Are any English/American place names funny to foreigners?

Our family have just had lots of giggles driving past Condom and St Pee in the south of France (we are easily amused). It got me wondering - Do say ukrainian tourists photograph themselves in front of any of our road signs because it means Donkey Sex in their language?

There are some names and parts of names that are slightly amusing to Germans (nothing naughty, I’m afraid), but that amusement doesn’t last long (IOW it’s a funny-once, small-schoolkid thing).

[ul]
[li]Loch (as in, part of the name of a Scottish body of water) means hole in German. The words are pronounced the same.[/li][li]Pennsylvania sounds to a German unfamiliar with the name, like a very sleepy state (low colloquial pennen = to sleep)[/li][li]Eagle something sounds, when first heard, like hedgehog something (Igel = hedgehog, pronounced like the English word eagle. Another kid in my 5th form English class mistakenly translated “eagle’s eyes” to mean “hedgehog’s balls”.)[/li][/ul]

HEH! :smiley: Thanks for the insight.

I’d imagine many folks would find place names in PA amusing, what with Intercourse and Blue Ball down the road from Paradise and Bird-In-Hand. Out in western PA there’s Shy Beaver and Big Lick-those are two towns that need to merge. :stuck_out_tongue:

A friend from Argentina was appalled that there is a city in California named Palo Alto.

So what does Palo Alto mean to your friend? I thought it meant “high tree”.

The Wisconsin city of La Crosse generates no small amount of humor among French Canadians.

Don’t forget French Lick, Indiana.

Interesting! The quebecois must have a lot of fun at lacrosse games then! :smiley:

That’s where the slang meaning originated. Due to the constant arctic snowfall in Canada, the visiting team is often unable to make it to the game and the home team has to play with itself.

In certain LA countries, palo refers to the penis.

And then there’s Boca Raton, FL, the posh, wealthy suburb named after a rat’s mouth.

I know of two:
[ul]
[li]Des Moines means “of the monks” (or maybe “Monkland”) in French — which if not outright funny, is at least kind of odd.[/li]
[li]Ohio sounds like the Japanese phrase for “good morning”.[/li][/ul]

And to nitpick on other posters: although names like Intercourse and French Lick sound funny to us, I think the OP is after place names that sound funny to foreigners, in their own language.

Some years ago I had foreign visitors who couldn’t stop giggling at the name of a local neighborhood: Foggy Bottom.

Even days after the encounter, they’d all start giggling seemingly for no reason. When I asked what was so funny, they all say “Foggy Bottom! HAHAHAHA”.

The French would get a laugh out of the Grand Tetons.

You made me laugh out loud with this one! :smiley: I don’t think it’s really where this meaning comes from, though.

This was mentioned in a recent thread. It appears that these mountains were intentionally named this way by French explorers.

I also have a friend from Argentina who was amazed that there is a city in California called Delano. I guess Del Ano means “From the Anus”.

They must have had a field day back when FDR was in office.

Yeah there it is. Actually I think palo means “stick”. I’ve heard chopsticks referred to as palos chinos.

Funny thing is that my friend is half Argentine and half Thai and grew up in Thailand. So of course I had the perfect comeback:

Friend: Dude, I can’t believe you have a city there named Palo Alto!!!
Me: I wouldn’t talk, dude, you grew up in Bangkok!

Speaking of Bangkok, when I was there last winter, we stayed in a place called the Atlanta Hotel.

The cab driver asked us where we were going, and looked at us in total confusion when we said “The Atlanta Hotel,” pronouncing “Atlanta” the way normal Americans do, with a schwa for the last syllable–“at-LAN-tuh.” When he continued to look blank, we pulled out the business card to show him.

He thought this was completely hilarious.
“Oh, you mean At-lan-TAH, not At-lan-TUH!” He drove us there and kept chuckling to himself and repeating “At-lan-TUH!”

I still don’t know if the pronunciation “At-lan-tuh” means something dirty in Thai, or what, but the driver seemed to think it was the funniest thing ever.