The blog Drivl presents this very interesting list of The 22 Worst Place Names in the World. On the list are some fairly foul words in English so reader discretion is recommended!
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Comments
crazy list. Isn’t your website for kids!!! Shocking!!!!
Slow day at the office? Why not spend some time comeing up with a new Quiz or two, instead of this clap trap.
That made me laugh. Good find!
Matt please use more discretion. Not appropriate for and educational site which I direct my students to use as research.
Outstanding!! Where was Intercourse,PA? As to those who complained the list was ‘inappropriate I say, get a life!! Keep up the excellent work. After all, Geography is the study of everything, even odd place names.
Indeed! For a while I was living not too far away from Fucking, Austria and every time I drove by I was wondering how it must be like to live in a place named like that. I had no idea the inhabitants acually had a vote on that matter 3 years ago and blew it.
No joke, in a German magazine there once was a picture of that famous sign with another sign underneath telling drivers to drive carefully, which went like this in English: “Slowly please, because of us” (a drawing showed 2 children)
I agree with Comment #5. Think of the history behind the names.
Plus, this website is not just for kids.
Matt, I had a good laugh too. And I do agree with the comments 5 and 6.
It reminds me that when young, I just loved the names of the rivers Darling (speaks for itself) and Amur (or like we write it: Amour, which is the French word for Love). Another category of names of course. BUt is shows indeed that every geographical name has its specific meaning and origine. It is not by ignoring them that one can make them disappear. I love your newsletters, Matt. Please continue. And a little joke or laugh from time to time is always welcome.
Marie Alice, serious geographer from Belgium.
Clap trap, huh John? Don’t have much of a sense of humour, do you sweetie?
guess you misunderstood the last comment :-/. Still, a good compilation.
Geography is the study of place – some places are more interesting than others – please don’t apply a Politically Correct standard to international place names that you have had no part or right in deriving – let’s see the name John – yikes do you know what I’m thinking -what are parents thinking using such an inappropriate name with so many perfectly improper connotations and definitions!!! What is taken as a “bad word” in our culture may have little or no negative significance in another. Have fun with Geography please and relax a wee bit eh! Now what would be truly fun is to visit each of the aforementioned places and see how just truly wonderful they are – despite or perhaps becasue of their name. Now there is a message our geography beleagered students need to hear – Geography really is a blast and is a living study!
Ha…ha! Thank you for sharing these with us. I bet Austria is really proud.
wow… even though this is pretty inappropriate, I thought this was pretty funny. and people who think this is bad for their children… Your kids probably already know what it all means.
Hey Matt..I was just going through my inbox and saw this page. ha ha!! I have one to add to the list….Summersville lake(which isn’t far from me) was built by damming the river running through the town of Gad,WV. An since the name of the dam and lake is generally derived from the nearest community…It would be “Gad Dam” and “Gad Dam Lake” (say it out loud) so the name was changed to the next nearest town(Summersville).
It’s all good for a laugh, but there is something educational here.
British place names reflect 3000 years plus of history. Although we all speak almost the same type of English now (except in America) place names reflect the location of the hundreds of different tribes and peoples who settled the British Isles and their different languages and dialects–and then took their funny names off to the rest of the world. In fact until DNA analysis in the last decade, place names were the only way to tell if an area had been settled by, say, the Angles, Jutes, Friesians or later Vikings from Norway or Vikings from Denmark. Place names can also indicate Celtic or even pre-celtic occupation.
Often the place names have a fascinating history. For example Thong, just north of Rochester was called (when I was a kid)Tong, and pronounced that way. The “H” seems to have been added after a motorway by-passed the village and a roadside was painted that way. The origin of the name goes back over 1500 years when the local Kentish chieftain invited a Saxon mercenary in to help put down a revolt. The payment was as much land as could be covered by ten ox-hides. The smart mercenary slit the ox-hides into thin strips (thongs) tied them all together to make the boundry of the modern village.
As for Gravesend–its a corruption of reeves-ham, a village where the local reeve( king’s officer)lived. American’s might like to know that Pocahontas is buried there. The modern name may also come from the fact that during the black death, bodies from London and Southwark were dumped into the Thames there.
Perhaps a little editing might have been in order?
No Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania?
The history of the names MAY explain them, but there is no explaining the language used in this site except to say it is offensive and quite unnecessary. A big disappointment for me on a site that I love and respected.
People?!?! These are *real* place names! What would your poor child do when and if he or she spotted these on a map–faint dead away? Die? Have to be institutionalized? Get over it! If you’re so offended, what do you keep reading this for? If you find this so objectionable, don’t recommend this URL to your kid! Oh, brother.
hey i tyhink u shud check out sum names in ghana..
they r in deed funny and weird….
example under the mango tree(translated in english)
Hey Paul Sibert if you don’t like it don’t use it. You should use more discretion when sending your kids online, dolt.
They forgot “Cockermouth, Britain” what a terrible oversight!
Also, Katmandu deserves honorable mention.