Rinkeby is a Stockholm suburb (in)famous for essentially being a massive immigrant slum, but I've always found it more noteworthy that you only need to switch one letter in order to get Runkeby (Wanking Village).
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I always liked former german names of Sudetenland towns in and around Jeseníky mountains.
Jeseník used to be Freiwaldau
Bruntál was Freudenthal - valley of joy (that's a cool name)
Krnov was Jägerndorf - hunters' village
I also quite like Tsargrad and its variations, which is the name of Constantinople/Istanbul in many slavic languages. It means, literally, Emperor's city. Boring and descriptive.
Jeseník used to be Freiwaldau
Bruntál was Freudenthal - valley of joy (that's a cool name)
Krnov was Jägerndorf - hunters' village
I also quite like Tsargrad and its variations, which is the name of Constantinople/Istanbul in many slavic languages. It means, literally, Emperor's city. Boring and descriptive.
If you have to go in that much detail on how the name is cool, then the name simply is not cool.
The English are always kind of terrible at naming things. Leaving aside the plethora of "New [insert-hometown/county-here]", consider New Zealand. You have two main islands, with a plethora of cool native names, e.g. "The Canoe of Maui", "Land of the Long White Clouds", or "The Fish of Maui". You could even anglicize one of these names to make it cool.
But being English, they decided to call them "North Island" and "South Island". Those are the kind of placeholder names you'd expect from a hack fantasy writer who is drawing a map for his book and can't find the Scrabble tiles to create a new fantasy-esque name.
But being English, they decided to call them "North Island" and "South Island". Those are the kind of placeholder names you'd expect from a hack fantasy writer who is drawing a map for his book and can't find the Scrabble tiles to create a new fantasy-esque name.
True. Though the Spanish and Portuguese were even worst than that. Naming literally hundreds of different places in their colonial empires the same thing (e.g. Santa Cruz, San Jose, etc). Just look at this list of popular place names.
BTW, I'm pretty sure Westeros is called that simply because it's meant to be the Western continent of that world (since the inhabitants initially migrated across the Narrow sea from the larger continent of Essos, to the East).
BTW, I'm pretty sure Westeros is called that simply because it's meant to be the Western continent of that world (since the inhabitants initially migrated across the Narrow sea from the larger continent of Essos, to the East).
Hm. That reminds of one of the weirdest names for a town in Portugal - "Freixo de Espada a Cinta", which literally means "Ash Tree with a Sword in its Belt". I have no idea how it earned that name. I suppose someone hung his sword on a tree and forgot about it.
Town shield:
I also live near a little township called Mikado (Pronounced "My-kaydoh"). We like to think all the people that live there are farmer hicks.
Here is Estonia we have a little town with the name Tapa. That name's meaning is: "You have to kill (smth)". Coincidentally it has a rather huge slaughterhouse facitlity.
haha
Härnösand translates - Here-Sneezed-Duck...
(or Härn-island-sand(Härn a nordic godess))
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Polish third largest (and probbaly the ugliest) city is called Łódź what simply means "the boat". Too bad there is not any river within it's borders, not to speak about a lake or sea...
That's the same strangeness with Denizli ('on the sea') in Turkey, and in fact was a point made by 17th-Century travellers.
Copenhagen is København in Danish, which is quite literally 'buy-a-harbour'
There's also Aalborg, which means Eel Castle.
There's also Aalborg, which means Eel Castle.
I always used to chuckle when I passed a village near Bristol in England called Lower Failtown. It not bad enough that they fail but they live below the people who failed! I also love the sound of some of the Aboriginal place names in Australia like Woolloomooloo.
Finally although the etymology of the name is disputed Topenhow Hill could be translated as torr (old English) - hill, penn (Welsh) - hill, haug-r (Danish) - hill or Hillhillhill Hill. The more likely eytomolgy is Ridged peak on a hill hill (all in Old English) except for the last hill which still fairly tautological but not as funny.
Finally although the etymology of the name is disputed Topenhow Hill could be translated as torr (old English) - hill, penn (Welsh) - hill, haug-r (Danish) - hill or Hillhillhill Hill. The more likely eytomolgy is Ridged peak on a hill hill (all in Old English) except for the last hill which still fairly tautological but not as funny.
Cool: Caesaraugusta
Lame: All santiagos and san diegos 'cept the first one in Galicia
Lame: All santiagos and san diegos 'cept the first one in Galicia
Speaking of Spanish names, although it's not an old name, I think El Salvador is a rather nice name. It sounds cool in Spanish and in English "The Savior" is a pretty impressive too.
Only problem is that the country is so small and unimportant... Imagine if USA had been named The Savior in 1776.
Also, the Golden Horde is definitely one of the most badass names in history books. Loses points for not being the native name and only sounding cool in English though. But still, Golden Horde is something you'd usually find in a fantasy book or something.
Only problem is that the country is so small and unimportant... Imagine if USA had been named The Savior in 1776.
Also, the Golden Horde is definitely one of the most badass names in history books. Loses points for not being the native name and only sounding cool in English though. But still, Golden Horde is something you'd usually find in a fantasy book or something.
They were place holder names
They only became official last year, as in a stunning oversight no one had ever officially named the islands Te Waipounamu and Te Ika-a-Maui hold equal status as alternative names. It's somewhat in doubt that either Maori name was in widespread use before European romanticisation, and highly dubious that Aotearoa (or anything) ever referred to the whole place.At various times the South Island has informally been the Middle Island (with Stewart Island as the South Island) or New Munster (with Stewart Island as New Leinster and the North Island as New Ulster. Poor Connacht
They were place holder names
At various times the South Island has informally been the Middle Island (with Stewart Island as the South Island) or New Munster (with Stewart Island as New Leinster and the North Island as New Ulster. Poor Connacht
Keeping the new Zealand tradition it would be best to call the southern island New-Walcheren and the northern Island New-Schouwen-Duiveland.
There is a village in Sweden called "Rök" which originally meant rock (and shares a root with the english word) and owes it's name to a particularly elaborate runestone in the vincintity, often refered to as the first literary work in Sweden, that runestone is today known as "Rökstenen" (Rök-stone) after the village. So the village is named Rock after a runestone and the Runestone is named Rock-stone after the village.
There is a northern suburb of Glasgow called Bearsden, despite the conspicuous absence of bears. Otherwise the place names are all to do with burns and glens, hills and water features.