Wikimedia list article
Travel topics > Cultural attractions > Places with unusual names

Whether they're unusually short, unusually long, sound like a surprising or naughty English word, or are just plain silly, places with unusual names can be fun destinations.

UnderstandEdit

Both in English-speaking countries and elsewhere you can find places that have names that sound weird to English speakers. Many of these places are small towns without much to do, but some offer T-shirts or other souvenirs with the place's name. If nothing else, you can always take a picture with a highway sign or "Welcome to X" sign to show your friends later. In non-English speaking countries, however, you may encounter even large cities and major travel destinations with unusual names.

For English-speaking countries, it's common that a funny name derives from a completely normal name in an older form of English or a native name for the place. In a few cases the name has been intentionally changed from a normal name to a more unusual one. In non-English speaking countries the unusual name of the place is of course just a normal name to the locals. This works the other way around too, normal names in English-speaking countries might sound funny to a foreigner. For instance, the small town of Roto, Australia has found its way onto lists of funny place names in Spanish, in which it means "broken". Finnish-speaking visitors may find Herne ("pea") Bay in Kent funny, as well as Piha ("yard") in New Zealand and the country of Nauru ("laughter").

See and doEdit

All but the smallest destinations on the list usually have other attractions, but given that you are in a place with a funny or unusual name, why not take a photo of road, street and perhaps even business signs with the name?

BuyEdit

In some cases the place has indeed turned the name into a tourist attraction and therefore there are funny souvenirs you can buy, like the "Hell frozen over" postcards. Look out for bumper stickers, hats, T-shirts, postcards, or similar items at general stores, gas stations and souvenir shops.

ConnectEdit

Often, these places offer a unique postmark for postcards, seasonal greetings from North Pole or love notes from Valentine. North Pole, Alaska has been known to sell "a letter from Santa" with the town's postmark.

RespectEdit

The locals are probably tired of hearing jokes about the name of their city. The names were often chosen many years ago, when the words had no double meaning, or make sense locally as the name only looks odd in the English language. Hypothetically, if "phoque" is a seal in some other language, there's no reason a community speaking that language shouldn't give the name to a geographic feature—even if phonetically it resembles an English-language expletive.

Also, don't feel tempted to steal any road signs no matter how funny the names on them are. Like the Route 66 signs that have been lost to souvenir hunters often enough for the locals to start painting the highway number shields directly onto the asphalt, these are needed for navigation by subsequent travellers.

AfricaEdit

 
Mafia Airport, the gateway to Mafia Island
  • Chad, named after Lake Chad. And with her turbulent domestic politics, widespread poverty and endemic corruption, the country is actually on the total opposite of the typical "chad".
  • W National Park, a tri-national park in Niger, Benin, and Burkina Faso, surrounding a portion of the Niger River that's W-shaped (if you squint)

NigeriaEdit

  • Owo, a city and also a cutesy emoticon

MadagascarEdit

  • Nosy Be, a resort island. Here you can also find the city of Hell-Ville, and nearby a few smaller Nosy islands.

Republic of the CongoEdit

  • Pool, the region around the capital.

South SudanEdit

  • Yei and Wau (South Sudan), two major South Sudanian cities that might or might not make visitors exclame yay! and wow!

TanzaniaEdit

  • Mafia Island, reportedly one of the Indian Ocean's most hidden gems. Organized crime is probably not an issue here.

AsiaEdit

ChinaEdit

 
View of Guide
  • Guide, a small town, so you maybe don't need a guide.

Hong KongEdit

  • Junk Bay, which co-incidentally has a landfill at the east of the bay (although originally named for the kind of boat). Nearby is mainly newly developed satellite towns.

IndonesiaEdit

  • Java The programming language is named after coffee produced from the island, and there's no point to communicate with the locals using public static void main(String[] args) {}
  • Gili Air (pronounced "gee-lee EYE"), an island, not an airline
  • Solo, the short name for Surakarta

IndiaEdit

  • Indore probably has more outdoor activities than the name would make the casual observer assume
  • Peermade, a city in Kerala, that may or may not have been "peer made".

