It's a trip!: Why I love living in Britain (part I)

08 May 2005

Why I love living in Britain (part I)

The place names! Where else could you find these? My favorites are...

NOTE: These are all real places--I did not make them up. They are all to be found in my A-Z Great Britain Road Atlas. The * marks the towns I've been to (and usually giggled all the way through), and the others I just found on the map.

The hopelessly romantic:
Knightsbridge*, London
Maidenhead*
Royal Leamington Spa*, Warwickshire
Bury St. Edmunds*, Suffolk
Druid's Heath, W. Midlands
Fairy Cross, Devon
Love's Green, Essex
Maypole Green, Suffolk
Merlin's Bridge, Wales
Friar's Gate, Sussex

The completely unpronounceable:
Eglwyswrw, Wales
Llansantffraed Cwmdeuddwr, Wales
Druimindarroch, Highlands
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch, Wales (no, I didn't
make it up, click on the link!)

And the just plain laughable:
Upper Boddam, Scotland (wrong in sooo many ways!)
Lickey End, Worcestershire
Tooting*, London
Bishop's Itchington*, Warwickshire (poor guy!)
Gweek, Cornwall
Great Snoring*, Norfolk (my DH should move here)
Isles of Scilly* (pronounced Silly, as in The Ministry of Silly Walks), Cornwall
Wormiehills, Scotland
Little Heck, N. Yorkshire (for when you're just not bad enough for Big Heck)
Freckleton, Lancashire
Belchford, Lincolnshire (excuse me!)
Cockburnspath, Scotland (hope there's a cure!)
Bitchfield, Lincolnshire (my next home)

If you want to find out how English place names evolved, check out
Ask Oxford, or for Welsh names, try here.

posted by Julie at 1:33 PM 8 comments

8 Comments:

Jen said...: Hilarious post! A+

BTW-I'm on the waiting list for Collapse from my library, is it any less soupy than Guns, Germs and Steel?; Sun May 08, 05:49:00 PM GMT+1
Julie said...: No, it's not as good, either. I'm not that impressed--it's very repetitive. He could have said just as much in half (or less!) the space.; Sun May 08, 06:59:00 PM GMT+1
Anonymous said...: Do they at least have pronunciation next to the names in the atlas!! Geesh!! And I was doing good realizing that Miami OK is NOT pronounced the same as Miami, FL; Sun May 08, 08:00:00 PM GMT+1
Julie said...: Sheri, No they don't. We just don't go to Wales. :); Sun May 08, 08:15:00 PM GMT+1
Lora said...: You received a great big hearty chuckle from this post.

Place Names are such fun.I use to live in Tulsa, OK. It took me 2 years before I realized that "My-am-a" and Miami (which I had seen on the map) were one and the same. Texas has some bizare pronuciations too. They love to add sounds in that shouldn't be there, skip sounds that should and just plain butcher the rest.; Mon May 09, 03:17:00 PM GMT+1
Barry Wallace said...: I am so moving to Wormiehills Scotland just so I can send mail from there...; Mon May 09, 09:14:00 PM GMT+1
mommyguilt said...: Gee, and all we have here are the million different ways to pronounce Chicago! What a great post.; Wed May 11, 05:12:00 PM GMT+1
Cyn said...: Hahaha! These are great. IN the USA there's a couple funny places... the state of Pennsylvania has some hilarious ones - my fave in that state is Bird in Hand. In California there's a city called Rough & Ready and then I think it's in Nevada there's a city called Truth or Consequences. I love finding funny place names!; Thu May 19, 03:11:00 AM GMT+1