If only I had the self-confidence of the guy who went to Australia and said “this place is called New South Wales now.”
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
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.”
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
- 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.
Didn’t you cunts also name a swimming pool after your prime minister who died swimming in the ocean?
The Powerpuff Girls happened in Australia‽‽
TIL Powerpuff girls is set in a place called Townsville
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=NUyXiiIGDTo
My d&d game tends to work better when I just name things like “The Nightmare Wood” and “The Old Hills”. The simplicity somehow lands harder.
Sometimes name it after a person, or some shit that went down there, especially if its not someplace important. Like its not the nightmare town, there’s nothing particular about it. So it’s susanstown, and attempts to discover local lore would find stories about the ancient founder that have been embellished over the years.
Derekshithispantsthereville
or invert it… Nightmare Town is named because the founder had a nightmare the first night after establishing camp there, and nothing else. Susan’s Hamlet, though had some real fucked up shit happen, is actively haunted and is the birthplace of the BBEG.
Fantasy world names: scadrial, Pallimustus, Vulcan, Tatoine
Real planet names by locals: Dirt
It was called “Earth” because we needed to distinguish it from Sky and Water, which were totally different things.
But then the fire nation attacked
I grew up in a village whose name roughly translates to “Bob’s place by the stream.”
I lived for a bit in a place that meant “Big nose”.
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.
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
Istanbul is literally “to the city” or in a way just “the city”
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
The Nullarbor plain sounds like an Aboriginal word, but it’s just Latin and means “No trees” because there are no trees on it.
Schenectady is “the place beyond the pines” because there was a big old pine barren between it and the next settlement over.
Naming my main character “Alexander” and every time I visit a city I tell the DM to refer to it as “Alexandria” going forward.
There is a Canada heritage minute about the last one
One wonders how many inhabited planets in the universe are referred to by the locals as “Dirt.”
Fun fact: copper got its roman name because the main exporter of that good in ye classic times was the island of Cyprus (Kyprus, cuprum)
To all the men obsessed with the Roman empire: you are to Republicans what the Greek culture is to Democrats. #generalization #butTrue
