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Rude & Suggestive Place Names

About 30 years ago there was a well respected local former Councillor called Mr Bullocks and the proposal to honour him with either a Bullocks Way or Bullocks Avenue got a fair way along with the Planning Comittee before everyone finally admitted - what's the point ? Everyone knew what would happen.
 
GNC said:
The S would go missing at the same time.
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Yes, so I believe. I've only ever seen it myself without the C.

escargot said:
How very telling. 'Bugsworth' sounds nothing like 'buggery'. The lady (or gent!) doth protest too much!
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To be fair to my teacher, he was repeating something I've heard from others sources, too - I suspect that any telling oversensitivity was in the minds of the vicar a schoolmaster who started the ball rolling.

It's worth noting that the epithet 'bugger' - and all things associated with it - was once very much more potent than it is considered now. These days, it's very much at the beige end of the insult spectrum - whereas there was a time when it surpassed in power words now still considered pretty strong. And there was also a time when it seemed to be commonly held opinion that even the tiniest and most abstract whiff of such practices could irrevocably spoil a person - especially a young person - for life*. I'm pretty sure there's a more famous case where a pretty tenuous and partial link between the epithet and a more anodyne word caused some sort of upset - but can't bring it to mind just now.

*Not as common these days, but you still see this in some people's attitude to sex education. I've never understood this at all. I mean, I was also taught about plate tectonics, transhumance and osmosis - but I didn't immediately rush home to try them out in the bathroom. (Well, I suppose I did go to a couple of parties where I might have tried to get from one room to another by passing through the wall - but that was generally when I'd had too much cider to find the door.)
 
Spookdaddy said:
Yes, so I believe. I've only ever seen it myself without the C.



To be fair to my teacher, he was repeating something I've heard from others sources, too - I suspect that any telling oversensitivity was in the minds of the vicar a schoolmaster who started the ball rolling.

It's worth noting that the epithet 'bugger' - and all things associated with it - was once very much more potent than it is considered now. These days, it's very much at the beige end of the insult spectrum - whereas there was a time when it surpassed in power words now still considered pretty strong. And there was also a time when it seemed to be commonly held opinion that even the tiniest and most abstract whiff of such practices could irrevocably spoil a person - especially a young person - for life*. I'm pretty sure there's a more famous case where a pretty tenuous and partial link between the epithet and a more anodyne word caused some sort of upset - but can't bring it to mind just now.

*Not as common these days, but you still see this in some people's attitude to sex education. I've never understood this at all. I mean, I was also taught about plate tectonics, transhumance and osmosis - but I didn't immediately rush home to try them out in the bathroom. (Well, I suppose I did go to a couple of parties where I might have tried to get from one room to another by passing through the wall - but that was generally when I'd had too much cider to find the door.)
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All true, especially that 'even the tiniest and most abstract whiff of such practices could irrevocably spoil a person - especially a young person - for life.'

Had that myself, being raised in the '60s with younger brothers in an atmosphere of what I now recognise as unspoken but desperate homophobia.
Next kid down from me was 18 months younger, the adored and much longed-for son. He was not allowed to do anything girly like, say, tucking his teddy bear in for a nap. If our mother caught him doing that I'd be punished for 'making him like a girl' even if I wasn't there. Mysterious and illogical.
(As he was a big crybaby who was always running off to Mummy with bumped knees for kissing better and a biscuit, whereas I'd learned early on to button it or get summat ter yarl FOR, it seemed obvious to me that the wrong kid was being hardened up. But of course, favouritism doesn't work like that.
Wouldn't it have been hilarious if he'd turned out to be gay? Though I'd have copped the blame for that too.)

As a teenager in the early '70s I learned about the long and troubled history of the Balkans - still a trouble spot to this day - and was taught that the term 'bugger' came from 'Bulgarians', who were supposed to be a particularly dangerous and deviant people. There was no mention of any sexual slur although this might have gone over my innocent head.
 