JapanEdit

  • Hitachi, Ibaraki, the city where the multinational corporation of the same name emerged.
  • Mine, a town that does have things of geological interest including a cave system and karst landscape, but no mining and the town isn't the property of just one person.
  • Naruto, whose name has been appropriated by the anime franchise and its main character.
  • Obama (meaning "little beach"), mildly famous as it shares its name with the 44th U.S. president.
  • Toyota, Aichi, renamed after the Toyota Motor Corporation.
  • Usa, a city in Ōita Prefecture about 700 km (430 mi) from Obama, and known for the "Made in Usa (Japan)" myth.

KazakhstanEdit

 
Oral railway station. One of the Trans-Siberian's southern siblings passes through here
  • Oral, a major city in the western part of the country near the Russian border, founded by the Cossacks as Uralsk after the nearby river and mountain range—the current name is a local rendering of this original name.

MalaysiaEdit

  • Air Itam (pronounced "eye EE-tahm"), also not an airline, but a town.

MongoliaEdit

MyanmarEdit

  • Insein is a township across the Hlaing River from Yangon. If you are taken there, you probably won't be crazy, but you could be in trouble, as the Insein Prison has been notorious for the detention of political prisoners under harsh conditions.

PakistanEdit

  • Swat – a valley in the northwest of the country.

PhilippinesEdit

  • Antique – a province on the island of Panay

RussiaEdit

  • Asbest, about 30 km northeast of Yekaterinburg, is indeed next to a large asbestos mine just like the town in Quebec described below.

ThailandEdit

  • Bangkok – capital of Thailand. Its 168-letter long official name - Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit - means "City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Vishvakarman at Indra's behest" and is recorded as the world's longest place name by Guinness World Records.
    • Bang Sue – a district of the capital
  • Hang Chat – a town in the Northern River Valleys
  • Phuket – infamous for being the epicenter of the 26 December 2004 tsunami, and a popular destination for sexual reassignment surgery. The initial consonant is actually pronounced as an aspirated "p".

TurkeyEdit

 
Batman airport. And, doesn't the shadow of the lamppost on the wall very remotely resemble a round logo with a bat inside..?

The bird was named after the country, not the other way around.

  • Batman — not exactly Gotham, but rather a dull hub for the oil drilling operations nearby
  • Side, resort town and historical ruins, so indeed a place with many sides to it
  • Van, a city on the shore Lake Van, established long before motorized vehicles were invented.

TurkmenistanEdit

  • Mary, formerly named Merv like the adjacent ruins of a city on the Silk Road, also on the world heritage list.

UzbekistanEdit

  • Pop, formerly named Bob (which, in turn, is the Arabic for gate)

VietnamEdit

  • Hue, the colorful former imperial capital.
  • My Son, yet another world heritage listed archaelogical site. No other places that appear to be named after relatives are found nearby, though the IATA code of the closest major airport (in Da Nang) is DAD.

EuropeEdit

 
Austria's most frequently stolen sign

AndorraEdit

  • Pal is a great place to go skiing during winter, mate.

AustriaEdit

  • Fucking (rhymes with "booking"), a village of 100 inhabitants near Salzburg, changed its name to "Fugging" on 1 Jan 2021 to stop visitors from stealing the "Fucking" sign. About 70 km to the northeast you can find the villages of Oberfucking and Unterfucking. Kissing and Petting are also nearby, and listed under #Germany below.
  • Hatting, Tyrol, there is also one in Denmark and Upper Austria.

BelarusEdit

BulgariaEdit

  • Sofia, indeed named after a lady; the city is named after St Sofia church in the city, in turn named after Sophia the Martyr.

