Erobella  Research · October 2026

The Rude Atlas A true & faithful chart of the world’s rudest place names

The rudest place name on Earth is Cuntis, a spa town in Galicia, Spain. Britain’s rudest is Cocklick Hill, in North Yorkshire.

The full ranking, the vote & the rudest countries ↓

The verdict

The rudest place names on Earth

We found 452 real places in 92 countries whose names make English speakers snigger. These ten scored highest on our Blush Rating.

The Blush Rating adds three scores: word strength (up to 5, using Ofcom’s October 2026 research into how offensive Britons find each word), clarity (up to 3, how unavoidable the rude reading is) and the snigger factor (up to 2). The full method.

Your turn

Which is ruder?

Two places, one sign you’d least like to be photographed under. Pick the ruder one. Every vote counts towards the public ranking.

or

What the public says

    What our Blush Rating says

    1. Cuntis10.0
    2. Cunter9.0
    3. Cocklick Hill9.0
    4. Dickshooter9.0
    5. Cumbum (2 places)9.0
    6. Twatt (2 places)9.0
    7. Wankers Corner9.0
    8. Tittybong9.0
    9. Bell End9.0
    10. Shitterton9.0

    The rudest maps

    Britain has the rudest map in the English-speaking world

    We scanned all 5.2 million towns, villages and hamlets in the GeoNames gazetteer for rude English words. Britain has 18.8 for every 10,000 settlements, 2.4 times the American rate.

    18.8rude place names for every 10,000 settlements in the United Kingdom

    That works out at 82 rude-looking places in the UK, from Cockfosters to Clitheroe. More than half of them contain the word cock, which in old place names usually meant a cockerel, a woodcock or a small hill. America’s tally is driven by knobs: 144 rude-looking places in all, most of them named after rounded hills in Appalachia and the Ozarks.

    England is the rudest corner of the UK by some distance, and West Virginia is the rudest US state. Further afield, plenty of countries look rude to English eyes by pure accident. Slovakia tops that table because horný simply means “upper”.

    The English-speaking world
    CountryPer 10,000
    United Kingdom82 of 43,689 settlements
    18.8
    Jamaica4 of 3,639 settlements
    11.0
    United States144 of 183,980 settlements
    7.8
    Australia15 of 19,205 settlements
    7.8
    Canada12 of 21,760 settlements
    5.5
    New Zealand1 of 3,037 settlements
    3.3
    Ireland3 of 12,158 settlements
    2.5
    Accidentally rude: the rest of the world
    CountryPer 10,000
    SlovakiaHorný just means upper, as in Horný Smokovec
    65.5
    TaiwanShitou means stone, as in Shitoucuo, stone house
    29.8
    Burkina Faso26 Pissi places, led by the town of Pissila
    25.0
    AfghanistanBūm is a Persian word for land or region
    24.8
    Guinea-BissauCuntim, Cuntima and Cunteda, near Senegal
    18.0
    JapanShita means below, as in Shitamachi, low town
    17.5
    MyanmarOkshit is the bael fruit tree; bum means mountain
    13.9
    ChinaShitou means stone and Cuntou a village edge
    12.6
    Inside the UK
    NationPer 10,000
    England75 of 32,553 settlements
    23.0
    Wales4 of 3,796 settlements
    10.5
    Scotland5 of 6,665 settlements
    7.5
    Northern Ireland0 of 669 settlements
    0.0
    The rudest US states
    StatePer 10,000
    West Virginia10 of 3,925 settlements
    25.5
    Kentucky10 of 4,791 settlements
    20.9
    Missouri8 of 4,202 settlements
    19.0
    Arkansas6 of 3,703 settlements
    16.2
    Pennsylvania17 of 10,735 settlements
    15.8
    North Carolina11 of 6,954 settlements
    15.8
    Kansas3 of 1,992 settlements
    15.1
    Virginia11 of 8,731 settlements
    12.6

    The complete gazetteer

    All 452 places, ranked

    Every place we found, checked against at least one official or encyclopaedic source. Tap a name to see it on the map.

