Odd place names

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Ramsbottom, Lancashire.

In our country we also have a city the name of which is Police and a village named Malice. But those names are pronounced differently in here than they would be in America: as poh-lee-tse and mah-lee-tse. Those names are in the plural form in Polish – when you want to say you have just visited Malice or Police you don't say you visited it but them even while refering only to one of them. It’s like: - Police is (or are) a nice place to live. – Oh, I know, I used to live in them for several years.

Hot Coffee,MS
Meddybemps,ME
Mashpee,MA
Old Cock(A group of rocks and ledges off of Westport,MA)
Blow Me Down, NF
Dildo Tickle,NF
Gay Island,ME
Gay City,CT
Haycock Harbor,ME
Ragged Arse,ME

Within 20 minutes of me is Sexsmith, Beaverlodge and La Glace. The last one translates as "the ice"

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Paris, Texas - even though there are actually a handful of towns named paris, it is just such an odd juxtaposition of words, it almost seems to flow nicely, yet is pretty much an oxy moron =P

Lake Titicaca, oh, Lake Titicaca,
It's between Bolivia and Peru,
Lake Titicaca, oh Lake Titicaca,
With waters shining and blue

Lake Titicaca, oh Lake Titicaca,
Why do we sing of its fame?
Lake Titicaca, oh Lake Titicaca,
'Cause we really like saying its name!
Titicaca!!

- a song from the cartoon Animaniacs

Truth or Consequences, NM, gained its name in 1950, when Ralph Edwards, host of the radio quiz show Truth Or Consequences, said they'd broadcast live from the first town they could find with that name. Prior to this event, the town was known by the rather more prosaic name Hot Springs.

More odd place names -

Vader, WA

Bonesteel, SD (combined with a small town in Washington to give me the name of a dwarf character from AD&D - Omak Bonesteel)

Coldfoot, Alaska (a way-station on the highway from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay and the equally oddly-named Deadhorse)

Incidentally, both Coldfoot and Deadhorse can be seen on the History Channel program Ice Road Truckers.

Not far from where I live there is a sleepy village called "Snopptorp" - which means "House of male sexual organ".

For chorus we had to sing a German geographic fugue that mentioned Lake Titicaca. The basses had a funny part that would go Titi....caca, and they'd keep cracking up (especially at the caca) which upset the director. The recording that they gave us to listen to to study this song was amazing, but I don't know where it is anymore. But here's a video of some kids singing it, in case you're feeling bored and/or curious. This is an english version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjMQrA8W ... re=related

And one time we were going on a trip to Washington D.C. I think, and passed by Ho-Ho-Kus. For some reason my friends and I got a kick out of it.

I find some of these locations shocking. And funny. I think I'd like to visit an odd-place name just to take a picture of their sign.

oh, YES, a major lifelong interest of mine! i started reading maps obsessively when i was about 6, and would pore through my brother's 1966 atlas for hours looking for the tiniest towns, smallest populations, and weirdest names! i'd say it was what set me on the path to loving road trips and travel, and off-the-beaten-path places. what's weird was when i started to roam th country, i'd inadvertently end up in some of these places i recall seeing on the maps as a kid! the best ones seemed to be on the east coast, kentucky, and in the old west. the older atlases will really bring up a treasure trove of weirdness.

Double Trouble, NJ
Little Egg Harbor, NJ (where the eggs come floating in!)
Cataract, Indiana (ok it's a type of waterfall but still)
Pie Town. NM
Pee Dee, SC
Going Snake, OK
Eighty-Four, PA (home of the lumber co)
Lickskillet, TN
Jumbo, TN
Cooter, MO
Blue Ball and Sleepy Eye, AR
Cut and Shoot, TX
Chuckanut, WA
Chugwater and Ten Sleep, WY
Hot Coffee, MS
Needles, CA

but Kentucky wins hands down with: Dingus, Relief, Decoy, Handshoe, Lick Fork, Rugless, Smilax, Hot Spot, Do Stop, Good Luck, Marrowbone, Pig, Static, Dog Walk, Birdie, Cudgel, (British readers, cover your eyes) Knob Lick, Co-Operative, and Monkey's Eyebrow. I'm not making this up. Kentucky rules.

Termonfeckin, Ireland

Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies is from Termonfeckin. This is from her IMdB page:

My mum has a book with pictures of signposts to funny places in the UK. Some I remember:

- Dull
- Curry Mallet
- Six Mile Bottom
- Netherfart

Nothing really beats Pratt's Bottom though.

Somone mentioned Middlesex - I live there.

Not that funny, but on the way to therapy I used to pass a town called Cuckoo, and it seemed quite fitting.

My mum has a book with pictures of signposts to funny places in the UK. Some I remember:

- Dull
- Curry Mallet
- Six Mile Bottom
- Netherfart

Nothing really beats Pratt's Bottom though.

Somone mentioned Middlesex - I live there.

Not that funny, but on the way to therapy I used to pass a town called Cuckoo, and it seemed quite fitting.

-Dick Lick Springs, KY

Douglas Adams wrote a nice book about odd place names.