CroatiaEdit

  • Krk, an island in the Adriatic Sea, with a town with the same name.
  • Split, a historic seaside city in Dalmatia (and no, that is not where the spotty dogs come from)

DenmarkEdit

Dubbed in various surveys and polls throughout the years as the "happiest country in the world", here you can find Lol-land and Fun-en, as well as many more towns we could have Listed.

FinlandEdit

  • Ii, this town in northwestern Finland has the shortest name in the country.

FranceEdit

  • Brest, a city in Brittany.
  • Bitche, a town in Grand-Est.
  • Condom, a small town in the department of Gers.
  • Die, a village in Drôme.
  • Mulhouse may be appreciated by visitors from Springfield.
  • Nancy, a medium-sized city in Grand-Est
  • Nice, a seaside city that's almost certainly the most popular destination on this list
  • Tours, a city in the Loire Valley. A little road train and a horse and carriage both tour the city.
  • Y – a hamlet in the Somme forever questioning its existence. Inhabitants of Y are called Ypsiloniens.

GermanyEdit

 
Bathing at the Caracalla Therme spa in Baden-Baden
  • Assmannshausen, a town in Hesse
  • Baden-Baden, translates to Bathing-Bathing, and it is a very longstanding spa town. Many German towns have "Bad" names; that doesn't mean that they're necessarily bad places as their names translate to "bath".
  • Kissing, a town near Augsburg, Bavaria
  • Petting, a small town in Bavaria
  • Titisee – lake and spa-town in the Black Forest
  • Worms (starts with a V sound and rhymes with dorms)- an important city during medieval times.

GreeceEdit

Known for its olive oil.

  • Ia, also known as "Oia", a town on the island of Santorini

HungaryEdit

  • The pronunciation of Pécs (PEH-ch) sounds suspiciously like the word for a female dog.

IcelandEdit

IrelandEdit

ItalyEdit

  • Bra, a town in Piedmont, not the home to underwear but to the Slow Food movement and the University of Gastronomic Sciences.

NetherlandsEdit

 
Grave does feature a Jewish cemetery, among others
  • America, northwest of Venlo, has surprisingly little in common with the continents across the Atlantic Ocean – including Holland (Michigan).
  • Best, north of Eindhoven is arguably the best place in the Netherlands.
  • Goes isn't known to have any plans to go anywhere else but Zeeland, where it already is.
  • Grave isn't as dead as the name might make you think. The fortified city centre isn't the youngest either, being some 800 years old.
  • De Hulk in North Holland is not affiliated to the Marvel character.
  • Leek is in Westerkwartier (or is it in Staffordshire, England?) and possibly the vegetable is grown there too.
  • Monster is 10 km southwest of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
  • Made is a place near Breda that surprisingly was made at some point in time. In Dutch the name translates to maggot.
  • The municipality of Wierden (pronounced as weird-n) in Overijssel is home to Enter, which can best be entered using the A1 highway, as well as Rectum, which isn't as shitty as it may sound.

NorwayEdit

  • Å (meaning "river"), on the island of Moskenesøya – one of several places called "Å".
  • Hell (from the Old Norse word for "overhang"), a village in Trøndelag.
  • Marker is a town where 3,400 Norwegian citizens have marked their home.
  • Ski, deriving its name not from a "ski" (which itself is a Norwegian loanword), but rather from an Old Norse word meaning "horse racing track".
  • Tonnes is a strong contestant for the heaviest postal code, weighing in at 8750 Tonnes.

PolandEdit

  • Police – a town in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, name of the town comes from the Slavic pole, which means "field".
  • Puck – a city in Pomorskie, unclear if they have an ice hockey team. Just across the Puck Bay, you can find the town of Hel.

SpainEdit

  • The name of Barcelona's airport - El Prat - is amusing to Brits, though in Catalan simply means "The Meadow".
  • Roses, a city in Catalonia.

SwitzerlandEdit

  • Grandson, a town at Lake Neuchatel, just north of Yverdon.

