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.

Places with unusual names Halal Explorer

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 local 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 local residents. This works the other way around too, normal names in English-speaking countries might sound funny to a foreigner. For instance and 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 nation of Nauru ("laughter").

See and do

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?

Muslim Friendly Shopping in Places with unusual names

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 (Norway) | Hell frozen over" postcards. Look out for bumper stickers, hats, T-shirts, postcards, or similar items at general stores, gas stations and souvenir shops.

Telecommunications in Places with unusual names

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

Local Customs in Places with unusual names

The local residents 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 and 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 signs|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 local residents to start painting the highway number shields directly onto the asphalt and these are needed for navigation by subsequent travellers.

Africa

Mafia Airport - Mafia Airport and the gateway to Mafia Island

• 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)

Madagascar

• 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 Congo

• Pool and the region around the capital.

South Sudan

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

Tanzania

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

Asia

China

Guide old walls - View of Guide

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

Indonesia

• Gili Air (pronounced "gee-lee EYE"), an island, not an airline
• Solo and the short name for Surakarta

India

• 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".

Japan

• Obama (meaning "little beach"), mildly famous as it shares its name with the Presidents of the United States#44. Obama|44th U.S. president. It's about kilometers 700 from Obama to Usa and the centuries-old shrine in Oita (prefecture).

Kazakhstan

File:Орал вокзалы - Oral train station. One of the Trans-Siberian's Moscow to Urumqi|southern siblings passes through here

• Oral, a major city in the western part of the nation near the Russian border, founded by the Cossacks.

Malaysia

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

Mongolia

• Mörön, Hövsgöl, not an uncommon destination due to its central location

Myanmar

• 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.

Philippines

• Antique - a province on the island of Panay

Thailand

• Hang Chat – a town in the Northern River Valleys
• Bangkok and Phuket are popular destinations for medical tourism|sexual reassignment surgery.
• Bang Sue – a neighborhood of Bangkok.

Turkey

Batman Airport - 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 :w:Turkey_(bird)#History_and_naming|was named after the nation.

• Batman — not exactly Gotham, but rather a dull hub for the oil drilling operations nearby
• Van, a city on the shore Lake Van, established long before motorized vehicles were invented.

Turkmenistan

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

Uzbekistan

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

Vietnam

• Hue and the colorful former imperial capital.
• My Son, yet another world legacy listed archaelogical site. No other places that appear to be named after relatives are found nearby.

Europe

City limit sign of Fucking, Austria - Austria's most frequently stolen sign

Andorra

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

Austria

• Fucking (rhymes with "booking"), a village of 100 inhabitants near Salzburg. About 70 kilometers to the northeast you can find the villages of Oberfucking and Unterfucking. Kissing and Petting are also nearby, and listed under #Germany below.

Belarus

• Brest (Belarus) | Brest, near the border with Poland

Bulgaria

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

Croatia

• Split, a historic seaside city in Dalmatia (and no, that is not where the spotty dogs come from)

Denmark

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

• Middelfart, not to the right or the left.

Finland

• Ii, this town in northwestern Finland has the shortest name in the nation and reportedly one of the shortest in the world.

France

• Brest (France) | Brest, a city in Brittany.
• Condom, a small town in the department of Gers.
• Mulhouse may be appreciated by visitors from Springfield.
• Nancy, a medium-sized city in Grand-Est
• Nice (pronounced like the English word "niece"), a seaside city that's almost certainly the most popular destination on this list
• Tours (with a silent "s"), a city in the Loire Valley. A little road train tours the city.

Germany

Baden-Baden-Caracalla-Therme-38-gje - 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 (rhymes with dorms)- an important city during medieval times.

Hungary

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

Greece

Known for its Olive oil.

• Ia, commonly called "Oia", a town on the island of Santorini

Iceland

• Hella

Ireland

• Knock home to one of Ireland's airports
• Swords

Netherlands

Joodse begraafplaats Grave - Grave does feature a Yahudi cemetery, among others

• America (Netherlands) | 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 downtown isn't the youngest either, being some 800 years old.
• Hoorn|De Hulk (The Hulk) in North Holland is not affiliated to the Marvel character.
• Westland|Monster, located near The Hague has not had any sightings of monsters thus far.
• 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.

Norway

• Å (meaning "river"), on the island of Moskenesøya – one of several places called "Å".
• Hell (Norway) | 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.

Poland

• 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.

