When the usual name is a no-go

Factual Questions
1

I’m looking for examples of objects, places, etc. that would have normally been given a certain name, except that the name in question would have sounded too silly or awkward. Two that spring to mind:

  • The Super Bowl is usually assigned a roman numeral, but the 50th one was named “Super Bowl 50” - both because the asymmetrical letter L was difficult to incorporate into branding logos, and also because it evoked the “loser” hand gesture.

  • In New York City, the only bridge not officially known as a “bridge” is the Outerbridge Crossing, named for businessman Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge. By all accounts, the crossing was so named to avoid having to call it the “Outerbridge Bridge.”

2

The Detroit River isn’t actually a river, its the straights between Lake Huron and Lake Erie.

3

I’m wondering what definition of river you’re using that makes it not a river.

Edited to add: but it still qualifies for this thread because to call it the “Detroit Strait” is repetitive. (The French word for “strait” is “détroit”.)

4

Same for the East River of NYC.

@Q.Q.Switcheroo, not that I ever thought about it, but I never knew that about the Outerbridge. Staten Island to New Jersey. I used it just last month. Named for the Port Authority’s first chairman. Weird.

5

does food count?
There are food items where the actual name sounds too unappealing, so they are given a nickname.
Example: “rocky mountain oysters”

6

Rapeseed oil has entered the chat
Hi, I’m Canola, from Canada!

7

Same for the Rio de la Plata (River Plate)

A legend my father told me is that everybody knew it wasn’t a river but after a short war with France and Britain it was agreed that British and French ships could freely trade in the seas but not in the rivers, so everybody continued the fiction that it was a river. (This is of course false but se non è vero, è ben trovato)

8

Technically, they are two different products. Or, rather, canola is a type of low-acid rapeseed oil, but regular rapeseed oil isn’t canola.

9

Well, “low erucic acid rapeseed oil” fails to roll off the tongue, and also, “rape”. (Even if it’s not that kind of rape.)

“Canola” is definitely in the vein of “less yucky for a food product”.

10

Heh, reminds me of the baseball team ‘The Los Angeles Angels’, which, if entirely translated to English, would be ‘The The Angels Angels’.

I mentioned that in another thread, and someone pointed out that ‘The La Brea Tar Pits’ if translated would read ‘The The Tar Tar Pits’.

11

In the 60s, a bird seed for finches was sold. It was Guizotia abyssinica, but the common name was niger.

The seed name niger was a problem. Sometimes it was marketed as thistle, but it isn’t thistle. A bird seed company renamed/rebranded the seed Nyjer (always capitalized).

12

Never heard of those seeds, but by that date there was a newly-minted republic of 25 million people, which would have been in the news, so the name couldn’t have been a problem?

13

Some street names are just weird. I always wonder what civic planners were thinking when they named them.

For instance, our town has a Dawoody St. If you’re looking at houses, do you really want to live on Dawoody Street?

14

Almost certainly based on the Arabic name, possibly a person of some prominence at that time and in that place.

It takes a modicum of sophistication to distinguish between “weird” and “exotic”.

15

IIUC the problem was in marketing niger seed when the word looked like another “n word”.

16

Careful.

17

I know a guy with the last name Woody. I once asked him if kids teased him about his name growing up. He told me they did, they’d call him Homo (his first name is Homer, which I totally missed as being problematic).

18

I tread lightly. I think.

19

Reminder, we’re in Factual Questions not Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share

20

The Peanut.
It’s not a pea or a nut.
It’s a legume, which the pea is, as well. :flushed:

(Why is The Peanuts Gang called that? BTW)