Ugliest Place Names

[Bri2k]

@Shagnasty

For big city names, I think Pittsburgh could have done better. Pittsfield, MA could have picked a better one too. I sometimes wonder what the other contenders were when it came time to make a decision on some location names.

Ahem. Pittsburgh is named after William Pitt the Elder, not some hole in the ground thankyouverymuch.

Now Big Sandy on the other hand…

Bri2k

[Marlitharn]

Cooter, MO. Really.

Also, there’s a rural road nearby called Beaver Butte Road. You’d be amazed how many people can’t pronounce “butte”.

[YogSothoth]

Walla Walla
Keokuk
Cucamonga
Seattle

[Argent_Towers]

Slough and Swindon in England are both very ugly names.

[Namkcalb]

Staines?

[Askance]

@Askance

We have a suburb in Sydney called Greystanes, I don’t think it gets much less euphonious than that.

@Namkcalb

Staines?

Ahem. Gotcha beat, I believe.

[williambaskerville]

There’s a town in Donegal,Ireland called Muff.

I can never decide if that’s ugly or not.

And yes, they have a diving club.

Muff Diving Club in Muff, Ireland

(It’s from the Irish word magh, meaning plain, since someone is wondering).

[panache45]

Scotrun, PA. Seeing the sign on I-80, people think it’s “Scrotum.”

[colonial]

@dinahmoe

Athol, Mass. Yeth, it’th pronouthed like that.

I understand the natives find it amusing to introduce themselves by saying
“I’m from Athol Mathachusetts”

I wonder how Danish natives from the unfortunately named town of Middlefart
handle the autibio when engaging English speakers.

[Baron_Greenback]

There’s a Skinflats in Scotland.

[Rayne_Man]

Essex and Hertfordshire have some very strange names. These include a village actually called Ugley, plus Nasty, Hope End and Cold Christmas.

[Dr.Woo]

@El_Kabong

Oxnard, CA, where I domiciled for a few years.

Thread over.

Dammit! You beat me to it. And yeah, thread over.

I’m from Camarillo.

[EinsteinsHund]

I’m not sure if it places outside the English speaking part of the world count in this thread, but anyway I give you Fucking, Austria. And FWIW, there’s a little village called “Faulebutter” in the area where I live, which translates to “rotten butter”.

[Shakester]

Skegness.

[Count_Blucher]

New Gretna

(Fine, Tim, but You have to get rid of the old one…)

[Evil_Captor]

Well Oxnard is a really ugly name, but Skegness, Faulebutter, Athol, Keokuk, Slough, and of course Ugley are pretty fair competition. Clearly these places were not named by real estate developers. And I agree that Sudbury does not sound unpleasant at all.

[Rayne_Man]

At least the city of Nottingham had the good sense or fortune to modify its name. It was originally called "Snotingaham, named after a Saxon warrior called Snot.

[Beware_of_Doug]

Came here for Cheesequake, NJ. Don’t care for Whippany, Teaneck or Peapack much either.

[Giles]

I don’t think anywhere can beat Grimethorpe, partly because the place itself matches the name:

Grimethorpe has gained a reputation as the most long-term deprived community in Great Britain and many of the houses from its coal-mining days have been demolished. In 1994, the European Union’s study of deprivation named Grimethorpe as the poorest village in the country and amongst the poorest in Europe. For a village, levels of crime and drug abuse have been chronically high. Unemployment was above 50% for much of the 1990s and a large proportion of the population are disabled, having suffered injuries down the coal mines.

(From the Wiki article)

Of course, it’s also known for the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and for having inspired the movie Brassed Off.

[Wheelz]

There’s a town near Raleigh, NC called Fuquay-Varina.

The jokes just wrirte themselves.