    NºPlaceBlushKind of rude
    1Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. Origin unclear. Cuntis's tourist office says the Romans called the spa Aqua Calidae, 'hot waters', but historians debate this and usually give that ancient name to neighbouring Caldas de Reis.10.0Nether regions
    2Surses, Graubünden, Switzerland. First recorded in 1370 as Contra. Swiss place-name research links the name to Romansh cunter, 'opposite', from Latin contra. Until 1943 its official name was Conters im Oberhalbstein.9.0Nether regions
    3North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.9.0Carnal matters
    4Owyhee County, Idaho, United States. Named for Dick Shooter, a pioneer settler. The name is shared by a nearby ridge, reservoir and creek.9.0Members
    5Theni district, Tamil Nadu, India. Named after the town's Kambaraya Perumal temple. Legend says the deity's idol was found under a stone post, kambam in Tamil, so the god was called Kambaraya Perumal and the town Cumbum. Natively it is spelt Kambam.9.0Bodily functions
    5Markapuram district, Andhra Pradesh, India. Origin unclear. The town's native spelling is Kambham.9.0Bodily functions
    6Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom. From Old Norse þveit, meaning a small parcel of land. The same Norse word gives the common English place-name ending -thwaite.9.0Nether regions
    6Shetland Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom. From Old Norse þveit, meaning a small parcel of land, the same root as the English place-name ending -thwaite.9.0Nether regions
    7Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. Named after the Wanker family, of German origin, who settled in the area in 1895. The family's store and tavern stood where Stafford and Borland roads meet. The name is pronounced 'Wonker'.9.0Carnal matters
    8Victoria, Australia. Origin unclear. In his 2016 book Mount Buggery to Nowhere Else, Eamon Evans says it is unclear where the name Tittybong comes from.9.0Bosoms & bottoms
    9Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom. From Belne, recorded as Beolne in 817 and Bellem in Domesday Book (1086), according to the English Place-Name Society. The Society says Belne was also the old name of the brook that flows past the Bell hamlets to Belbroughton.9.0Members
    10Dorset, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Scatera in Domesday Book (1086), from Old English scite, dung. The stream through the hamlet was apparently called the Shitter, a brook used as a privy, so the name means roughly 'farmstead on the stream used as an open sewer'.9.0Profanities
    11Bavaria, Germany. The name is said to go back to an old word for 'slope'. The mountain was formerly also called Eckenberg or Eggenberg.9.0Carnal matters
    12Daviess County, Indiana, United States. Named for William Cumback, a US Representative from Indiana.9.0Bodily functions
    13Harney County, Oregon, United States. Named in the early open-range days when, as Oregon Geographic Names records, 'female entrepreneurs from Vale' set up wood-and-canvas brothels in the secluded meadow each summer, serving the area's cattle and sheep country.9.0Carnal matters
    14North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From the Franconian Wankheim, explained as 'home in the meadows and pastures'. It is first recorded as Wanchheim in a document of 28 August 1279.9.0Carnal matters
    15Moselle, Grand Est, France. Named after its hilltop castle, recorded in 1172 as Bytis Castrum. The German form is Bitsch. The root's original meaning is unclear.9.0Profanities
    16Bern, Switzerland. Origin unclear.9.0Carnal matters
    17Rideau Lakes, Ontario, Canada. Origin uncertain. Local histories say Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe named it after John Pollexfen Bastard, MP for Devon, but no official source confirms this. Lewis Grant ran the first survey of what became the township in 1795.9.0Profanities
    18Shetland Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.9.0Profanities
    19Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. Local legend says wives complained their husbands took to the general store like a baby to a sugar tit, a twist of cloth filled with sugar or honey used as a pacifier.9.0Bosoms & bottoms
    20Tarom County, Zanjan province, Iran. Origin unclear. The village name is written شيت in Persian.8.7Profanities
    21Argyll and Bute, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.8.7Profanities
    22St. Francois County, Missouri, United States. Named for a knoll whose soil was said to be salty enough to attract deer; locals said it was once a buffalo lick too. In the Ozarks a knob is an isolated hill and a lick is a salt lick or salt spring.8.3Members
    23Kittitas County, Washington, United States. Origin unclear. A Wenatchee man known as Whiskey Dick died in 1907, but no link to the mountain is proven. Local newspapers use the name from about 1909.8.3Members
    24South Orkney Islands, Antarctica. Named by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey for the island's unpleasant state, caused by a large colony of blue-eyed shags.8.3Carnal matters
    25Jefferson County, Oregon, United States. Origin unclear8.3Profanities
    26Västernorrland County, Sweden. Recorded since 1547. The meaning is not entirely clear. One suggestion is Old West Norse fokka, a wedge-shaped piece of land, though that does not explain the vowel.8.0Profanities
    27Suceava County, Romania. From the Ukrainian word clitca, meaning a stack or pile, because fugitives from Galicia called their houses that. Its German name was Glitt.8.0Nether regions
    28Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Origin unknown. Recorded as 'Dildoe' for offshore Dildo Island in 1711 and 1775, the name then passed to Dildo Arm and other local features. A popular theory links it to a word for a thole pin, an oar peg, but this is unconfirmed.8.0Carnal matters
    29Savoie, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. Probably from a Gallo-Roman estate, *Pusiacum, formed from the Roman family name *Pusius plus the suffix -acum. It was recorded as Pussiac in 1156 and Puisaco in 1170.8.0Nether regions