A town nearby called Bowral, has a main street named 'Bong Bong Street'. Street signs regularly go missing or are defaced to read 'Bong On Street'. I'm sure our Council has a department to deal with such incidents, so frequent does it occur.
 
EnolaGaia said:
This Quebec town was ready to vote on a new name, but it became apparent the residents didn't like the available choices.
FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2020/0...bestos-searches-for-a-new-name/9311600454998/
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Update ...
‘Asbestos’ no more: Canadian town opts for less carcinogenic name

After years of local debate and international ridicule, the Quebec town of Asbestos has finally relented.

The community of 7,000 people some 100 miles east of Montreal, heretofore named for the deadly mineral that was for more than a century the lifeblood of the local economy, will henceforth be known as Val-des-Sources.

That’s Valley of the Springs, more or less. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...e32e5e-1244-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html
 
Spookdaddy said:
I mean, I was also taught about plate tectonics, transhumance and osmosis - but I didn't immediately rush home to try them out in the bathroom.
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:rollingw: Thank you for not playing with plate tectonics at home. You just never know where that will land you, or anybody else.
 
Spookdaddy said:
And mention of canals reminds me of a case close to where I grew up.

Back in the 30's the village of Bugsworth, in the High Peak, changed it's name to Buxworth - after a campaign by a local schoolmaster and vicar, who for some reason found the 'bug' in Bugsworth made them uncomfortable. It may have had something to do with insects, but an old teacher of mine (ex RAF, and with the loudest speaking voice known to man) told us that as our benighted region contained no posh schools of any merit, buggery was not considered a right and proper thing to be associated with - hence the local distaste for anything, however tenuous, that may be associated with it.

That may be true, but the still functioning canal basin situated in the village has never been known as anything other than Bugsworth Basin - and as far as I know place-name induced outbreaks of homosexual activity are no more common there than anywhere else in the UK.

It's also still known as 'Buggy' to just about everyone local.
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Maybe possible origin(s) of the place name?

bogles, bugbears and boggarts
 
In Kilmarnock, Ayrshire there is a street called Assloss Road (named after a farm or estate, I think). It always brings my schoolboy humour to the fore.
 
There's a Bullbeggar lane near Berkhamsted (average house price £1,600,000) that my brother insists was originally called Bullbugger lane. After all, he says, the word 'Bullbeggar' doesn't mean anything. Actually it's an old term for a Hobgoblin or Bugbear.
 
They should have gone for Farging. They could have a hockey team called the Farging Ice Holes.
 
hunck said:
It's a shame they don't embrace it. Could've sold a load of branded Fucking T shirts etc - 'I heart Fucking' - who's going to go to Fugging to get a photo?
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I didn't see any mention in the article that they're changing the name to "Fugging", or indeed anything at all about what the new name will be.

That surely means that they're still open to suggestions! Anyone?

I did hear that there's a local bathhouse where all of the older gentleman go, so maybe they could name the place "Bad Vater".
 
Austria is good altogether, for place-names which look / sound comical to us whose first language is English. I cherish Rottenegg and Rottenmann; and the villages of Mutters and Natters near Innsbruck. And not far from Linz, a little would-be spa called Bad Hall -- that one has me feeling slightly uneasy, with my surname being Hall.
 
Spanker Knob, Bullshit Hill and Guys Dirty Hole are all real places in Australia.

The North Pole is located a short distance from Marble Bar, the hottest place in inland Australia. Siberia is near Kalgoorlie, with an average summer temperature of 35C. Australian humour is not complicated. And when you colonise a land that is almost the size of Europe, it’s easy to run out of names.

Which is possibly why there are so many bottoms in Tasmania.

