Such fascinating stories Alia!! I find English place names to be absolutely hilarious and strange - a quick google brought up 'Great Cockup' in the Lake District and 'Barton in the Beans' in Leicestershire...
Thanks Lucinda. Oh they're funny ones. I particularly like Barton in the Beans, haha. I'll have to look that one up. The UK has great place names, some appear quite rude today, one I won't even mention here, but they won't once upon a time. There are quite a few UK place names that include the word cock, I assume most come from a time when it, having originated from the French word for a rooster known for prancing around with its head held high, came to describe well-to-do young men with a bit of swagger or the largest of a species. But Great Cockup does appear to be more in line with what we would take it to mean today 😂
I found a website called 'the rudest and funniest place names in the UK' which had many of the names I believe you're avoiding mentioning above - how polite of you!! It's so great to hear some of the backstories though - of the funny ones, but also the more serious. Thanks for bringing this into my day today! Now to find a Trivia Night where I can use these new-found facts...
I just had a chance to check out that site and there are some very funny ones on it. Interestingly, the one I had in mind doesn't get a mention. Perhaps they thought it would get their page banned in browser searches too, haha.
Loved this piece, and it's such a treat to hear your voice, Alia. I'm sorry about your late brother-in-law; that's tragic in so many ways. To add to the list of place names, in a very small town I once lived that was really not a town at all but only a postal code, there was a road called Loosasagoose Road. My brother bought a cabin there, I think as much so he could have the address as anything else. None of the old timers knew the source of the naming, but most guesses involve alcohol of some sort. Imagine!
Ha! That's a fun address to have. I wish they had a public database for street names like they do for geographic names. There's so much missing etymology out there :)
Oh I loved this. What a beautiful piece. There's a 'Rocky Hall' near us which I understand is a misspelling of 'Haul' - as in, it was a rocky haul for carts and horses back in the day. And of course, there is a Rocky Hall Hall in Rocky Hall. Haha. Nearby is New Buildings. Nice and clear what that must've referred to back in the day.
Growing up in the Mountain West of the United States so many places names are references to what they once were rather than what they are now. And often they're misnamed too.
Silver Springs long ago stopped producing silver.
Crystal Peak is 2 mountains away from the mountains where you can actually find Crystals.
The Ruby Mountains held garnets not Rubies.
The Humboldt River dries right on up in the summer. More like Humboldt Ditch.
The views are often magnificent but I worry with climate change that Forests will become meadows or that snow covered peaks will lose their covering.
That's an interesting point you make about climate change Mike and it ties in with why I called this piece 'Short Stories' and not 'Place Names', because so many names of places and streets connect us to history and place when we stop to think about them, like Silver Springs, and maybe one day a name will be the only way our descendants will ever remember that the mountain peaks around you were once covered in snow.
Yeah, Aussie place names, such a fascinating mix. European place names over here give me cognitive dissonance, even after 22 years. They’re literally all-over-the-place: names that evoke misty Scottish glens in the broiling Outback; Sorrento next to Portsea. Chipping Norton across the Georges River from Liverpool?! My wife grew up in Balmoral, formerly called Black Swamp apparently. A shame to lose such an evocative name, although I guess it wasn’t good PR … Ditto Streatham, once Fiery Creek.
It would be a strange sensation. I always think it such a shame those early place namers in Australia couldn't do us a favour and be a little more creative, although I get their reasoning for doing it. Some were named out of sentiment but others purportedly because they resembled those places 'back home', which is a head scratcher really. But, those names too leave their stories on the land and collectively tell a longer tale of colonisation, so they are always worth contemplating.
That's interesting about Balmoral. Black Swamp sounds wonderful, but I don't think Balmoral's real estate agents would agree 😂 I can't imagine it being swampy these days, but then again, most of our swamps and marshlands now run through concrete pipes underground and we're all none the wiser.
So many hilarious place names in this essay, thanks for the short stories. Also much to ponder. I am about to go bushwalking with my daughter and will be thinking about the names of the mtns and lakes nearby, often named with Greek mythology references, but like you we are always thinking about what the First Nations people of Tasmania called these places.
You have some lovely bushwalks near you. I, too, always wonder what the original First Nations names of places around me are. Unfortunately, most of those stories in my particular area (as is the case in Tasmania too) are lost forever.