United KingdomEdit

  • Bath, indeed a historic Roman spa city.
  • Battle, on the site of the Battle of Hastings.
  • Beer a town whose name comes not from the alcoholic beverage but from the old English word bearu, meaning forest.
  • Butt Lane, a village in North Staffordshire whose name seems amusing to Americans.
  • Butt of Lewis, a headland on Lewis. Visiting Americans seem to think each are the first to have enquired ‘Who is Lewis?’
  • Devil's Bridge in Wales has three bridges stacked on top of each other, one of which is said to have been built by the Devil.
  • Dollar, Scotland is a mere 13 miles east of Stirling.
  • Dorking, in Surrey, England.
  • Dull, a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland (and its twin towns, Boring, Oregon, USA and Bland, Australia)
  • Enfield on the northern edge of London has areas called Freezy Water, Ponders End, Turkey Street and World's End.
  • The name of Eye, Suffolk means island.
 
It does exist!
  • Fakenham, a real market town in Norfolk.
  • Mountaineers in the Brecon Beacons will be relieved to know that Fan-y-Big is beyond the reach of Lord Hereford's Knob.
  • Gotham, a village in Nottinghamshire where Batman doesn’t live. The name originates from the Old English for goat.
  • Gravesend, Kent. Folk etymology suggests a connection with the Black Death, during which London's cemeteries were overwhelmed. Sadly, the name predates the arrival of Bubonic plague in Europe by several centuries, and was first recorded as Gravesham, which is Anglo-Saxon for "something too boring to translate."
  • The Lizard, a peninsula that contains Britain's southernmost point. Its name comes from the Cornish Lys Ardh ("High Court"), so nothing to do with reptiles; the fact the peninsula is mostly made of serpentinite rock is purely coincidental.
  • Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Wales – longest place name in Europe.
  • The Cornish village of Minions was subject to an online petition to permanently decorate its welcome sign with the animated yellow cuties.
  • Mold, Wales
  • Mousehole, described as "the loveliest village in England."
  • Nasty, a hamlet near Ware, Hertfordshire, England
  • Nowhere, marshy area by the River Bure near the village of Acle, Norfolk.
  • Penistone (pronounced "PEN-is-stone"), a town north-west of Sheffield, confusing automated censoring algorithms to this day.
  • Potters Bar, a town in Hertfordshire
  • Pratt's Bottom, in the arse-end of Greater London.
  • The River Otter in Devon is better known for its beavers.
  • Rock, Cornwall
  • Sale, a suburb of Manchester, surprisingly "not normally thought of as a shopping destination".
  • Sandwich in Kent. John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, devised the sandwich as a piece of salt beef between two slices of toasted bread.
  • Shitterton, Dorset. Perhaps the British equivalent of Fucking.
  • Twatt, a village on the Orkney Islands whose residents are more pleasant than the name suggests.
  • Westward Ho! is not really interesting enough to merit an exclamation mark.
  • Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate, the shortest street in York, means "What a street!", suggesting medieval Yorkies were easily impressed.

Islands of the Atlantic OceanEdit

North AmericaEdit

  • There are at least three towns called Eureka: one in Canada, and two in the United States.