    30South Darfur, Sudan. Origin unclear. Also spelled Um Dafouk, Um Dafok and Um Dafog.8.0Profanities
    31Metcalfe County, Kentucky, United States. Named for a lick that lay south of a knob, or rounded hill, north of the post office.8.0Members
    32Boone County, Kentucky, United States. Named for its location at the source of the Beaver Branch of Big Bone Creek. A 'lick' is a natural salt deposit that animals come to lick. It was spelled as two words, Beaver Lick, until about 1895.8.0Nether regions
    33Victoria, Australia. Circumstantial evidence says a Melbourne Walking Club member named it on a 1934 hike. Other club members took up the name, it reached maps, and official acceptance followed.8.0Profanities
    34Sonsonate Department, El Salvador. Origin unclear. GeoNames also records it as Cantón Anal.8.0Carnal matters
    35Bay Islands Department, Honduras. Named after the English buccaneer Captain John Coxen (also spelled Coxon). The town was founded in 1835 by British families who moved to Roatán from the Cayman Islands.8.0Members
    36Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, United States. Probably from wild turkey cocks, called gobblers, that lived on the hill, plus knob, an old word for a small rounded hill. A sign at the site offers a jokier alternative, so the origin is not certain.8.0Members
    37Victoria, Australia. Origin unclear.8.0Members
    38Powys, Wales, United Kingdom. Taken from the former Three Cocks Junction railway station, named after the 15th-century Three Cocks Inn. The inn took its name from the arms of the Williams family of Old Gwernyfed. The Welsh name, Aberllynfi, means mouth of the Llynfi.8.0Members
    39Fakfak Regency, West Papua, Indonesia. Origin unclear. The settlement's former name was Kapaur, which biologists still use.8.0Profanities
    40Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. 'The mouth of the River Cocker', where the Cocker meets the Derwent. The river name comes from Brittonic kukra, 'the crooked one'.8.0Members
    41County Wexford, Ireland. First recorded in the 1530s. 'Bastard' was probably the nickname of a Norman-era landowner. The Irish form, Baile Bhastaird, is a direct translation of the English.8.0Profanities
    42Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. Origin unclear.8.0Bosoms & bottoms
    43Düren district, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Origin unclear.8.0Bosoms & bottoms
    44Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom. Said to refer to 'prickets' of willow, long thin skewers used in thatching, which grew in the surrounding marshy fenland.8.0Members
    45Sint Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands (Sint Eustatius). Origin unclear. 'Tumbledown Dick' was the mocking nickname of Richard Cromwell, who resigned as Lord Protector in 1659.8.0Members
    46Fremont and Teton counties, Idaho, United States. Said to be a corruption of the French word 'biche', meaning doe. French trappers called the waterway 'Anse de Biche'.8.0Profanities
    47Del Norte County, California, United States. Named after a settlers' log house 'fort' built for defence against local Native Americans.8.0Members
    48Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands. Origin unclear. Laurance Rockefeller began buying land here in 1958 and opened his Little Dix Bay resort on the bay in 1964.8.0Members
    49Clay County, Indiana, United States. Named for Richard Mentor Johnson, ninth Vice President of the United States under Martin Van Buren.8.0Members
    50Warren County, Iowa, United States. Origin unclear8.0Bodily functions
    51Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada. Named after Cumshewa, a Haida hereditary leader. His name is thought to come from Kwak'wala or Heiltsuk and mean 'rich at the mouth of the river'.8.0Bodily functions
    52West Sussex, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.8.0Bosoms & bottoms
    53Ariège, Occitanie, France. Ars or Arse comes from Hars, also spelled Hartz or Hers, an old word meaning mountain.8.0Bosoms & bottoms
    54Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Origin unclear8.0Bodily functions
    55Powys, Wales, United Kingdom. Welsh, translated as 'point of the peak', perhaps for its pointed shape. Welsh f is said like v, so the Welsh pronunciation is roughly 'van uh beeg'.8.0Nether regions
    56Powys, Wales, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. Twmpa is the Welsh name and Lord Hereford's Knob the English one; the Ordnance Survey lists both.8.0Members
    57Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Origin unclear. 'Shag' is also a name for the cormorant, but the sources checked do not explain this name.8.0Carnal matters
    58Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.8.0Nether regions
    58Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands. Origin unclear.8.0Nether regions
    59Perugia, Umbria, Italy. Named after the Osteria del Bastardo, an old inn and post station on the Via Flaminia. The name was shortened to plain Bastardo in the 1920s.8.0Profanities
    60Queensland, Australia. Named after George Lawson, a Yorkshire-born, Cairns-based beche-de-mer fisherman nicknamed 'Yorkey', who built a homestead nearby. 'Knob' means a rounded hill.8.0Members
    61South Australia, Australia. Named for its nearness to large deposits of iron ore, especially the prominent Iron Monarch outcrop.8.0Members
    62Puno Region and La Paz Department, Peru / Bolivia. Disputed. In Aymara, titi can mean puma or lead and kaka grey hair. Archaeologist Charles Stanish argues it is a corruption of thakhsi cala, the name of a sacred rock on the lake's Isla del Sol.8.0Bosoms & bottoms
    63Central River Region, The Gambia. Origin unclear.7.7Nether regions
    64Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain. Origin unclear.7.7Nether regions
    65Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. Named after the Beaver River area of western Pennsylvania. The river was named either for King Beaver (Tamaqua), a Delaware leader who arrived in the 1740s, or for the animal. Big Beaver Township was incorporated in 1802.7.7Nether regions