I'm glad you think about such things with your kids. Even something as simple as a street or place name can connect us to our past and provide a sense of place if we stop to think about it :)
My mother grew up in the Town of Tonawanda, New York. Here near the Niagara River which forms the junction between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario we have a wealth of Tonawandas. In addition to the Town, there is a Town of North Tonawanda, a City of Tonawanda, and there is a Tonawanda Street half a kilometer from my house. My late mother almost never referred to her childhood home as the Town of Tonawanda. She always said she grew up “down Graphite.” North along the river from Buffalo there is a little residential area nestled in among the defunct factories, water treatment plants and auto junkyards. This neighborhood consists of three long streets that are trisected by three shorter streets, and it’s quite out of place among the rusting reminders of Buffalo’s past as an important industrial center and Great Lakes port. Back when my mother was a child the great mills like the Wickwire wire mill and the Semmett Solvay plant were in full operation, and her father worked for many years at the wire mill. These mills were coal-fired, and spewed out God knows how many tons of noxious fumes and ash from their tall brick chimneys. The ash settled on the nearby streets and houses and needed to be swept away on a regular basis, hence the neighborhood was unofficially known as “Graphite.”
Graphite sure sounds like an appropriate nickname, Rafael.
I just looked up the name Tonawanda out of interest and see it means 'confluent stream' (Tahnawá•teh) in the local Tuscarora language. That also sounds appropriate for the Niagara area.
Thanks for the back story on Tonawanda. Not much farther off we have a Tonawanda Creek, a Tonawanda Creek Road, and nineteen years ago on a Wednesday night I bowled games of 185, 279 and 279 at the Tonawanda Bowling Center. I had 22 strikes in the last two games and only left two pins standing in 24 shots. The total of 743 is the best I’ve ever done in league competition. Alas, those days are long gone and nowadays a score of 179 is pretty good for me, and 279 is just a distant memory…
Such fascinating stories Alia!! I find English place names to be absolutely hilarious and strange - a quick google brought up 'Great Cockup' in the Lake District and 'Barton in the Beans' in Leicestershire...
Thanks Lucinda. Oh they're funny ones. I particularly like Barton in the Beans, haha. I'll have to look that one up. The UK has great place names, some appear quite rude today, one I won't even mention here, but they won't once upon a time. There are quite a few UK place names that include the word cock, I assume most come from a time when it, having originated from the French word for a rooster known for prancing around with its head held high, came to describe well-to-do young men with a bit of swagger or the largest of a species. But Great Cockup does appear to be more in line with what we would take it to mean today 😂
I found a website called 'the rudest and funniest place names in the UK' which had many of the names I believe you're avoiding mentioning above - how polite of you!! It's so great to hear some of the backstories though - of the funny ones, but also the more serious. Thanks for bringing this into my day today! Now to find a Trivia Night where I can use these new-found facts...
I just had a chance to check out that site and there are some very funny ones on it. Interestingly, the one I had in mind doesn't get a mention. Perhaps they thought it would get their page banned in browser searches too, haha.
😝
Loved this piece, and it's such a treat to hear your voice, Alia. I'm sorry about your late brother-in-law; that's tragic in so many ways. To add to the list of place names, in a very small town I once lived that was really not a town at all but only a postal code, there was a road called Loosasagoose Road. My brother bought a cabin there, I think as much so he could have the address as anything else. None of the old timers knew the source of the naming, but most guesses involve alcohol of some sort. Imagine!
Thank you, Kate.
Ha! That's a fun address to have. I wish they had a public database for street names like they do for geographic names. There's so much missing etymology out there :)
Oh I loved this. What a beautiful piece. There's a 'Rocky Hall' near us which I understand is a misspelling of 'Haul' - as in, it was a rocky haul for carts and horses back in the day. And of course, there is a Rocky Hall Hall in Rocky Hall. Haha. Nearby is New Buildings. Nice and clear what that must've referred to back in the day.
Thanks Tash. Oh they're good ones. Got to love a Hall hall that wasn't a hall at all, and New Buildings is just wonderful. 😂
Growing up in the Mountain West of the United States so many places names are references to what they once were rather than what they are now. And often they're misnamed too.
Silver Springs long ago stopped producing silver.
Crystal Peak is 2 mountains away from the mountains where you can actually find Crystals.
The Ruby Mountains held garnets not Rubies.
