# Places whose names have been tainted by things named after them **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 21, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980 "2013-02-21T16:54:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/21 "2013-02-21T19:17:49Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > There was a diet suppresant once called Ayds (pronounced aids). It was heavily marketed through the 60s and 70s, and into the 80s before the unfortunate naming of Acquired Immune Deficiency. It was renamed to Diet-Ayds, but that didn’t save the company. No, you missed a punchline. It was renamed from Ayds to Slim-Aids… except that, among other things, “Slim” was the colloquial name for AIDS in parts of Africa. But you’re right, it didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/22 "2013-02-21T19:23:44Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Why’s that? > > Do you mean [Norwalk, Ohio](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwalk_virus)? I’m gonna take a guess and say [noooo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Sandusky), he doesn’t mean Norwalk. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/23 "2013-02-21T19:30:43Z")
Certainly Cheddar, England has more going for it than a generic kind of cheese. I’m sure it’s quite a lovely town. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/24 "2013-02-21T19:35:48Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > I’m gonna take a guess and say [noooo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Sandusky), he doesn’t mean Norwalk. Duh, thanks. I’m so on to other scandals… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![cougar58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cougar58](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cougar58)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/25 "2013-02-21T19:36:21Z")
Hell, Michigan A pair of German travelers stepped out of a stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the other, “So schön hell!” ( translated as, “So beautifully bright!”) Their comments were overheard by some locals and the name stuck. Soon after Michigan gained statehood, George Reeves was asked what he thought the town he helped settle should be called and replied, “I don’t care, you can name it Hell for all I care.” The name became official on October 13, 1841. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/26 "2013-02-21T20:33:58Z")
> [@cougar58](#): > > Hell, Michigan Car and Driver had a stop in Hell, complete with obligatory town sign shot, around 1980. There are a number of Hells in the NYC area (no obvious jokes, plz), all derived from the Dutch Helle or Helles. Best known is probably Hell’s Kitchen. But this is kind of the inverse of the OP’s question, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/27 "2013-02-21T20:42:49Z")
As Chris Rock says. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive is the worst road in the city… ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/28 "2013-02-21T20:49:31Z")
““Slim” was the colloquial name for AIDS in parts of Africa.” The English language parts? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/29 "2013-02-21T21:17:31Z")
What about Columbine High School. I have a T-shirt that says "I \<3 Intercourse PA. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/30 "2013-02-21T21:26:17Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Certainly Cheddar, England has more going for it than a generic kind of cheese. I’m sure it’s quite a lovely town. Actually, not really- the local scenery is quite nice, but the town is tiny, and full of tacky tourist cheese shops. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/31 "2013-02-21T22:20:29Z")
Nigeria. Now unfortunately synonymous with “fraudulent”. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/32 "2013-02-21T22:33:25Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Nigeria. Now unfortunately synonymous with “fraudulent”. Hmm. Problematic. If we used to use the now-impolite “gypped” and "welshed,’ I shudder to think of the verb form of Nigeria-as-land-of-cheaters. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/33 "2013-02-21T22:35:09Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > ““Slim” was the colloquial name for AIDS in parts of Africa.” > > The English language parts? AFAIK, Africa has three working _lingua francas_: English, French and Swahili. Not sure of how prevalent the term was but yes, I’d assume it was the term in English. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/34 "2013-02-22T07:50:45Z")
> [@cougar58](#): > > Hell, Michigan The [railway station](http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&as_st=y&biw=1024&bih=645&tbm=isch&tbnid=pDMbmV2b9mUVVM:&imgrefurl=http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2008/02/a-day-when-hell-was-frozen/&docid=PTzNl83NX_VjkM&imgurl=http://www.realclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/hell.JPG&w=640&h=480&ei=1iInUfmGM8-LswbDlIGACg&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,i:82&iact=rc&dur=808&sig=105506887690432708382&page=1&tbnh=176&tbnw=231&start=0&ndsp=12&tx=144&ty=94) in Hell, Norway. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/35 "2013-02-22T08:18:59Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > But, to a British ear, the word Cortina immediately brings to mind the [Ford Cortina](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Cortina), a car named to evoke an air of sophistication, aspiration and glamour but embodying precisely none of these things. Sorry, Italy, Cortina has been tainted forever. [**The end of my '69**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16032710&postcount=200), at 72,000 miles — in another thread — in Canada. In '72 I bought a new one. Drove it for 232,000 miles in four or five years, from 40 below and blinding blizzards to 102°F. The two-litre engine (German? and the same as the Pinto’s) was superb (never had it apart, but the overhead-cam belt broke every 40,000 miles, like clockwork), the rest of it not so much. I had a 2003 Malibu. You can imagine what that POS model name is doing to California. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/36 "2013-02-22T08:57:47Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > ““Slim” was the colloquial name for AIDS in parts of Africa.” > > The English language parts? Yes - among other things, in the early days one of the telling characteristics of “the gay cancer” was extreme weight loss. Don’t know if that was Kaposi’s Sarcoma or other opportunistic disease acting. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/37 "2013-02-22T16:06:59Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Brussels sprouts. LOL! 😛 (I like Brussels sprouts, BTW) ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/38 "2013-02-22T16:09:48Z")
> [@cougar58](#): > > Hell, Michigan I’ve been to Hell, Norway. It’s near Trondheim. Sometimes, it does freeze over. ETA: **Floater** beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/39 "2013-02-22T16:12:10Z")
What, no mention yet of Chernobyl? What about Bhopal? ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980/40 "2013-02-22T16:33:15Z")
I questioned that tyhe English word “slim” was an African colloquialism for AIDS. One response said “I assume it was the term in English” another noted that it was because of weight loss associated with the disease. To use another colloquilism “Well duh.” I guess I must explain was that I was questioning that an English term was the colloquialism for AIDS on a continent where English is not the predominant language as a colloquialism is generally speaking a term of the local language and not a borrowed foreign word. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-whose-names-have-been-tainted-by-things-named-after-them/650980.md?page=3)