    66Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. No consensus. The name comes from 1860s British Admiralty charts by Captain G.H. Richards. Theories include a local sea captain and Fanny Palmer, a Victoria girl who died in the 1875 wreck of the Pacific.7.7Nether regions
    67Uppsala County, Sweden. First recorded as Fiukaby in 1316. Fjuck is linked to the Old Swedish verb fjuka, to blow or drift, as snow does, and often marks windy places. The spelling changed from Fjukeby to Fjuckby in the 1930s.7.7Profanities
    68Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China. The county took the name Fuqing in 933 AD, after earlier names including Wan'an and Futang. The characters mean fortune and clear.7.7Profanities
    69County Kildare, Ireland. Irish Cill Choca, 'church of Saint Coca', a 6th-century saint said to be a sister of Saint Kevin of Glendalough.7.7Members
    70Chiapas, Mexico. Origin unclear.7.7Bodily functions
    71South Georgia, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Named by sealer James Sheffield, probably because shags (cormorants) and other seabirds frequent them. Argentina calls them the Islas Aurora.7.7Carnal matters
    72Forsyth County, Georgia, United States. Commonly said to honour Colonel William Cumming. Local historians have also proposed Rev. Frederick Cumming, a teacher of early resident Jacob Scudder, or Alexander Cuming, son of a Scottish baronet.7.7Bodily functions
    73Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. Origin unclear.7.7Profanities
    74Kediri Regency, East Java, Indonesia. Origin unclear. In Indonesian the word semen simply means cement.7.7Bodily functions
    75Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Billesfelt in Domesday Book (1086). Probably 'open land belonging to a man called Bill', or open land on raised ground. Nothing to do with dogs.7.3Profanities
    76County Mayo, Ireland. Irish An Com, meaning a hollow or coomb. John O'Donovan's Ordnance Survey notes gloss the name as 'a hollow'.7.3Bodily functions
    77Northumberland, England, United Kingdom. Named after Shitlington, 'farm of Scyttel or his sons', from an Old English personal name. It was spelt Sutlingtun around 1240.7.3Profanities
    78County Durham, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Shuttilhopfeld in 1382. Probably a valley (hop) named for a fancied resemblance to a weaver's shuttle (Middle English shittle), though it may contain the personal name Scyttel.7.3Profanities
    79Minsk Region, Belarus. Formed from the name of the River Sluch with the Slavic suffix -sk. Early chronicles call it Sluchesk.7.3Carnal matters
    80Pembrokeshire, Wales, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. The rocks are also known as Bitches and Whelps.7.3Profanities
    81Phú Thọ Province, Vietnam. A Sino-Vietnamese name: phúc means blessing or good fortune, and yên means peace or calm.7.3Profanities
    82Hampshire, England, United Kingdom. The name has been traced to the reign of Henry VII (1485 to 1509), when the site appeared on maps as 'Sandyballas', describing the dome-shaped sand and gravel outcrops on its western edge. Some survive, including Good Friday Hill and Giant's Grave.7.3Members
    83Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. May be Old English cocc hop, 'blind valley frequented by wild birds', first naming the valley below and later the hill. A smaller Little Cockup sits on its shoulder.7.3Pure innuendo
    84Perth, Western Australia, Australia. Named after Cockburn Sound, which Captain James Stirling named in 1827 after Admiral Sir George Cockburn.7.3Members
    85Greater London, England, United Kingdom. Recorded since 1524 and thought to be either a family name or the name of a house on Enfield Chase.7.3Members
    86Johnson County, Missouri, United States. All authorities connect it with a prominent local knob, or hill. Surveyor David Wolfe Eaton read the half-Latin name as 'Our Knobs'. The origin of 'Noster' is uncertain.7.3Members
    87South Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. Meikle is a Scots form of muckle, meaning big. The meaning of Shag here is unclear.7.3Carnal matters
    88Bavaria, Germany. Origin unclear. It is first recorded as Titamanninga in the Notitia Arnonis, a Salzburg church property list from around 788 to 790.7.3Bosoms & bottoms
    89Pamplemousses District, Mauritius. French: trou (hole, cove) and biches (does, female deer). The name appears on the Lislet-Geoffroy map of 1807.7.3Profanities
    90East Sussex, England, United Kingdom. Named after the Dicker, an area of former common land. Wikipedia's Arlington entry links the word to 'dicker', meaning barter, describing Upper Dicker as the site of a medieval trading centre. The origin is not certain.7.3Members
    91Morbi district, Gujarat, India. Gujarati for 'river bend', from wanka (bend) and ner (river), after the town's position on a bend of the Machhu River.7.3Carnal matters
    92Borno State, Nigeria. Origin unclear.7.3Carnal matters
    93Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. Named for the Horney family of early settlers.7.0Carnal matters
    94Ysyk-Ata District, Chüy Region, Kyrgyzstan. Kant is the Kyrgyz word for sugar; the town got its name when a sugar plant was built there in the 1930s. The idea that it honours Immanuel Kant is a myth.7.0Nether regions
    95Moscow, Russia. Lexicographer Vladimir Dahl linked it to kuntsa, a name for the tit (a songbird), as local peasants were bird-catchers. The district's coat of arms instead uses a marten, kunitsa in Russian.7.0Nether regions
    96Valais, Switzerland. Origin unclear.7.0Profanities
    97Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. The Gaelic name is Drochaid a' Choilich, 'bridge of the cockerel'. Locals also called it Ceann Drochaid, meaning 'bridge-end'.7.0Members
    98Essex, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.7.0Members
    99County Down, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Irish Sliabh an Choiligh, 'mountain of the cock'. In Irish, coileach means a cock or another male bird, such as a blackcock or woodcock.7.0Members
