Reminds of the old story that I heard (unsure if it’s true or not) about Torpenhow Hill in the UK.
Over centuries… various invaders and conquerors had come to that place and asked what it was called… First it was called Tor later on invaders added the word ‘Pen’ which was their word for Hill… later, more invaders came along and added the suffix ‘How’ which was their word for Hill… and finally… it was named in more modern English as Torpenhow Hill… which literally translates as Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill.
I don;t know if that’s 100% true or not… but it’s an amusing little story and given the oddities of the English language… I’d like to think it was.
Especially given there’s a species of bear out there that’s name is literally translated as Bear, Bear, Bear.
It’s kind of true. The last hill seems to be a modern invention, and Torpenhow Hill isn’t listed on any maps. There is a village there called Torpenhow, though, and that is Hillhillhill
Guys I think that place might be on some elevated terrain
From the Wikipedia page:
A. D. Mills in his Dictionary of English Place-Names interprets the name as “Ridge of the hill with a rocky peak”, giving its etymology as Old English torr, Celtic *penn, and Old English hoh, each of which mean ‘hill’. Thus, the name Torpenhow Hill could be interpreted as ‘hill-hill-hill Hill’.
I think it’s a hill?
Unfortunately, Tom Scott has already debunked this
There is an urban legend that when the Swedish map makers came to Finland the locals would mess with them when asked what a pace was called and that is why so many place names have “vittu” or “perse” etc. in them.
Also they named Turku just Åbo.
Åbo.
Swedish “å” is an entire word meaning;
a river, a creek, a big stream“Bo”
bo n
**a dwelling** (of an animal), especially a bird's nest fågelbo bird’s nest att bygga bo to build a nest / to nest ("build nest" – idiomatic phrasing) (poetic, extended from sense 1) **a home** sätta bo settle downSo it’s a three letter word basically saying river-dwelling
I think rather than ask Finns what a place was named they just named them themselves. Perhaps because they were tired of the locals calling everything shit and piss. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Naming my main character “Alexander” and every time I visit a city I tell the DM to refer to it as “Alexandria” going forward.
One wonders how many inhabited planets in the universe are referred to by the locals as “Dirt.”
There is a Canada heritage minute about the last one
If only I had the self-confidence of the guy who went to Australia and said “this place is called New South Wales now.”
Pffft, he was plagued with self doubt compared to Cecil Rhodes who went to Africa and said “this place is called Rhodesia now.”
I knew I wasn’t going to have to link this.
“‘Wales’…? Really, sir?”
“Oh, yes. Don’t you think?”
“What, the vast terra incognito with fauna and flora hitherto undreamt of by sights puts you in mind nothing so much as… Rhyl…?”
“No, of course not. Not North Wales. That’s ridiculous, it’s nothing like North Wales.”
I sometimes wonder why that isnt just “New Wales”. Is there something so distinct about the south of Wales that makes it be seen as something distinct to name something after?
Filthy north welsherners. They think they’re sumtin. Well they’re NOT!
Yes, Wales is generally divided into North, Mid and South (and Corner, as in Cornwall).
South Wales generally corresponds with the former Kingdom of Deheubarth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deheubarth?wprov=sfla1
Deheubarth was punished for rebelling against Engkand in 1282 by being divided into the three counties of South Wales. Referring to it as South Wales rather than south Wales is a miniature act of rebellion in itself; the Welsh government styles it capitalised to emphasise that historical distinction; the Britsh government uses lower case to erase the distinction.
Interesting, I wasn’t aware that Wales was historically disunited like that, but I suppose that other than the location, having a different language and one of the more interesting flags, I dont know a ton about it. I suppose I just assumed that it was a singular kingdom before being invaded by the English at some point.
Deheubarth (Welsh pronunciation: [dɛˈhəɨbarθ]; lit. ‘Right-hand Part’, thus ‘the South’)
it just meand the southern parts that fits to the theme of this thread xD
Maybe topography, but almost certainly not weather, except for maybe 2 weeks in southern winter/northern summer where the temperature will directly align
Well I mean randy feltface had a good bit on naming in Australia https://youtube.com/shorts/rvDzyPUBJUU
Not sure I’d buy a house in stabbyville
Australia is also just called South. And apparently someone proposed the name Borealia (North) for Canada.
Canada it is!
I always wanted to be a fly on the wall when they named the colony (later state) of Virginia.