The Humboldt River dries right on up in the summer. More like Humboldt Ditch.
The views are often magnificent but I worry with climate change that Forests will become meadows or that snow covered peaks will lose their covering.
Thanks for writing.
That's an interesting point you make about climate change Mike and it ties in with why I called this piece 'Short Stories' and not 'Place Names', because so many names of places and streets connect us to history and place when we stop to think about them, like Silver Springs, and maybe one day a name will be the only way our descendants will ever remember that the mountain peaks around you were once covered in snow.
Yeah, Aussie place names, such a fascinating mix. European place names over here give me cognitive dissonance, even after 22 years. They’re literally all-over-the-place: names that evoke misty Scottish glens in the broiling Outback; Sorrento next to Portsea. Chipping Norton across the Georges River from Liverpool?! My wife grew up in Balmoral, formerly called Black Swamp apparently. A shame to lose such an evocative name, although I guess it wasn’t good PR … Ditto Streatham, once Fiery Creek.
It would be a strange sensation. I always think it such a shame those early place namers in Australia couldn't do us a favour and be a little more creative, although I get their reasoning for doing it. Some were named out of sentiment but others purportedly because they resembled those places 'back home', which is a head scratcher really. But, those names too leave their stories on the land and collectively tell a longer tale of colonisation, so they are always worth contemplating.
That's interesting about Balmoral. Black Swamp sounds wonderful, but I don't think Balmoral's real estate agents would agree 😂 I can't imagine it being swampy these days, but then again, most of our swamps and marshlands now run through concrete pipes underground and we're all none the wiser.
So many hilarious place names in this essay, thanks for the short stories. Also much to ponder. I am about to go bushwalking with my daughter and will be thinking about the names of the mtns and lakes nearby, often named with Greek mythology references, but like you we are always thinking about what the First Nations people of Tasmania called these places.
Also loved listening to the voice over ⭐️
Thank you Kate. Let's see how many more I actually get time to record this year, haha.
You have some lovely bushwalks near you. I, too, always wonder what the original First Nations names of places around me are. Unfortunately, most of those stories in my particular area (as is the case in Tasmania too) are lost forever.
I'm glad you think about such things with your kids. Even something as simple as a street or place name can connect us to our past and provide a sense of place if we stop to think about it :)
My mother grew up in the Town of Tonawanda, New York. Here near the Niagara River which forms the junction between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario we have a wealth of Tonawandas. In addition to the Town, there is a Town of North Tonawanda, a City of Tonawanda, and there is a Tonawanda Street half a kilometer from my house. My late mother almost never referred to her childhood home as the Town of Tonawanda. She always said she grew up “down Graphite.” North along the river from Buffalo there is a little residential area nestled in among the defunct factories, water treatment plants and auto junkyards. This neighborhood consists of three long streets that are trisected by three shorter streets, and it’s quite out of place among the rusting reminders of Buffalo’s past as an important industrial center and Great Lakes port. Back when my mother was a child the great mills like the Wickwire wire mill and the Semmett Solvay plant were in full operation, and her father worked for many years at the wire mill. These mills were coal-fired, and spewed out God knows how many tons of noxious fumes and ash from their tall brick chimneys. The ash settled on the nearby streets and houses and needed to be swept away on a regular basis, hence the neighborhood was unofficially known as “Graphite.”
Graphite sure sounds like an appropriate nickname, Rafael.
I just looked up the name Tonawanda out of interest and see it means 'confluent stream' (Tahnawá•teh) in the local Tuscarora language. That also sounds appropriate for the Niagara area.
Thanks for the back story on Tonawanda. Not much farther off we have a Tonawanda Creek, a Tonawanda Creek Road, and nineteen years ago on a Wednesday night I bowled games of 185, 279 and 279 at the Tonawanda Bowling Center. I had 22 strikes in the last two games and only left two pins standing in 24 shots. The total of 743 is the best I’ve ever done in league competition. Alas, those days are long gone and nowadays a score of 179 is pretty good for me, and 279 is just a distant memory…
Haha, oh your segue there gave me a good laugh. That is a very impressive score, Rafael :)
Thanks Alia, that made me smile. So, I once lived in a place called Happy Adventure, which it turned out to be and is still one of my favourite names.
What a lovely place to live, Jonathan, at least by name. I hope it was a Happy Adventure in reality too :)