    100North Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.7.0Members
    101South Australia, Australia. Named after Sir John Cockburn, Premier of South Australia in 1889 to 1890.7.0Members
    102Manitoulin District, Ontario, Canada. Sources conflict: it honours either Francis Cockburn, an early 19th-century official, or his descendant Isaac Cockburn, the island's first major landowner.7.0Members
    103Western Australia, Australia. Named in 1827 by Captain James Stirling, probably after Admiral Sir George Cockburn.7.0Members
    104Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands. Named after Sir Francis Cockburn, a former Governor of the Bahamas. It is pronounced KOH-burn.7.0Members
    104San Salvador Island, Bahamas. Named after Sir Francis Cockburn, Royal Governor of the Bahamas from 1837 to 1844.7.0Members
    105Berkshire, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.7.0Members
    106Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Probably Old English for heaps or hillocks, a modern spelling of 'Coccs'.7.0Members
    107Wellington Region, New Zealand. Origin of 'Colonial Knob' unclear. Early Māori named the peak Rangituhi, meaning 'sky glow', for the hill's red glow at sunset.7.0Members
    108Graubünden, Switzerland. Origin unclear. It was officially Cumbels until 1983 and first appears around 840 in a royal estate register of Louis the Pious.7.0Bodily functions
    109Brandenburg, Germany. Origin unclear. It is first recorded in 1246 as Kumelosen, then as Kummelose in 1334 and Cumenloze in 1341.7.0Bodily functions
    110North Holland, Netherlands. First called Nieuwdorp. It was renamed after Nicolas Joseph de Cock, the Antwerp-born founder of the company that reclaimed the Eierland polder in 1835.7.0Members
    111Nuwara Eliya District, Central Province, Sri Lanka. Probably Sinhala: oya is a Sinhala word for river or stream. The full meaning of the name is not confirmed by a published source.7.0Members
    112Camden County, New Jersey, United States. Origin unclear.7.0Members
    113Northern Territory, Australia. Named by surveyor George Goyder after Fanny Carandini, an opera singer.7.0Nether regions
    114North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. An 1880s gazetteer describes Fannyside as both a shallow loch and the moor around it, Fannyside Muir, in Cumbernauld parish.7.0Nether regions
    115County Wexford, Ireland. Irish Baile Faine. Early records spell it Fayneston (1540-41) and Fanyston (1566). The Fannystown spelling appears on an 1813 estate map.7.0Nether regions
    116Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. Named in 1776 by the Qianlong Emperor, who took it from the phrase wu fu min kang, meaning abundant goods and a healthy, contented people.7.0Profanities
    117Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Written 深谷, from characters meaning deep and valley. The name was in use by 1456, when the Uesugi clan built Fukaya Castle; a fuller origin is unclear.7.0Profanities
    118Jazan Province, Saudi Arabia. Origin unclear. Jazan was originally the name of a valley, mentioned once in an ancient Musnad inscription, and was later applied to the coastal city.7.0Bodily functions
    119Jizzakh Region, Uzbekistan. Probably from Sogdian Dizak, a diminutive of diz (fortress), meaning 'small fortress'. The 10th-century geography Hudud al-Alam records it as Dizak.7.0Bodily functions
    120Southland, New Zealand. Origin unclear.7.0Members
    121Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. First recorded in 1258 as Cocsk. It may come from a founder nicknamed Kot, or from kocanka, a plant (Helichrysum arenarium) that grows abundantly in the area.7.0Members
    122Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. From Nakoda, meaning 'water of the spirits'.7.0Carnal matters
    123County Meath, Ireland. Irish An Obair, 'the work'. A 1965 study cited by the Placenames Database of Ireland suggests the 'work' was something built, most likely the Norman motte north-west of the village.7.0Members
    124County Durham, England, United Kingdom. Shares the name of neighbouring Beechburn, explained by Allen Mawer as 'Bicca's stream', an Old English man's name plus burna (stream). It was spelt Bycheburn in 1304.7.0Profanities
    125Ida-Viru County, Estonia. Origin unclear. The place was first recorded in 1472 as Püssz. Its German name was Neu-Isenhof.7.0Nether regions
    126Otago, New Zealand. Named, like the nearby Shag River, after a seabird, the pied shag. Its Māori name is Matakaea.7.0Carnal matters
    127Canterbury, New Zealand. 'Shag Rock' appears on HMS Pandora's December 1854 survey chart of the Sumner Bar. Waitaha tradition translates the Māori name Rapanui as 'the great sternpost'.7.0Carnal matters
    128Dorset, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.7.0Carnal matters
    129County Cavan, Ireland. From the Irish Searcóg. The Placenames Database of Ireland says the meaning is unclear.7.0Members
    130Kitashitara District, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Origin unclear.7.0Profanities
    131Northumberland, England, United Kingdom. Possibly 'ford by the muddy meadows', from dialect slag, a muddy or foul way. It was spelt Slagingford in 1257.7.0Carnal matters
    132County Kerry, Ireland. Irish An Sponcán. John O'Donovan's 1841 Ordnance Survey notes explain it as a place abounding in coltsfoot, a herb called spunc in Irish.7.0Bodily functions
