Naming my main character “Alexander” and every time I visit a city I tell the DM to refer to it as “Alexandria” going forward.
Yer da sells Avon.
One wonders how many inhabited planets in the universe are referred to by the locals as “Dirt.”
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)_/¯
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)
ye classic times
The letter you’re using y to stand in for is available on computers and phones: þ (thorn). It makes the same sound as “th” in “that”. The other letter “th” replaced was ð (eth) which makes the sound “th” in “something”
If only I had the self-confidence of the guy who went to Australia and said “this place is called New South Wales now.”
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
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.”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!
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
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?
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
Filthy north welsherners. They think they’re sumtin. Well they’re NOT!
Maybe topography, but almost certainly not weather, except for maybe 2 weeks in southern winter/northern summer where the temperature will directly align
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.”
Australia is also just called South. And apparently someone proposed the name Borealia (North) for Canada.
Canada it is!
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)
Tbf the blue mountains are blue from the right distance in the right weather, like most temperate Australian mountains
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.
Lake disappointment (contains no water)
Well, that would be very disappointing if your lake had no water. So I think they nailed that one.
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
Classic!
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…
The Powerpuff Girls happened in Australia‽‽
The city of Townsville, yes (it is in fact a city)
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=NUyXiiIGDToI believe there’s also a Haversham Hill, which is also a hill hill hill hill
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.
My friends don’t know anything about my hometown, so I just name everything after old street names or old parts of town.
- Cabbageford
- Countsclearing
- Blackstakes
- Turnpike
- Holyspring
- Stepsstream
- Canyard
- Cattlestream Valley
- On The Height
- Cottageville
- Stalkpond
- Firecreek
- Meadowsmill
- Sticks
- Bogbrook
- Bogbridge
- Kingsroad
- Goldenworth
It feels incredibly realistic, because it is.
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.
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.
Derekshithispantsthereville
Sounds like you are describing Palpatine’s dick.
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”.
Istanbul is literally “to the city” or in a way just “the city”
Beijing is “northern capital”, Tokyo is “eastern capital”, and Kyoto is “capital capital”.
“capital_capital_final_thistime.jpg”
(Karl Marx’s revision history)
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.
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
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.
Edit: It was also pretty slow; it was a couple of hundred miles across and took three thousand years to disappear, so it’s on the order of a few miles in a lifetime.
I thought the Celts walked to the British Isles while they were connected to Europe. Guess I need to improve my British prehistory
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).”
