# Places with funny names, with completely innocent origins **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 5, 2023, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654 "2023-09-05T16:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/21 "2023-09-05T20:29:13Z")
“Bang” means village. “Porn/phon” means blessing. However NB Thai uses its own alphabet, not Latin. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/22 "2023-09-05T20:33:17Z")
Don’t miss the lovely French village Y. Later on you may visit Å in Norway. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/23 "2023-09-05T20:34:19Z")
My favorite is Dickshooter, Idaho. Named for pioneer settler Dick Shooter. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/24 "2023-09-05T21:23:56Z")
There’s [Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Louis-du-Ha!_Ha!), in Quebec. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/25 "2023-09-05T21:48:11Z")
Big Bone Lick in Kentucky. So named because it’s a salt lick with fossils of very big Pleistocene animals. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/26 "2023-09-05T22:33:48Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > There’s also Hell, Michigan. I’ve been there. I’ve not only been there, but my brother’s car broke down there, leaving us stranded in Hell. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/27 "2023-09-05T22:55:58Z")
Of course, sometimes it really is exactly what it sounds like, like Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump, Alberta. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/28 "2023-09-05T23:31:27Z")
I’ve been in Fanny’s Hole. It’s a ghost town in Idaho. Once or twice a year I pass a sign in Pennsylvania that points the way to Virginville. I always wanted to come there, but I’ve never done it yet. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2023, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/29 "2023-09-05T23:49:15Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > I always wanted to come there, but I’ve never done it yet. Nobody has. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2023, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/30 "2023-09-06T00:17:44Z")
> [@Jaycat.again](#): > > I’ve not only been there, but my brother’s car broke down there, leaving us stranded in Hell. It’s a pleasant little burg. At least on the summer afternoon we were there. Being carless on a weekend in February might have been much less fun. Doubly so as a young person with little spare money. @bibliophage: That was excellent. Well played Good Sir. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2023, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/31 "2023-09-06T00:32:16Z")
There’s a tiny place with a gas station (maybe) named Hollywood, Arkansas. My Daddy took all the grandkids, that fell for it, to Hollywood. He got a big charge outta that one. One time there was a food truck there and they lived high on the hog. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/32 "2023-09-06T01:01:13Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > I’ve been in Fanny’s Hole. It’s a ghost town in Idaho. Apparently “hole” was old fur trapper slang for a valley, e.g. Jackson Hole. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2023, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/33 "2023-09-06T01:07:53Z")
Around here a valley would be _bottom_ So Fanny’s Bottom. Kinda sounds worse. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/34 "2023-09-06T01:08:05Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > There’s a tiny place with a gas station (maybe) named Hollywood, Arkansas. > My Daddy took all the grandkids, that fell for it, to Hollywood. One of the nicknames for **L** ethbridge, **A** lberta, is “LA.” It adorned the transit system’s buses (LA Transit), and a few local businesses call themselves "LA \_\_\_\_\_ " (coffee, souvenirs, etc.). I can see somebody telling their kids that the family vacation this year would be in LA, and then taking them to Lethbridge. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/35 "2023-09-06T01:39:39Z")
Manhattan has about three streets and a freight rail line. Well, the one in Montana, anyway. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2023, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/36 "2023-09-06T01:56:27Z")
I think you meant 3 streetlights (traffic lights) in Manhattan MT. It’s got way more than three streets. Manhattan NV has no kidding about 5 streets and no railroad. But two bars. For bonus points, Manhattan NV has a street called Bobby Bottom Road. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2023, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/37 "2023-09-06T02:09:32Z")
Bragg city, Ar has something to brag about. The famous “Stairs to Nowhere” not to spoil it for tourist but it’s an old set of cement steps to a long gone house. Someone graffiti’d “stairs to nowhere” ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/38 "2023-09-06T02:44:39Z")
[Batman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman,_Turkey) (the name of a city, province and river in Turkey) ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/39 "2023-09-06T03:11:35Z")
Athol. Google says it’s a town in Idaho, " first known as Colton, the town was renamed Athol by a settler who came from Athol, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Athol was named after a town in Scotland named for the Duke of Atholl." [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athol,_Massachusetts) weighs in on the name origin for Athol, Massachusetts: " Originally called Pequoiag when settled by Native Americans, the area was subsequently settled by five families in September 1735. When the township was incorporated in 1762, the name was changed to Athol. [John Murray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Murray_(Massachusetts)), one of the proprietors of the land, chose the name which traditionally was believed to mean [“new Ireland”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atholl) although some, including historian [James E. Fraser](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_E._Fraser_(historian)), dispute this definition." The sniggering humor is obvious. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2023, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654/40 "2023-09-06T03:38:12Z")
There’s always the village formerly known as Fucking, Austria, until they local townsfolk changed it to Fugging, Austria, in 2021. > **[Fugging, Upper Austria](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugging,_Upper_Austria)** > > Fugging (German: \[ˈfʊkɪŋ\] i), spelled Fucking until 2021, is an Austrian village in the municipality of Tarsdorf, located in the Innviertel region of western Upper Austria. It is 33 km (21 mi) north of Salzburg and 4 km (2.5 mi) east of the Inn river, which forms part of the German border. > Despite a population of only 106 in 2020, the village has drawn attention in the English-speaking world for its former name, which was spelled the same as an inflected form of the vulgar English-language ... There was also another Fucking, Austria, that changed it’s named to Fugging back in 1836. That Fugging is located in northeast Austria/Lower Austria. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/places-with-funny-names-with-completely-innocent-origins/989654.md?page=3)