    133Tamanrasset Province, Algeria. Origin unclear. In Kabyle Berber, tiṭ means 'eye' or 'opening', but no source ties that word to this village's name.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    134Casablanca-Settat, Morocco. Origin unclear. In Kabyle Berber, tiṭ means 'eye' or 'opening', but no source ties that word to this town's name.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    135Surrey, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. Domesday Book (1086) records the village as Ticesei.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    136Bavaria, Germany. Origin unclear. The -ing ending shows Bavarian settlers lived here before Eichstätt's monastery was founded in 740. A local noble, Hartwig von Titting, is recorded in the 12th century.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    137Bavaria, Germany. Origin unclear. The place is first documented as a noble seat in 1155 and received market rights in 1322.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    138Thane district, Maharashtra, India. Origin unclear.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    139Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. From Wanikendhorpe, meaning 'village of Waniko'. It was first mentioned in 1316.7.0Carnal matters
    140Scottish Borders, Scotland, United Kingdom. Originally known as Colbrand's Path, after a folkloric giant.7.0Members
    141Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. First recorded in 1186 as Dicheset. After forms like Dickesceit and Dickenszeit, the spelling settled as Dickenschied in 1481. Its meaning is unclear.7.0Members
    142Rural Municipality of Happy Valley No. 10, Saskatchewan, Canada. Origin unclear7.0Nether regions
    143Torfaen, Wales, United Kingdom. Origin of the English name unclear. Its Welsh name is Coed-llwyd.7.0Nether regions
    144Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Thailand. Origin unclear. Bang means a village on a stream; the name may come from Bang Ko (island) or Bang Makok, after an olive-like fruit tree.7.0Members
    145West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. Clough is a northern word for a steep-sided valley.7.0Bodily functions
    146Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.7.0Bodily functions
    147Somme, Hauts-de-France, France. Recorded in Latin as Pisciacum in the mid-8th century, then Pyssi in 1301. Local history derives it from poisson, 'fish'. It was once also called Pissy-belle-mare.7.0Bodily functions
    148Maryland and Delaware, United States. From an Algonquian name meaning 'midway fishing stream'.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    149Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. Named after John and George Ball, United Empire Loyalist brothers who bought 1,200 acres here in 1807 and built grist, saw and woollen mills on Twenty Mile Creek.7.0Members
    150New South Wales, Australia. Named after Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, who commanded HMS Supply in the First Fleet. Its Aboriginal name is Yerroulbine.7.0Members
    151County Limerick, Ireland. The official Irish form is Eifinn, and the Placenames Database of Ireland says its meaning is unclear. Local tradition links the name to Saint Eimhín, pronounced EF-in.7.0Profanities
    152County Donegal, Ireland. From the Irish Magh, meaning 'plain'.7.0Nether regions
    153Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. The Victoria County History calls it a hamlet on Little Lever's southern border. The three arms of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal meet at Nob End Locks.7.0Members
    154South Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. May mean 'the farmstead at the hill called Penning', from Brittonic penn (head, end or height) plus Old English -ing and tun (farmstead). Domesday Book spells it Pengeston.7.0Members
    155County Louth, Ireland. Irish Tearmann Feichín, 'Féchín's church land', after Saint Féchín of Fore, said to have founded a monastery here in the 7th century.7.0Profanities
    156Yancey and Buncombe counties, North Carolina, United States. 'Butt' in these Appalachian mountain names is described as a corruption of 'butte', a word for a hill.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    157Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.7.0Bodily functions
    158Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. From Cornish. The first part, bronn, means breast or hill. Oliver Padel proposed Bronn Wennili, 'hill of swallows', while Henry Jenner suggested bronn ewhella, 'highest hill'. It was spelled Brunwenely around 1200.7.0Members
    159Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.7.0Members
    160Gongliao District, New Taipei, Taiwan. Chinese 龍洞, 'dragon cave'. Older records write it 撈洞; the name was changed because the curving bay looks like a coiled dragon.7.0Members
    161Region of Southern Denmark, Denmark. First recorded as Maethaelfar in King Valdemar's Census Book of 1231. It combines Old Danish maethal, 'middle', and far, 'way' or 'crossing place', and probably refers to its position as a middle crossing point over the Little Belt between Funen and Jutland.7.0Bodily functions
    162Kane County, Utah, United States. Early Utah explorer John Kitchen is credited with naming at least some of these peaks after a nipple of his wife, Molly.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    163Semporna District, Sabah, Malaysia. Origin unclear.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    164Wierden, Overijssel, Netherlands. Low Saxon. The ending comes from heem, 'home' or 'dwelling'. The first part is uncertain: one theory links it to Regde, an old name for the river Regge, giving 'settlement on the Regge'. First recorded in 1297 as Rectum or Rectem.7.0Bosoms & bottoms
    165Vas County, Hungary. Probably from the Slavic place name Pernovo, whose own origin is unknown. The suffix apáti refers to the village's former Cistercian abbey.7.0Carnal matters
    166Narsingdi and Narayanganj districts, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh. Origin unclear. In Bengali shital means cool, and local tradition links the name to the river's water staying cool in every season.6.7Profanities
    167Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Cokernho in 1221. The ending is Old English hoh, a spur of land, for the hill east of the farm. The English Place-Name Society calls the first part difficult, perhaps cocc, 'cock', plus aern, 'house'.6.7Members
    168East Ayrshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. Debated. Suggested Gaelic origins include com-cnoc, 'hollow of the hills', cam-cnoc, 'crooked hill', and cumanag, 'little shrine'.6.7Bodily functions
