# Are there any real places named \[Someone's\] \[Some Intangible Thing\] like Ryan's Hope or Evelyn's Despair? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 28, 2025, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118 "2025-12-28T13:36:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/21 "2025-12-28T20:41:55Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > “[Name]’s Folly,” but that’s usually in reference to “folly” as in “ornamental building with no purpose,” not “foolishness.” There is (or was) a “Frank’s Folly” in Downingtown PA. “Frank” was a distant cousin. I understand this one was in reference to foolishness. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/22 "2025-12-28T20:49:46Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Drewry’s Bluff in Virginia A bluff can be a steep cliff. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/23 "2025-12-28T21:11:49Z")
> [@Ancient\_Nerd](#): > > A bluff can be a steep cliff. I know; hence the ‘likewise’. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/24 "2025-12-28T22:09:39Z")
Well then, Pikes Peak could mean his, Mr. Pikes, peak achievement not the top of the mountain. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/25 "2025-12-28T22:56:48Z")
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia was originally _Harper’s Ferry_ until it was changed in 1891 ---
**Author:** ![Danger\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Danger\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danger_Man)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/26 "2025-12-28T23:05:49Z")
Hell’s Kitchen? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/27 "2025-12-28T23:18:06Z")
A kitchen is a tangible thing. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/28 "2025-12-29T00:08:23Z")
We’re far afield from the OP. But as a comparison, **[Wiki- Saint Peters Missouri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peters%2C_Missouri)** has never properly had an apostrophe. Maybe it should have. But it didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/29 "2025-12-29T00:33:43Z")
There’s a small but famous city in Israel called Zichron Yaakov. The word _Zichron_ can mean either “Memory”, “Remembrance” or “Memorial”, so it’s possible to translate the name of the place as “Jacob’s Memory”. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/30 "2025-12-29T00:39:39Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > A kitchen is a tangible thing. And Hell isn’t a person. (Though it _is_ other people.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/31 "2025-12-29T00:48:11Z")
Of we turn it around to Kitchen’s Hell maybe it qualifies as [noun nebulous-adjective]. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/32 "2025-12-29T06:26:39Z")
There’s a 5000-some feet high peak overlooking Death Valley called Dante’s View. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/33 "2025-12-29T07:37:10Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > can also mean pleasure more generally, including non-sexual pleasure, and a frequent idiom is “Lust haben”, which just means that you feel like doing something. Like wanderlust. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/34 "2025-12-29T11:52:31Z")
Reid’s Mistake is a name given to a headland and latterly a geological formation, north of Sydney. Named for a mistaken identification of a previously unmapped river mouth as the entrance to the Hunter River, the name has kicked around in various forms since the early 1800s. Journo Mark Whittaker wrote a very good book about travelling around Australian place names that might qualify - _The Road to Mount Buggery: A Journey Through the Curiously Named Places of Australia_, which includes places like Lake Disappointment, Mount Unapproachable and Point Torment. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/35 "2025-12-29T12:56:47Z")
There’s also, famously, False Bay near Cape Town, named for the many ships which mistakenly sailed into it, believing it was Table Bay and they had already rounded the Cape of Good Hope. No Name of a person associated with it, though. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/36 "2025-12-29T13:01:57Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Well then, Pikes Peak could mean his, Mr. Pikes, peak achievement not the top of the mountain. Would that go for Land’s End, or was there no Mr. Land? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/37 "2025-12-29T13:06:11Z")
There are three villages in Newfoundland & Labrador, with names that are similar to this theme: Heart’s Desire, Heart’s Delight, and Heart’s Content. The villages are all on Trinity Bay, fairly close together. It’s not known how the names arose. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/38 "2025-12-29T13:42:23Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > > > Well then, Pikes Peak could mean his, Mr. Pikes, peak achievement not the top of the mountain. > > Would that go for Land’s End, or was there no Mr. Land? 😃 The neighborhood of Prides Crossing (formerly Pride’s Crossing) in Beverly, Massachusetts was in fact named for a Mr. Pride. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/39 "2025-12-29T13:48:10Z")
Also in NL is Joe Batt’s Arm. There are several other places in the province named after people, including Arnold’s Cove, Cook’s Harbour (named after Captain James Cook), Ming’s Bight, and Cox’s Cove. The capital, St. John’s–note the apostrophe–is named after, well, St. John. It is not clear who or what Dildo, Dildo Island, and Dildo’s Arm were named after. In British Columbia, there is Anarchist Mountain, named after John Haywood. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2025, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118/40 "2025-12-29T14:13:15Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > The English and German words are certainly cognates, but the German word doesn’t have the sexual connotations that its English equivalent has. I don’t think it always has sexual connotations in English either, for example in _The Silmarillion_ I seem to remember that various characters have “lust in their hearts” or something like that for the titular jewels. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-real-places-named-someones-some-intangible-thing-like-ryans-hope-or-evelyns-despair/1026118.md?page=3)