· Twatt on the Mainland of Orkney.
· Ugglebarnby near Whitby.
· Ugley near Bishop's Stortford.
· Upton Snodsbury near Worcester. (Borsetshire)
· Westonzoyland near Bridgewater, Somerset.
· Westward Ho! Devon.
· Wetwang near Bridlington.
· Wormiehills on the coast, east of Dundee.
· Yarrow Feus south of Edinburgh.
· Yetts O'Muckhart east of Stirling.
· Yockenthwaite in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire.
· Zeal Monachorum north-west of Exeter.
... and feel free to add any from your own experience!
Intercourse, Pennsylvania
Penistone in Barnsley, South Yorks. I've been there.
I've also been to Intercourse, Pennsylvania and the other Lancaster-area towns Blue Ball (I actually have family there, no kiddin') and Bird-in-hand.
In Ohio we have Russia (pronounced roo-she), Versailles (pronounced ver-sails), and Houston (pronounced house-ton.) We love to steal the names and butcher the pronunciation!
I can't remember the last time I entered Dennis, but I'm sure I was probably drunk. But I'll never forget entering Shirley and Sharon (on the same night!).:o I miss Massachusetts.
On South Island in New Zealand, there are two small towns next to each other called Clinton and Gore.
That little tidbit was more interesting inthe '90s, when I was there.
Here's a sign in Western Maine
I had a good friend from Poland. He flushed his toilet with Poland Springs water.
Peculiar, Missouri
Tightwad, Missouri
I've seen the road signs to both Penistone and Ae.
And there are various "-puddles" in Dorset. Apparently they were originally named "-piddle" but renamed before Queen Victoria drove through in case in offended her. I was just thinking that this is probably apocryphal when I remembered that there is definitely a Piddletrenthide down there somewhere!
Oswaldtwistle ! One of my cousins lives in Oswaldtwistle !
Can we add Slack End? Another Yorkshire one.:)
My favourite is still Nob End in Bolton:P
Small community just west of Statesboro, Ga. is called Hopulikit. I have a pic somewhere......
Virginville, PA (Outside of Kutztown)
I'm not allowed to visit.
the first wife used to live in Hope.... that's a small village in Shropshire...
And who can ever forget Gurny Slade, after which a whole TV show was named.
...and I'm always somewhat bemused by Indian Chiefs in Cornwall...
I used to work groves in a place called Ona FL.
How can I forget:
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
and
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
North Zulch, pronounced zoolch, central Texas. We turned off our road to investigate what kind of place rejoiced in such a name. It's a little bitty Texas town mostly hidden in the scrub oaks.
Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. Pronounced exactly as you expect. Never been there. Met a guy in a bar who was from there -- he said it was in beautiful country, but there was no work to be had.
Boring, Maryland.
Ohiopyle is where you can find Falling Water, the Frank Lloyd Wright designed house with the creek/river running through it.
How about Jersey Shore, PA, in north, central PA (nowhere near New Jersey or the ocean)?
In New Jersey, there's Buena, pronouncd Byoona, even though those same people pronounce Lancaster as Lannnn Caster.
These aren't as outright amusing as many already posted, but I get a chuckle out of thinking about the combination of dearth of imagination and practicality in naming the following towns surrounding Westminster, VT:
Westminster West
East Westminster
Had the area grown much we can only imagine the permutations...
When I lived in Quainton in Bucks, we had a matched set of villages close to us too:
Steeple Claydon
East Claydon
Middle Claydon
Botolph Clayden
Although I assume there was a historical reason for this (possibly landed gentry called Claydon) as opposed to a lack of imagination.
We also had a friend that lived in Marsh Gibbon, and although I don't remember any comment on that at the time, we did like Great Horwood (obviously something a lesser whore wouldn't)
Re Vermont, the Dummerstons......North, South, East, West and Center.
RE Alaska, Red Devil, North Pole and my favorite.....Unalaska.
Moose Factory in Canada is another. ;)
and there really is an
Upper Wallop
Middle Wallop
and last but not least
Lower Wallop
Upper Wallop
Middle Wallop
and last but not least
Lower Wallop
Isn't that where all the BDSM types hang out?:P
Re Vermont, the Dummerstons......North, South, East, West and Center.
RE Alaska, Red Devil, North Pole and my favorite.....Unalaska.