    169Norfolk, England, United Kingdom. Anglo-Saxon, from Old English for 'Dicle's' or 'Dicla's' fortification.6.7Members
    170County Wexford, Ireland. Irish Baile an Hóraigh. Baile means townland or homestead. Official sources give no meaning for the second element.6.7Carnal matters
    171Namur province, Wallonia, Belgium. Origin unclear. In Walloon and Champenois the village is called Pûsmadje.6.7Nether regions
    172Alvaiázere, Leiria District, Portugal. Origin unclear.6.7Nether regions
    173Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Disputed. First recorded as Titinsee in 1050. Theories include the Roman general Titus camping there, a woman called Tita owning land by it, and the Alemannic word teti, small child.6.7Bosoms & bottoms
    174White County, Arkansas, United States. Named for a prominent, treeless ridge of layered rock that served as a landmark for pioneers. The town was founded in 1881.6.7Members
    175Louisa County, Virginia, United States. Named for John T. Bumpass, one of the area's first postmasters.6.7Bosoms & bottoms
    176County Louth, Ireland. Uncertain. Local legend says an 18th-century landowner hacked to death thieves or rebels who disturbed his property.6.7Members
    177Castellón, Valencian Community, Spain. From Latin paene insula, 'almost an island', translating its Greek name Chersonesos, 'peninsula'. The Spanish ñ arose from mixing in the word peña, 'rock'.6.7Members
    178Yonne, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France. Recorded as Asnux around 1600 and also as Aznu. Locals drop the s and say 'Anu'. Its deeper origin is unclear.6.7Bosoms & bottoms
    179Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. From Old Sorbian psheno, meaning millet or wheat, which suggests the soil was especially fertile. It was first recorded in 1206.6.7Bodily functions
    180São Paulo, Brazil. Means 'land of Ana', for patron saint Sant'Ana (Saint Anne). First Cuscuzeiro, then Anápolis, it became Analândia in 1944 because another municipality was already called Anápolis.6.7Carnal matters
    181East Riding of Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Possibly Old Norse vaett-vangr, 'field for the trial of a legal action'. Another theory makes it the 'wet field', in contrast to nearby Driffield.6.7Members
    182Stichtse Vecht, Utrecht, Netherlands. From Cocagne, French for Cockaigne, a mythical land of plenty. The Bishop of Utrecht gave new reclaimed land enticing names to attract pioneers. It was first recorded around 1307 as Cokanghen.6.3Members
    183Province of Sulcis Iglesiente, Sardinia, Italy. Possibly from a local word, mungerru, for a place where livestock were milked, or of pre-Latin origin. It first appears in a 1206 document as scala de Buguerru.6.3Profanities
    184Otter Tail County, Minnesota, United States. Named for nearby Clitherall Lake, which was named after George B. Clitherall, a slaveowner and presidential appointee.6.3Nether regions
    185Placentia Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Believed to come from explorers stumbling on a Beothuk path by chance.6.3Bodily functions
    186Aberdeenshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. Earlier records spell it Brokenwine and Brocken Weind before it settled as Brokenwind.6.3Bodily functions
    187New South Wales, Australia. Origin unclear. Greater Hume Council says it is believed to be Aboriginal and that 'burrum' usually refers to water. Local belief says it means 'bullock's backbone'.6.3Bosoms & bottoms
    188Dorset, England, United Kingdom. Thought to refer to a rough hollow. 'Bottom' is an old word for a valley, and this is a dry chalk valley ending at the cliffs between Durdle Door and Bat's Head.6.3Bosoms & bottoms
    189Gangtok district, Sikkim, India. The town shares its name with the Dikchu River, which joins the Teesta here. The origin of the river's name is unclear.6.3Members
    190Gotō, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. Written 福江, from characters meaning good fortune and inlet. A fuller origin is unclear.6.3Profanities
    191Greene County, New York, United States. Said to come from a Native American term. Translations vary, and 'owl's hoot' is the one most common locally.6.3Members
    192Surrey, England, United Kingdom. Old English for the ham(m), or homestead, of Æffa's people. Domesday Book (1086) records it as Epingeham.6.3Profanities
    193East Sussex, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.6.3Carnal matters
    194 (formerly Earl Town)Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. Named after an inn. In the 18th century John Wallace hung a blue ball from a post outside his inn at an Earl Town crossroads, calling it 'The Sign of the Blue Ball'. Earl Town officially changed its name to Blue Ball in 1833.6.3Members
    195Analalava District, Sofia Region, Madagascar. Not documented for this town. The name is commonly read as Malagasy for 'long forest' (ala, forest; lava, long), though a study of another Analalava suggests it may mean staying long in the forest.6.3Carnal matters
    196West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.6.0Bodily functions
    197Western Region, Ghana. Local oral history says it was called Dick's Cove after Dick, a British trader based at the cove, later corrupted to Dixcove by European seafarers. Dutch writer Bosman (1705) recorded its earlier name, Efiema.6.0Members
    198Beaver County, Oklahoma, United States. Began in 1879 as a fur-trading post beside the Beaver River, under the name Beaver City.6.0Nether regions
    199West Sussex, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Cochinges in Domesday Book (1086). The English Place-Name Society explains it as 'settlement of Cocca's people', from an Old English personal name Cocca plus the group suffix -ingas.6.0Members
    200Cox's Bazar District, Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. Named after Captain Hiram Cox, an East India Company officer who resettled Arakanese refugees and died in 1799. A market founded in his memory became Cox's Bazar.6.0Members
    201County Durham, England, United Kingdom. 'Cocc's hoh', the heel or spur of land belonging to a man called Cocc. It was spelt Cockishow in 1277.6.0Members