Australia’s weird place names should be celebrated, if only so they don’t come as a shock next time you hear them read out on an ABC emergency broadcast.
However some, like Suicide Bay and Victory Hill in Tasmania, named by the workers of the Van Diemen’s Land Company to celebrate the massacre of 30 Aboriginal people, should be recognised only as a reminder of a brutal past. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation in 2017 lobbied to have those places renamed in palawa kani: Suicide Bay would be luwuka, Victory Hill called timuk and an island called N*****head Rock would be karanutung. The name changes have not been made official.
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(C) The Guardian.'20
 
Is anyone here from Dildo, Newfoundland?
DildoNewfoundland.jpg
 
Here's some background info on Dildo and its name ...
Proud to Live in a Town Called Dildo

An hour’s drive from the town of Come By Chance, past Spread Eagle Island, there is a large green traffic sign that often functions as its very own destination: “Dildo,” the sign proclaims, with an arrow pointing straight ahead.

The idyllic fishing village of Dildo, Newfoundland, is home to about 1,200 people, most of whom refer to themselves quite proudly as Dildoians. Where did the town get its name? The locals, eager to dispel misguided notions about sex toys, offer a variety of theories — a 16th-century Spanish sailor, maybe, or an archaic term for an oblong piece of nautical gear.

The fishing and whaling industries have defined Dildo society for centuries, and the town celebrates them with an annual waterfront festival known as Dildo Days ...

... A local electrician even started a public campaign in 1990 to have the town rechristened. But he was forced to drop the effort after a wave of harassment from residents who were offended by anyone’s taking offense at the name.

Still, Dildoians can count themselves lucky. At least they do not live just a bit farther up the Newfoundland coast — on Ass Rock.
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SOURCE: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/05/world/what-in-the-world/proud-to-live-in-a-town-called-dildo.html

And what of the celebrated Dildo?

Historians have made a few educated guesses as to the origin of this suggestive name. At one time, "dildo" was a term for the oar pegs in a dory, the pivot points where the oars rest while rowing. There was also a type of short sword called a "dildo." The town could have been named after one of these objects. ...

Other researchers have guessed that the word might be a mispronunciation of "doldrums," referring to calm seas, or of the French name for nearby Dildo Island: De l'île de l'eau, pronounced "deh leel deh loh." ...
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SOURCE: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newf...-witless-bay-nl-unusual-place-names-1.5263826
 
Lord Lucan said:
Is anyone here from Dildo, Newfoundland?
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I've seen it (jokingly) signposted when I was driving over 1,000km north of it, on the Trans-Canada Highway way up in Labrador. If I'd decided to visit (which I most assuredly did not) I would've probably passed through Come-By-Chance en route.

Canadian placenames are often incredibly evocative.... as well as Medicine Hat in Alberta (which is one of my favourites, closely-followed by Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha! in Quebec ....yes, really, named exactly as I've typed it) the province of Saskatchewan insanely contains an Elbow, an Eyebrow, a Love, a Forget, a Drinkwater and ....a Climax.

It's possible to spend hours laughing at a map of Canada....and most Canadians would really like you to do that. Having spent a little time out there, I can say with certainty that their collective sense of humour is usually boundless, and very droll.
 
EnolaGaia said:
Dildo and its name
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I know it goes back quite a bit . . . well depends on the resistance, I suppose.

There was a poem in dread of Signor Dildo, the foreign gentleman, who was pleasing so many wives in ways their husbands could not.

Rochester* probably did it, as he did many things.

*Not Jack Benny's chum. This was a week or two earlier . . . :oops:
 
The mother-in-law bought me this for Christmas:

ST%26G%27s+Marvellous+Map+of+Great+British+Place+Names+-+Folded+2+front+and+back+1000px.jpg


“Perfect for map lovers, adventurers and, well, anyone! Britain’s funny, rude and delightfully odd place names, from the Twatts of northern Scotland to the Bottoms of England, via the fabled Pants of Wales, are not only bewildering, but also truly world-class. Featuring over 2,000 genuine locations, this map is a comprehensive record of Britain’s funny, rude and delightfully odd place names, to be discovered, celebrated and chortled over.”

https://marvellousmaps.com/shop/stgs-great-british-place-names-map

They also do this one, which may be more interesting to denizens of this august forum:

Copy+of+ST_G_s-Great-British-Folklore-_-Superstition-Map-Folded-Front-_-Back-Transp-1000px.jpg




maximus otter
 
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