“We should name this place after Queen Elizabeth.”
“Excellent idea, Elizabethia it is!”
“No, no. Virginia. 'Cause she’s never… you know. Wink wink, nudge nudge.”She was called the Virgin Queen
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15367555/nick-fuentes-virgin-piers-morgan-gay-rumors.html
Apparently, some people like being called virgins
Those are both from the same Mitchel and Webb sketch.
I’m sorry, who’s wearing the hat?
You . . . are.
Hey, it’s you, ICQ flower person! It’s me, lolskull person!
Reminds me of
Torpenhow Hill is a hill in Cumbria, England. Its name consists of the Old English ‘Tor’, the Welsh ‘Pen’, and the Danish ‘How’ - all of which translate to modern English as ‘Hill’. Therefore, Torpenhow Hill would translate as hill-hill-hill hill
Here is a Tom Scott video about it:
https://youtu.be/NUyXiiIGDTo
https://invidious.f5.si/watch?v=NUyXiiIGDToI believe there’s also a Haversham Hill, which is also a hill hill hill hill
Half the smaller villages in southern Germany are named “Ried” which comes from reed and roughly means “swampy place”. The other half uses some variation of the suffix “-höfen” which just means “this place consists of farms” 😂
Oh and the Newtown.
Why they changed it …?
New Town (2)
In my group if the GM can’t pronounce the name in one try in a way that makes it clear to us how to spell it the players with rename it something more like “Bonertown” or just “Dave”
People naming things in Australia:
- Townsville
- Western Australia
- Shark bay
- Great Sandy Desert
- Little Sandy Desert
- Snowy Mountains
But you also have wildcards:
- Tasmania (not actually a mental illness)
- Monkey Mia (There are no monkeys, and nobody named Mia)
- Lake disappointment (contains no water)
- Blue mountains (they are mostly green)
- King Island (we don’t recognise its claim to the throne)
Lake disappointment (contains no water)
I don’t know, that sounds like a pretty accurate name for a lake without water
Didn’t you cunts also name a swimming pool after your prime minister who died swimming in the ocean?
We did indeed. The Harold Holt memorial pool
Lake disappointment (contains no water)
Well, that would be very disappointing if your lake had no water. So I think they nailed that one.
The Powerpuff Girls happened in Australia‽‽
TIL Powerpuff girls is set in a place called Townsville
The city of Townsville, yes (it is in fact a city)
Tbf the blue mountains are blue from the right distance in the right weather, like most temperate Australian mountains
What’s wrong with Shark Bay? I’d name every second bay I find, Shark Bay.
- Greater shark Bay
- Lesser shark Bay
- Disappointment shark Bay ( no sharks)
Oh I like that idea…
- Shark bay
- Great Sandy Desert
- Little Sandy Desert
- Snowy Mountains
Lol these sound like Super Mario Bros levels
They’d probably go with Sandy Sandy Desert.
Fun fact: Celts were originally central European, but the British Isles and Brittany were the only places Celtic culture survived the Romans.
that’s not fun, that’s horrifying
Some Celts drowned when doggerland became dogger island then dogger bank as the glaciers retreated. The sea flooding all the land must have been a surprise for them, no high land was high enough
That was a few thousand years before Celts were around.
According to USPS, there are 32 towns in the US named Franklin. lol
There are 88 towns named “Washington”.
USPS says Franklin tops the list at 32, but Washington is popular as well woth 24.
What’s your source?
Worldatlas.com but I don’t know how reputable they are.
Oh, i see that. Interesting.
Maybe differences in what’s being considered as a town? Who knows.USPS has a way of combining smaller towns and suburbs to the largest nearby city. In practice this is very useful. You know your friend is near Nashville, say, and the zip codes do the heavy lifting.
So I would posit that using USPS as a source in this case is not a great idea.
Honestly surprised it’s that low
Lots of Bismark and Moscow about too.
Alaskan settlers wanted to call their new town Ptarmigan cause there were plenty of those birds around.
But they didn’t know how to spell it, so they called it Chicken.However, this is likely apocryphal, since it was popularized in the 1940s, almost 50 years after the town was founded. The most likely origin is from nearby Chicken Creek, as noted by Josiah Edward Spurr in 1896, “The creek is so named from the size of the gold, which is about that of chicken feed (corn).”
Yer da sells Avon.