Spain

• Roses

United Kingdom

• Bath, indeed a historic Roman spa city.
• Battle, on the site of the Battle of Hastings.
• Beer (Devon) 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.
• 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)
• North London|Enfield on the northern edge of London has areas called Freezy Water, Ponders End, Turkey Street and World's End.
• Gotham, a village in Nottinghamshire where Batman doesn’t live. The name originates from the Old English for goat.
• Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Wales – longest place name in Europe.
• Mold, Wales
• 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
• Rock, Cornwall
• Sandwich (England) | Sandwich in Kent. John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, devised the sandwiches as a piece of salt beef between two slices of toasted bread.
• 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.

North America

• At least three towns called Eureka (disambiguation) | Eureka; one in Canada, and two in the United States.

Canada

NLW HumberArm5 tango7174 - Overlooking the Bay of Islands, Blow Me Down Provincial Park

• 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. side 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 World Heritage List|UNESCO-listed history.
• Hell's Gate, a narrow point on British Columbia's Fraser River, is beyond Hope... by about kilometers 69}}.
• Horsefly Lake Provincial Park and the nearby town of Horsefly, in British Columbia.
• Medicine Hat, Alberta. It's named after a local word, saamis, that translates to Medicine Man's Hat.
• Trepassey and the Irish Loop|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.
• Newfoundland outports are prone to names like Fogo Island and Change Islands|Joe Batt's Arm or Burnside|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 miles 20 beyond Goose Bay, Labrador on paved road, is inhabited by the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation – who pronounce this "Sheshajeet".
• On the Trans-Canada Highway and 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 in Europe broke out and the local residents insisted they had the name first, Hitler be damned, and stubbornly refused to change it.

Caribbean

Pavil Granma - 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 States

• Aloha, Oregon (and not Hawaii)
• Bath (Maine) | Bath, Maine (and its postal abbreviation "BATH ME")
• Bend, Oregon
• Boring, Oregon (and its twin town, Dull, Scotland!)
• Carpinteria, California. It's not clear whether they also have carpenters from Nazareth.
• Celebration, Florida. It was designed by the Walt Disney Company to be a "perfect community".
• Charm is a charming Amish community in Ohio where an influx of visitors is an unfortunate intrusion.
• Chicken, Alaska was named for ptarmigan, a bird hunted locally as food. Apparently "chicken" was easier to spell. No town twinning with Hahn, Germany (which means “cockerel”or "rooster").
• Christmas is in Florida. Other Christmas and New Year travel|seasonal-themed U.S. Postal service|postmarks include tiny Antler (South Dakota), a Santa Claus (Indiana) | Santa Claus (Indiana) and a pair of Bethlehems (Bethlehem (New Hampshire) | New Hampshire and another in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) | Pennsylvania). The former Pennsylvania steel-making town was founded on Christmas Eve.
• Crow Agency, Montana. A small town in Custer Country. Croak
• Deadhorse, a town at the end of the icy Dalton Highway, attracts a stubborn few prospectors for black Gold who didn't get cold feet and turn back at Coldfoot, miles 240 of Alaska wilderness ago.
• St. Robert#Devil's Elbow|Devil's Elbow is a tiny Route 66 community named for a particularly awkward bend in Missouri's Big Piney River.
• Sodomizer, Michigan is a former mining village on the Keweenaw Peninsula, named for the mine's director Joseph E. There's little here, other than a bar which has taken the name of the town and a Parade on the 4th of July.
• Halfway, Oregon was named for being halfway between two other Baker County (Oregon) towns.

Hells-countrystore - The country store in Hell, Michigan features some "hellish" signs

