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."
Those are both from the same Mitchel and Webb sketch.
I'm sorry, who's wearing the hat?
You . . . are.
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.
Pffft, he was plagued with self doubt compared to Cecil Rhodes who went to Africa and said "this place is called Rhodesia now."
Australia is also just called South. And apparently someone proposed the name Borealia (North) for Canada.
People naming things in Australia:
But you also have wildcards:
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
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?
What's wrong with Shark Bay? I'd name every second bay I find, Shark Bay.
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
I 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.
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
Reminds of the old story that I heard (unsure if it's true or not) about Torpenhow Hill in the UK.
Over centuries... various invaders and conquerors had come to that place and asked what it was called... First it was called Tor later on invaders added the word 'Pen' which was their word for Hill... later, more invaders came along and added the suffix 'How' which was their word for Hill.... and finally... it was named in more modern English as Torpenhow Hill.... which literally translates as Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill.
I don;t know if that's 100% true or not... but it's an amusing little story and given the oddities of the English language... I'd like to think it was.
Especially given there's a species of bear out there that's name is literally translated as Bear, Bear, Bear.
From the Wikipedia page:
A. D. Mills in his Dictionary of English Place-Names interprets the name as "Ridge of the hill with a rocky peak", giving its etymology as Old English torr, Celtic *penn, and Old English hoh, each of which mean 'hill'. Thus, the name Torpenhow Hill could be interpreted as 'hill-hill-hill Hill'.
I think it's a hill?
Guys I think that place might be on some elevated terrain
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.
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
Honestly surprised it's that low
Lots of Bismark and Moscow about too.
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.
Fun fact: Celts were originally central European, but the British Isles and Brittany were the only places Celtic culture survived the Romans.
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).”
In my group if the GM can't pronounce the name in one try in a way that makes it clear to us how to spell it the players with rename it something more like "Bonertown" or just "Dave"
Fun fact in hungary there are no two towns with the same name. Or at least thats what everyone seems to say and to be fair i havent found a single pair yet so im pretty sure its true. Quite a neat thing actually, if you tell the name of even a small town to someone, they should be able to find it. And because hungarian has its unique characters and structures its quite likely that its the only place on earth named that.
Naming my main character "Alexander" and every time I visit a city I tell the DM to refer to it as "Alexandria" going forward.
Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