Moose Factory in Canada is another. ;)
Used to live just down the 'pike form the dummerstons: Williamsville. aka Bill'sville.
Amazing swimming in those parts.
actually, Dana, I think they mostly commuted from Whippingham, IOW
Pe EllPe Ell was named after French-Canadian Pierre Charles, who lived in the area in the 1850s. Located 23 miles west of Chehalis on Scenic Highway 6 (Ocean Beach Highway). This small town has a strong Polish ancestry and the oldest church in town is the Holy Cross Polish National Church. They also have a vintage military tank right next to the fire station that is often missed by visitors. Logging continues to be the mainstay of Pe Ell's economy.
Forks (The one *I* always think about when y'all talk about Forks, and a heckuva lot shorter commute).
The City of Forks is a small, rural community with big ideas! Nestled between a million acres of national park and the wild Pacific Coast, Forks is the heart of the Olympic Peninsula's West End. It is a place where folks stop for pedestrians and still chat in grocery lines. Forks has traditionally been a timber town, with logging the mainstay of the ecomony. But that has changed a bit, and all sorts of fun things are happening. Technology is taking a major role as a redundant loop of fiberoptic cable around the Peninsula is only months from completion. Our schools are so wired they are ranked among the "most wired" schools in the nation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has chosen Forks High School as a model for "High Tech High". We now have an incubator building for tech businesses. We also have a new industrial park, a huge airport, and a community aquatic center that will be complete this spring (2005).
Puyallup Most famous (to me at least) for their fair. They musta got in on the internet thingee early--http://www.thefair.com/ "thefair"? Around here it is The Fair.
Nooksack 'nuff said.
Twisp Whimsical sounding, isn't it?
Located at the confluence of the Twisp and Methow rivers, the town of Twisp is a year-around paradise that offers abundant sunshine, generous snowfall and plenty of wildlife including bald eagles, white-tailed and mule deer, cougars, bears, even occasional elk and moose.
If outdoor recreation is your passion, Twisp is definitely the place to be with four seasons of fun that include mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding, skiing, snowmobiling, hunting, fishing and much more.
Founded in 1897, Twisp is the largest town in the Methow Valley with an eclectic mix of approximately 1,000 residents that includes artists, musicians, writers, ranchers, farmers, entrepreneurs and outdoor enthusiasts, among others.
Vader, WA. No link, you can look it up. Named after some guy.
Walla Walla Euphonious, especially when spoken by Roger Rabbit.
Wierd place names was something that I loved as a geography major in college. I remember places like Smackover (corruption of Chemin Covert), Nigger Ben Meadow, and of course, some of the more bizarre Pennsylvania town names like Intercourse, Bird-in-Hand, and Blue Ball.
King of Prussia, incidentally, is named after a what, rather than a who. Because I knew this I won some cool stuff from a local radio DJ ... he used to make fun of the name and would always ask, "Who is the King of Prussia anyway." I called with the explanation that it was named after the Inn that at the time was still standing at the intersection of 202 and Gulph Road (it has since been moved as part of a rescue the historic inn project). He told me I was full of crap and hung up on me. Later that morning, on my way to work, I was quite surprised to hear my call played on the radio! Nearly put my car in the ditch. He made some additional jokes at my expense and played some music. Anyway, shortly after playing my call, he received a call from a very nice lady at the historical society who took him to task for the way he treated me ... a friend of mine told me about this call (we had a no radios rule at work) and I called him back the next morning, told him he owed me, and he apologized, agreed, and sent me a gift pack with all kinds of cool station merchandise.
Wolf the geography major? Wow! Does that help you in your current occupation?
Wolf: "send the men in white coats to pick up Mrs. Smith. She's in Lower Providence, not to be confused with Upper Providence or Nether Providence. That would be Lattitude yadayada, longitude yadayada. Named by Thomas Leper in 1635, it defined the portion of land deeded to Leper by Prince Schlomo, of the Finnish Schlomos - a deed voided by Wiliam Penn....."
Houston (pronounced house-ton.)
Actually I heard recently that it is originally house-ton, and that Houston (hue-ston) was the mutilation. Perhaps it became popular because of Sam Houston or somethin like that?
Perhaps.
