Weird and wonderful place names

[MoonCat]

A while ago we were looking up places in Cornwall, and came across a place called Splatt. I'm still laughing about that one.

There's a street in a suburb here called Surfside Drive. Trust me, it's nowhere near an ocean.

[Kit-Ginevra]

In Cardiff,there's Splatt. We also have in Cornwall Pull-a-Cross and Fernysplatt. And Ventongimps. Which sounds like something rather nasty

[XCashier]

There are two places in Adelaide called sturt and upper sturt.

Oddly enough, they are nowhere NEAR one another....

Here in Oregon, we've got Bend and North Bend. North Bend is about 240 miles WSW of Bend!

We've also got towns such as:
Drain
Sublimity
Boring
Gaylord
Hardman
Moody
Needy
Ninety-One
Wankers Corner

We have other oddly-named towns, not particuarly funny, just makes you wonder, "what the heck were the founders thinking?!"

[BrenDAnn]

Not far from me here in Iowa we have Sexton... a few miles down the road from Fertile. Elsewhere in the state are the towns of Tingley and What Cheer.

[MoonCat]

Wankers Corners

This one wins.

[Chromatix]

I was reading a guide to the Norfolk Broads today, for reasons of idle research, and I came across this highly amusing phrase:

"Cockshoot Broad and the dyke leading to it..."

Of course, in local jargon, a dyke is a drainage canal. This particular one is called Cockshoot Dyke.

It's not far from a village called Horning.

[Mikkel]

Middelfart in Denmark.

[MoonCat]

Isn't there a town in England call Pissington or something like that?

[Lady Legira]

the Whip-ma-Whop-ma-Gate in York.

I go through that street fairly often. Not that it's a long walk after all it's the shortest street in York.

There is a street in York that is now called Grape Lane though it used to be known as Grope Lane. They also renamed Mad Mary's Alley for some reason...

[Chromatix]

Google Maps doesn't seem to know about a Pissington.

There is, however, a Cockermouth (in Cumbria, no less), and a village just off the A1 called Shilbottle to whose sign I always imagine an extra crosspiece on one of the letters.

[Linda]

When we go visit relatives we drive past a hill near Brecon (South Wales) called Twmpa in Welsh. Unfortunately in English it's Lord Hereford's Knob. Just up the road from Three Cocks.

[mjr]

Some interesting city/town names in Texas:

Telephone, Idalou (actually named after someone named Ida, and someone named Lou), Dime Box, New Home, New Hope, New Deal, Cut & Shoot, Bee Cave, Beverly Hills, Canadian, Cranfills Gap, Dalworthington Gardens, Fate, Frost, Gun Barrel City, Ingleside on the Bay, Iraan, Italy, Jolly, Latexo, Leona, Leonard, Miami, Muleshoe, Nazareth, New Boston, New York, North Cleveland, Pharr, Scotland, The Colony, Waller, West, White Settlement.

Just to name a few.

[Chromatix]

Coming back to slightly less rude names, there's an amusing one here in Finland. There's an (artificial) hill near me informally called Jätemäki - literally "rubbish hill". As the name suggests, it was a landfill for waste building materials - when it was full, they applied some landscaping on top and integrated it into the local skyline. It's tall and steep enough (on at least one side) to practice paragliding from.

[Jester]

Some interesting city/town names in Texas...

Don't forget Paris, Texas. And I'm pretty sure there's a Lisbon, Texas, as well. Too lazy to check right now.

I don't need to check google or any other site, however, to know about Baghdad. No, not that Baghdad.....Baghdad, Arizona! I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

There's an (artificial) hill near me informally called Jätemäki - literally "rubbish hill". As the name suggests, it was a landfill for waste building materials - when it was full, they applied some landscaping on top and integrated it into the local skyline.

We have one of those just outside of Key West. No clue if it has an official name. But what all the residents call it is Mount Trashmore.

[Dentarthurdent]

I don't need to check google or any other site, however, to know about Baghdad. No, not that Baghdad.....Baghdad, Arizona! I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

<Pedant hat> The one in Arizona is spelled Bagdad. </pedant hat>

There's a Surprise, Arizona, too. I was just arguing with someone about what the hell is so surprising about it when they saw it on a map. I looked it up just now and it's because the founder said she would be "surprised if it ever amounted to much".

I'm sure those of you who lust over place names are aware that Kalamazoo and Hell are both towns in Michigan (if this has been mentioned, forgive me - I did not read the whole thread). There's a Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky, and Toad Suck is a town in Arkansas.

Florala, Alabama. Could no one come up with a more creative name than combining the first three letters of the two states it sits near the border of?

Near Lowell, Michigan, there's a Kissing Rock Road. It's exactly what it sounds like - a rock where the kids used to drive or walk out and kiss.