• Hell (Michigan) | Hell, Michigan. About 5 or 6 hours straight down from Paradise and Whitefish Bay|Paradise.
• Hicksville, New York (state) | New York. None of that newfangled toilets|indoor plumbing like they got in Queens/Flushing|Flushing. (But seriously Hicksville, named for Long Island Rail Road president Valentine Hicks, is a major Nassau County suburban rail hub for commuters to New York City.)
• Holland (Michigan) | Holland, Michigan is known for its Dutch legacy. Multiple US towns are named for foreign lands such as Holland, Mexico and even Cuba. Reportedly, Harlem in New York City got its name as a compromise because nobody in Harlem at the time came from the namesake Dutch town.
• Home, Washington. There's no place like it.
• Intercourse and other unusual Amish names in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania including Blue Ball, Gap, Fertility, Mount Joy, Lititz, Bareville, Bird-in-Hand and Paradise.
• Jackpot, Nevada. Yes, this place is all about gambling.
• Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, founded in the early 19th century and later renamed for the distinguished American athlete in a ploy to get him to be buried there, which didn't happen.
• King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
• Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Webster (Massachusetts) | Webster, Massachusetts
• Liberal, Kansas. Despite the name and the majority of the residents voted for Trump in the 2016 Presidential election: the name is a reference to an early settler who was liberal with the scarce water.
• Loveland (Colorado) | Loveland and Valentine are small former rail towns in Colorado and Nebraska (respectively); both were named after people, but "with love from Loveland" has been an annual Valentine's Day postal tradition since 1947.
• Mars (Pennsylvania) | Mars, Pennsylvania
• Media, Pennsylvania
• Needles is a California desert outpost where Route 66 (of "Grapes of Wrath" fame) once entered the state from Arizona. It appears as the desert home of "Snoopy's brother Spike" in the "Peanuts" cartoon series.
• Normal, Illinois is a college town. A "normal school" is an old-fashioned term for a teacher's college.
• North Pole (Alaska) and North Pole (New York) – neither is located at the actual North Pole, but both have Santa Claus-themed attractions. North Pole (Alaska) has Santa or Christmas-themed street names.
• Page, Arizona
• Post, a city in the Texas Panhandle.
• Purchase, New York might be a good place to purchase some Pepsi (as it's home to the headquarters of parent company Pepsico).
• Romeo and Juliette are hamlets in Michigan and Georgia (respectively) with a matching set of postal service|postmarks for Valentine's Day.
• Sisters, Oregon is named for the Three Sisters Mountains. The three volcanic peaks are North Sister ("Faith"), Middle Sister ("Hope") and South Sister ("Charity"),
• Toad Suck, Arkansas, near Conway (Arkansas) | Conway
• Tornado (West Virginia) | Tornado, West Virginia is about fifteen miles downwind of Hurricane (West Virginia) | Hurricane for those just blowing through town.

Sign - New Mexico - Truth Or Consequences - Exit (4892943477) - Interstate exit to Truth or Consequences

• Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, formerly known as "Hot Springs" but renamed after a TV show
• Wall (South Dakota) | Wall, South Dakota - remarkably no Trump campaign event has been held there yet
• Walla Walla, Washington, in the heart of country and a popular stop for people in the area
• Weed, California – named after a person, not a plant
• Woody, California (pop 135) is miles 25 NNE of Bakersfield; Pixar's namesake "Toy Story" character appeared briefly as the town's picture postmark in August 2011.
• Yolo County, home to Davis (California) | Davis, California
• Zzyzx, California, a small unincorporated area in the Mojave Desert

Central America

Quite a few Spanish-derived place names have been used more than once, mostly because they describe common climatic or geographic features (e.g. "Nevada" - snowy) or because they are named for a saint (e.g. San José, San Juan). So you might well find a Los Angeles (disambiguation) | City of Angels that contains a few hundred people at best or a San José that can't keep up with either its California or its Costa Rica namesake.

• Managua Airport is in the neighborhood of "Las Mercedes" and one of the many names it has borne (it's now named after 1930s revolutionary hero Augusto C Sandino who was murdered in Managua) was Las Mercedes International Airport

Oceania

Australia

Route 41 Wagga Wagga sign (Mills St) - This way to Wagga Wagga

• Bland Shire - and you were wondering why no part of the Lord of the Rings was shot in Australia instead of New Zealand?
• Bucketty, New South Wales
• Casino, not famous for gambling
• Humpty Doo, Northern Territory
• Kurri Kurri, New South Wales
• Old Bar
• Town of 1770, Captain Cook landed here in 1770, his second landing on the Australian continent.
• Wagga Wagga, a significant city in New South Wales, though the local residents just call it "Wagga"
• Woolloomooloo, a suburb of Sydney

French Polynesia

• Disappointment Islands, part of the Tuamotu Islands

Micronesia

• A talkative lot, Yap may refer either to the main island atoll of Yap or one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia.

New Zealand

• Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a hill in Hawke's Bay, North Island

South America

Bolivia (3997656373) - View of Lake Titicaca

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

Brazil

• Bananal, a village in the state of São Paulo.
• Fordlândia was founded by the Ford company as a rubber plantation, abandoned long before synthetic rubber supplanted natural rubber in World War 2.
• Uberlândia and Uberaba, cities in Triângulo Mineiro, and you can get around by Uber taxi.

Chile

• Biobio, a region in Southern Chile.

Colombia

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

Ecuador

• Coca (Ecuador) and the capital of the province of Orellana.

Guyana

• Charity, a port city.

Peru

• Sauce, a city in San Martín.