I can tell you that there is a huge difference between Houston, OH and Houston TX! :D
Very cool, wolf. I always wondered about King of Prussia. I assumed it was named to honor the King of Prussia in thanks for all the Prussian mercenaries who helped out in the Revolutionary War. Named after an inn, huh? I never would have guessed that.
Yes, I have a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Planning. Only after you graduate do you learn that you have to be related to someone in politics to work in this field. I have never worked as a geographer or planner.
More about King of Prussia
Lesson Plans from the National Park Service that talk about the move
A lot of the weird town names in Pennsylvania result from being named after an inn ... the original name of the town of West Chester was Turk's Head. In Pennsylvania Dutch Country I have already mentioned Blue Ball and Bird-in-Hand. Near me, Blue Bell and Broad Axe are both inn names.
And then we have Bala Cynwyd. That's the fault of the Welsh. I love hearing people who aren't from here try to pronounce that one. And Bryn Mawr. And Bryn Athyn, and Gwynedd.
More about King of Prussia
This bit was particularly interesting.
For more than a quarter century the inn was marooned on an artificial island, with cars and trucks roaring past it on all sides. It was sealed up for years, surrounded by a high fence.
That whole story reminds me of the lyrics to T
elegraph Road, by Dire Straits.
...And then we have Bala Cynwyd. That's the fault of the Welsh. I love hearing people who aren't from here try to pronounce that one. And Bryn Mawr. And Bryn Athyn, and Gwynedd.
Is it true that the "man in charge" of building the main line railroad was Welsh, and named the stations, and the towns took the station names as the town names?
It compounds the mischief that "wy" in Welsh is a dipthong not found in English -- wee approximates it, but it's more correctly like ooey or Pooh-y, and even then that's with an accent.
The previously mentioned village of Blue Ball, PA, was named for the Blue Ball Hotel which was rumored to be George Washington's first recruiting station for the Continental Army. Being in East Earl Township, Lancaster County, (rtes 322 & 23) it's hard to believe it was the first, but it was certainly one of them.
Friend of mine leased the hotel and operated it for about 10 years with a liquor license leased from another party.
When the owners of the hotel wanted to break the lease, they arranged for the liquor license to be yanked and forced the place to close.
A number of groups were trying to save the place as a historic building (already in the National register) so the owners, fearing they would be tied up, tore it down over a holiday weekend....4th of July, if I remember right.
I got there the second day and the porches, doors and windows were gone and the bar and kitchen gutted. The third day it was gone, except for the rubble to be pushed into the Cellar when they'd finished removing the beams and metal hardware for butchering cattle, sheep, hogs and Buffalo.
The Buffalo were in recent years as there are a number of farms near by that raise them. They also held a competition for who could bring is the biggest Snapping Turtle. The shell was displayed in the bar, for a year, with the winners name on it. This contest supplied the turtle soup pot for the next year also.
This all happened, hmm....I guess 8 or 10 years ago, and it's still a vacant lot...bastards. :mad:
Is it true that the "man in charge" of building the main line railroad was Welsh, and named the stations, and the towns took the station names as the town names?
I don't think the train went through in 1862.
The names predate the train stations.
Except for Ambler, which was named after Mary Ambler's brave and selfless work in helping the victims of the train crash in that town. Ambler was originally called "Wissahickon," the name which is used for the high school, school district, and local library branches. (I think the Ambler Library became the Wissahickon Valley Public Library some time in the late 1960s, as I remember taking older books out that had the original Ambler Public Library stamps on them).
The original "Main Line of Public Works" project became the "Main Line" of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in 1834. It went through Bala, Cynwyd and Ardmore.
The West Philadelphia Railroad opened it's tracks through Overbrook, Merion, Narberth and Wynnewood to Ardmore in 1840.
The state aquired the West Philly RR in 1850 and gave it, along with the Philly & Columbia RR, to the Pensylvania Railroad in 1857.
The Welsh names come from the
Welsh settlers.
The Welsh Tract, also called the Welsh Barony, was a portion of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania settled largely by Welsh-speaking Quakers. It covers 40,000 acres (160 km²) to the north-west of Philadelphia. The original settlers, led by John Roberts, negotiated with William Penn in 1684 to constitute the Tract as a separate county whose local government would use the Welsh language, since many of the settlers spoke no English. Notwithstanding this agreement, by the 1690s the land had already been partitioned into different counties, despite appeals from the Welsh settlers, and the Tract never gained self-government.
