If you ever find someone with a freakish travel itinerary, do not dismiss him as dingbat.
Day 1: Boring. Day 2: Embarrass. Day 3: Kill. Day 4: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Day 5: Hell.
If you ever find someone with a freakish travel itinerary, do not dismiss him as dingbat. Or, perv. Or, someone who forgot to press the keyboard Space bar for Day 4. Chuckle a little. Perhaps the traveller has a funny bone the size of a watermelon. Maybe he likes throwing humour into his day trips. Perhaps he prefers picking cities with weird names. The itinerary isn’t erroneous. There are actually cities named Toad Suck; Yum Yum; Truth & Consequence. Even an Intercourse city!
Hold on to your laughter, here are a few ‘funny’ cities from around the world.
Anus, Condom, Bitche (France): If Condom wasn’t funny enough for a town name in France, the French also named a town Anus. Yes, Anus located in Burgundy (not the colour, the region). Other strange city names in France include Brest, Seix, Bitche.
Hell (Norway): Not sure about Heaven but there certainly is a Hell on earth. Not the Hell that we dread - in Norwegian, the word Hell means luck. The town, however, borrows its name from the overhanging cliff caves in the area known as hellir in old Norse. The 1990 Miss Universe Mona Grudt hailed from Hell; the media dubbed her the Beauty Queen from Hell.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (Wales, UK): In 1880s, the tailor of a sleepy Welsh village had a brilliant marketing idea. As publicity stunt he suggested a ridiculous, unpronounceable Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch as the new name for the village. And the gimmick worked. Visitors throng to the village merely to get photographed by the city’s signage. Not that anyone cares but the Welsh word translates into: St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave.
Nowhere Else (Tasmania, Australia): When someone is going to Nowhere Else, he is actually going to a rural town in Tasmania (Australia). If a family of 4 gets there together, that would be 10 percent of the town’s population. Only 40 people live in Nowhere Else. Perhaps people want to live somewhere else and not Nowhere Else.
Kill (Ireland): The historical village of Kill hugs the border of County Kildare and County Dublin. According to a Church land record of 1800, the town is called Kilbarrymeandon and that may have been abbreviated to a simpler Kill.
Truth or Consequences (New Mexico, USA): The town does not spew Commandments about Truth, Lie & Consequences. It was originally named Hot Springs but in March 1950, when Ralph Edwards, the host of NBC Radio quiz show Truth or Consequences announced that he would air the program on its 10th anniversary from the first town that renamed itself after the show, Hot Springs renamed itself Truth or Consequences.
Birdsville (Queensland, Australia): Birdsville is situated between the eastern edge of the Simpson Desert, the vast gibber plains of Sturt’s Stony Desert to the south and rich Channel Country to the north. Do not know how many birds live in Birdsville but the human headcount is only 115.
Intercourse (Pennsylvania, USA): It's okay, you can giggle! We know our name gets us lots of attention - the official website of Intercourse begins like this. You might hold the giggle because Intercourse has a few non-sexual theories about its name. The town sitting at the edge of a racecourse had an entry point named Entercourse, which probably later evolved into Intercourse. Or, the name may have come from the Intersection of two major roads, or courses. Or, the town was named after a phrase commonly used at the time of the town's founding: In early English, Intercourse was used to refer to fellowship and social interaction shared in a community.
Fucking (Austria): Once upon a time there was a Bavarian nobleman called Focko who founded a town called Fucking (33 kilometres north of Salzburg). The town name must have come from Focko because it was only in 1475 that ‘fucking’ was first used to denote sexual intercourse. In 2012, it was rumoured that this tiny town with a population of 100 voted to rename it to Fugging. Alas! the Fuckingners (yes, that’s what locals are called) had to effing stick to Fucking because the name Fugging was already taken by another Austrian town called Fucking. The Fucking road sign has been stolen so often as souvenirs that after 2005, the signage was made theft-resistant.
Dildo (Canada): There’s a Dildo in Newfoundland & Labrador (Canada). Its first historically documented use, then Dildoe Island, was in 1711, but its origins remain shrouded in mystery. Few believe that it comes from the French word for the Island, ile d'eau, owing to its freshwater springs; others think that Dildo is the adaptation of the Spanish word for the bottom of a boat.
- Boring (USA); Dull (Scotland) and Bland (Australia) are sister cities and referred to as the Trinity of Tedium.
- Bangkok’s official name is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit.
- The full name of Los Angeles city is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula.
- It is generally believed that Mexico is a portmanteau of the Nahuatl words for moon (mētztli) and navel (xīctli).
- Sydney is named in honour of the then British home secretary, Thomas Townsend Lord Sydney, the man responsible for devising the plan to ship convicts to Australia.
- Hong Kong is the phonetic rendering of the pronunciation of two Cantonese characters meaning fragrant harbour