CanadaEdit

 
Overlooking the Bay of Islands, Blow Me Down Provincial Park
  • Asbestos, a town in Quebec, home to what was once the world's largest asbestos mine. In October 2020, the town voted to change its name to "Val-des-Sources".
  • Blow-Me-Down Mountains and Blow Me Down Provincial Park, Lark Harbour near Corner Brook. Western Newfoundland is exposed to the open Gulf of St. Lawrence, where it gets windy enough to stunt the growth of trees near the shoreline. A few places are named "blow me down"; the Newfies are not joking. At the top of a mountain? It only gets windier.
  • Dildo. One of many unique Newfoundland toponyms such as Ass Rock, Come by Chance, Pushthrough, Tickle Bay and Spread Eagle Island... not to mention Witless Bay. Gayside renamed itself Baytona. A few communities have charming names like Paradise or Heart's Content.
  • Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, near Fort Macleod, Alberta. Local natives were prone to herding buffalo off a cliff; one happened to be in the wrong place in the wrong time and the rest is UNESCO-listed history.
  • Hell's Gate, a narrow point on British Columbia's Fraser River, is beyond Hope... by about 69 km (43 mi).
  • Horsefly Lake Provincial Park and the nearby town of Horsefly, in British Columbia.
  • Medicine Hat, Alberta. It's named after a native word, saamis, that translates to Medicine Man's Hat.
  • Mistaken Point on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula. Mistaking this southernmost point for the point of Cape Race, a common navigational error, could lead a ship onto the rocks.
  • Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Possibly comes from moose gaw, which means "warm breezes" in Cree.
  • Newfoundland outports are prone to names like Joe Batt's Arm or Squid Tickle, but these are geographic features; an "arm" is a narrow extension, inlet, or reach from a much larger body of water while a "tickle" is a short narrow strait.
  • Road to Nowhere, at the edge of Iqaluit, Baffin Island. There is no intercity road access to Nunavut. Iqaluit, on Frobisher Bay, is no exception.
  • In the Innu-aimun language, Sheshatshit means “a narrow place in the river”. The community, about 20 mi (32 km) beyond Goose Bay, Labrador on paved road, is inhabited by the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation – who pronounce this "Sheshajeet".
  • On the Trans-Canada Highway, there's a Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! in Quebec.
  • Swastika is a small 1908-era mining community near Kirkland Lake in northern Ontario. When World War II broke out, the locals insisted they had the name first, Hitler be damned, and stubbornly refused to change it.
  • Wawa is a notorious hitchhiker trap on the Trans-Canada Highway. Assuming you get a ride out of town, you can go a couple of days on that highway to Petawawa.
  • Pekwachnamaykoskwaskwaypinwanik — Longest place name in Canada, referring to a lake in Manitoba. The name means "where the wild trout are caught by fishing with hooks" in the indigenous Cree language.

CaribbeanEdit

 
The yacht Granma on display, not in Granma but in Havana
  • Granma, a province in Cuba. Like the Communist newspaper, it's named after the yacht Fidel Castro and other revolutionaries sailed from Mexico to Cuba. The yacht, in turn, was named after the original (American) owner's grandmother.
  • Hell, a small community in the Cayman Islands
  • Morón in Cuba is likely inhabited by people just as smart as anyplace else

United StatesEdit

American cities and settlements often copy their name from other existing cities or even countries, so don't be surprised if your home town/country becomes the name of a U.S. city.

 
The country store in Hell, Michigan features some "hellish" signs
 
Interstate exit to Truth or Consequences

Central AmericaEdit

  • Chihuahua, Mexico. the dog breed is named after the state.

OceaniaEdit

AustraliaEdit

 
This way to Wagga Wagga

French PolynesiaEdit

MicronesiaEdit

New ZealandEdit

  • Whakapapa - Since "wh" in Maori is pronounced similar to an English "f", and the "a" in Maori is pronounced "ah" as in Italian and Spanish, use your imagination to figure out what the name actually sounds like.
  • Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a hill in Hawke's Bay, North Island, and the longest place name in the world.

South AmericaEdit

 
View of Lake Titicaca
  • Lake Titicaca, the highest commercially navigable body of water in the world, shared between Bolivia and Peru.
  • There are several places called Mercedes in South America, albeit no Benz.

BrazilEdit

ChileEdit

ColombiaEdit

  • Turbo, a small city. You can get here by fast boats featuring "concussion-inducing bumps as the launch jumps the waves".

EcuadorEdit

GuyanaEdit

PeruEdit

This travel topic about Places with unusual names is a usable article. It touches on all the major areas of the topic. An adventurous person could use this article, but please feel free to improve it by editing the page.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikivoyage.org/w/index.php?title=Places_with_unusual_names&oldid=4157868"