The Roberts and other Welsh families became influential in the area, through the building of mills and the eventual introduction of the railroad. It is the railroad that gives the best-known part of the area its current name - the Main Line, referring to the main track of the now-defunct Pennsylvania Railroad.
The area is now part of Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties. Many towns in the area still bear Welsh names. Some, such as Bala Cynwyd, are named after places in Wales. Others, such as Tredyffrin or Uwchlan, have independent Welsh names. The former town of Merion Square was renamed Gladwyne in 1891 in order to imitate the stylish Welsh names of adjoining towns, although the name is meaningless in Welsh.
The former town of Merion Square was renamed Gladwyne in 1891 in order to imitate the stylish Welsh names of adjoining towns, although the name is meaningless in Welsh.
The Anglophone ear would have difficulty distinguishing "glad" from "gwlad," I suppose, though
gwlad's A is broad rather than short, and the W's "oo" sound in Welsh is unstressed in this word, so the word tends to sound like "g'lahd." It means
nation or
country.Well I don't know if this counts for an unusual place name.. but back when I lived in TN, not too far from my house was the intersection of Old Hickory Road.. and Old Hickory Road.
I miss the south
Maybe not unusual but I grew up in Hicksville, NY and now I live in the south.
It's funny when people ask me where I am from down here and I say Hicksville. They usually say "me too".
Well I don't know if this counts for an unusual place name.. but back when I lived in TN, not too far from my house was the intersection of Old Hickory Road.. and Old Hickory Road.
I miss the south
Down near Oxford, Penna. (which nearly qualifies as the south) they have the intersection of Route One and Route 1. Both run North to South.
... gutted. The third day it was gone, except for the rubble to be pushed into the Cellar when they'd finished removing ...
Ah HAH, so that's why it's a bit dusty in here ...
I don't think the train went through in 1862.
The names predate the train stations.
...
It was [COLOR="Blue"]the railroad company[/COLOR] that used the old Welsh names, Bala and Cynwyd for their stations and so really [COLOR="Blue"]named our community[/COLOR] by bringing into daily use the names of the ancestral towns of the pioneers.
This confuses me. The names predate the station, but the railroad company named the community? Uhhhh - what?
The railroad un-renamed the community.
The railroad un-renamed the community.
lol :rotflol:
This confuses me. The names predate the station, but the railroad company named the community? HHS - what?
Where did that quote come from?
Before the railroad, there were no "communities", only farms and an occasional store, smithy or Meeting House.
The railroads built stations and gave them Welsh names from wherever, possibly farms, or roads named after places in Wales, the locals came from.
The "communities" grew up around and took the names of, the stations.
Some have changed, like Bala and Cynwyd were separate until the USPS decided they only needed one post office, which they called Bala-Cynwyd. As the two towns grew together they became one. :hugnkiss:
Wolf said the names predate the station, the site that she cited said the railroad named the communitiy.
I am sorry to report that early Alaskans must not have had a sense of humor - otherwise there would be a town named Baked, AK.
There is a Hell here in Somerset and Piddle Pool near Priddy, Cheddar, also near here. My brother lives near Curry in Mid Somerset but his village is Tintinhull, pronounced locally as Tintull. His village is on the edge of the Wetlands, known locally as the Badlands. My town is a legendary English joke as the UK Cellerites will attest. The town with one too many piers (peers) Weston-Super-Mare because jeffrey Archer is Lord Archer of WSM. Still.
This weekend I drove past a new development of upscale houses ($800K+). That wasn't really unusual. What was unusual was the name of the development.
Announcing Slitting Mill, an enclave of four new homes nestled on generously sized 1 ½+ acre level homes sites in prestigious Edgmont Township, Delaware Co.
Slitting Mill? Does anyone do any kind of focus group testing. I mean, a lot rich people probably aren't afraid to get a little blood on their hands, but isn't this going a bit far?
I know in the U.K. there are some place names that reflect a bloody past, and even in the New England area of the U.S. you can find places like the
Gibbet Hill Grill, but you would think that if there was an actual choice available, the developer would pick a different feature to highlight.
To be fair, the slitting that is referred to is a manufacturing term. Still, to me the name sounds like the title for a horror movie.
It's probably on Slitting Mill Road.
Slitting Mills were real important for making nails, so there were a lot of them, until nail making got more refined.
If I saw that name I'd think it a manufacturing term. It wouldn't occur to me that it might be a ref to violence.
Something people from elsewhere (and here for that matter) might find unusual is the number of Pigeon place names in the US. The passenger pigeon was that important to peoples survival/economy.
One flock in 1866 in southern Ontario was described as being 1 mi (1.5 km) wide and 300 mi (500 km) long, took 14 hours to pass, and held in excess of 3.5 billion birds.
says Wiki. Can you imagine how much seed laden shit that flock would drop in a day. :biggrinba
Hard to believe they're extinct and yet kudzu, zebra mussels, Japanese beetles and all other manner of shit species are alive and well.
Bastards.
BTW, RE Slitting? All I can think of is the juvenile term for a woman's "special purpose"
We gotta get you a woman,
It's like nothin' else to make you feel sure you're alive.
We gotta get you a woman,
We better get walkin', we're wastin' time talkin' now.
:cool:
truer words were never typen
This weekend I drove past a new development of upscale houses ($800K+). That wasn't really unusual. What was unusual was the name of the development.
Slitting Mill? Does anyone do any kind of focus group testing. I mean, a lot rich people probably aren't afraid to get a little blood on their hands, but isn't this going a bit far?
I know in the U.K. there are some place names that reflect a bloody past, and even in the New England area of the U.S. you can find places like the Gibbet Hill Grill, but you would think that if there was an actual choice available, the developer would pick a different feature to highlight.
To be fair, the slitting that is referred to is a manufacturing term. Still, to me the name sounds like the title for a horror movie.
There's a hamlet by the name of Slitting Mill, in Staffordshire, England. It isn't a name/term I've ever encountered in any context but the
Slitting Mill website sheds a little light on the name.
Slitting Mill Village
Slitting Mill is a hamlet of fewer than 400 people, about one and a quarter miles west of Rugeley on the very edge of Cannock Chase. The village has also been known as Rolling Mill, and Stonehouse.
The name of Slitting Mill is derived from the type of work carried out along the stream where mills would split (slit) wood and metal.
When I was a lad, I lived in the village of Merzhausen in Germany. Merzhausen and something like five other little villages were all nestled in this beautiful storybook valley on the edge of the Black Forest. The name of the valley?
Hexental. (Witches' Valley.)
I wish I knew the story behind that name. It gets the imagination going. I mean, come on. Black Forest? Witches? Maybe the real Hansel and Gretel lived there?
The wikipedia article I linked to above says the name is derived from "Hagstal" or Hag valley. And Hag is a sort of protected clearing surrounded by brush or woods or even fences. So maybe it's a boring explanation, except
the translated entry for "Hag" says:
The Hag also offered cemeteries protection from evil spirits, especially if it consists of yew or boxwood existed. Also, both in Central Europe, as well as Nordic and English sagas surprising passages in hedges as a transition into a fairyland or the underworld to find. So also derived Witch (OHG hecse, English:. hag, also mnl. Hagetisse), from the same root word from. As an alternative designation is found Fence Rider / in.
So hag is like a secret garden.
So hag is like a secret garden.
[snigger] He said "hag is"!
Sent by thought transference
From my reading, the hag is a fence, an enclosure, a ... guardian? Protection? Wisdom and safety, comfort. That appears to be the Nordic and Scottish etymology ... the English is definitely negative.
[snigger] He said "hag is"!
HAGGIS!
In the next county over is Eighty-eight, KY. There is a country store on the way that is called the Forty-four Country Market. Because it's halfway to Eighty-eight, get it?
We live near Hell, but also saline (Saleen), Milan (My-Lan), South Lyon (Lion) and Climax (uh-uh-uh-uuuh-uh-oooh)
There is also a Delhi road or three here (North, South and Belly/I dunno) pronounced Dell High, of course....
Oh, and Novi. Allegedly also named by the railroad, kinda..... it was Station Number Six before there was anything other than industry there ....But Wikipedia says that and other similar stories are bull. but I like the idea :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novi,_Michigan![Hell, Michigan]("http://www.loganwhitehurst.com/gallery/hell.jpg"){kind=link}