    202North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. Probably Gaelic comar nan allt, 'meeting of the streams'. Early forms in Cumyr- hint at an older Cumbric word for a confluence.6.0Bodily functions
    203Queensland, Australia. Named after the iron steamer SS Dicky, which ran aground on the beach in heavy seas on 12 February 1893.6.0Members
    204Dikhil Region, Djibouti. Origin unclear. The village grew up around the well of Harrou and was founded by Afar and Issa people.6.0Members
    205İzmir Province, Turkey. Origin unclear. In Turkish dikili means upright or erected, as in dikili taş, a standing stone or obelisk.6.0Members
    206West Flanders, Belgium. Means 'dense scrub'. It is first recorded as Thiggebusch in 1072 and as Thicebus in 1093.6.0Members
    207Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Uncertain. Possibly Celtic dubh (dark) and cocr (winding stream). Folklore says a Scotsman had to doff his cockers, old Scots stockings, to cross the flooded stream.6.0Members
    208Halifax Regional Municipality and Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Origin unclear, but thought to be a corruption of a Mi'kmaq term, with earlier spellings such as Ekamsagen. The Mi'kmaw Place Names Digital Atlas gives Mekwe'saqnuk, 'at the red bank'.6.0Bodily functions
    209Carinthia, Austria. Origin unclear. Its Slovene name is Bače. The lake, Faaker See, is named after the village.6.0Profanities
    210Burgas Province, Bulgaria. Under Ottoman rule the village was known as Omur Fakih, or simply Faki. A fuller origin is not documented.6.0Profanities
    211Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Fockebury around 1200 and Fukkebury in 1327. From Focca, a pet-form of an Old English name beginning Folc-, plus burh, a fortified place: 'Focca's burh'.6.0Profanities
    212West Sussex, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Fochinges in Domesday Book (1086). An Anglo-Saxon -ingas name meaning 'the people of Folc or Folca', a man otherwise unknown to history.6.0Profanities
    213Emirate of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Arabic Khawr Fakkan, 'creek of the two jaws', describing its crescent-shaped bay flanked by two headlands.6.0Profanities
    214KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Named after the Griqua leader Adam Kok III, who settled the area in 1863. Stad is Dutch and Afrikaans for 'city'.6.0Members
    215New South Wales, Australia. Origin unclear. Theories include Lieutenant Shortland calling the island a 'nob', a man called Joseph Nobby, and 'Nobby Clark', rhyming slang for a shark. Colonists first called it Coal Island.6.0Members
    216Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality, Solukhumbu District, Nepal. Origin unclear.6.0Profanities
    217Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga Peninsula, Philippines. Two local versions: from taytay, Subanen and Visayan for bridge, or from 'Titay', nickname of settler Custodio Mariano Sr's favourite cousin, Cristita Mariano.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    218Saginaw and Midland counties, Michigan, United States. Likely from Ojibwe Ditib-Waasizo, glossed as 'rolling and sparkling river', for its curving shape and shining water.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    219Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Titesovere in Domesday Book (1086). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names gives 'Titten's ridge', from a personal name derived from Titta plus Old English ofer, a slope or ridge.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    220Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland. First recorded as Driritum in 1152 and Titeritun in 1189. The ending probably comes from the Celto-Roman -dunum, meaning an enclosed or fortified place.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    221Brevard County, Florida, United States. Named after Henry T. Titus, who arrived in 1867. The settlement was called Sand Point until it was renamed Titusville in 1873.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    222Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Called Torsa in the Middle Ages and Turissa on a local Roman mosaic. Linguist Joan Coromines linked it to Basque iturri, 'spring'.6.0Profanities
    223Friesland, Netherlands. First recorded in 1392 as Thiatzerckera. It probably means the church of Tiete, the church's owner or founder, from Old Frisian tzercka, church.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    224Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia. Not Aboriginal, the Geographic Names Board confirmed. It may come from the Japanese surname Watanabe, or from early landowner Allan Chapman's remark about the 'nobby' shape of the land.6.0Members
    225Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Recalls Wairaka, who saved the drifting Mātaatua canoe by paddling it, which women were not allowed to do, saying 'Kia whakatāne au i ahau', meaning 'I will act like a man'.6.0Profanities
    226Otago, New Zealand. Named after the lake. Wānaka is the South Island dialect form of wānanga, meaning sacred knowledge or a place of learning.6.0Carnal matters
    227Oise, Hauts-de-France, France. Recorded as Harsi in 1186, Arsiacum in 1230 and Arcy in 1667. Its deeper origin is unclear.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    228Southern Red Sea Region, Eritrea. Origin unclear.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    229Karnal district, Haryana, India. Identified with ancient Asandivat, a capital of the Kuru kingdom, the first recorded state in ancient India, around 1200 BCE.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    230Tyrol, Austria. A Germanised Old Slavic field name, asennik, meaning ash forest. First recorded as Aznich around 1030, it became Asnig and then Assling.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    231Hesse, Germany. First recorded in 1108 as Hasemanneshusen, in a charter about a vineyard. It was probably a Frankish foundation. The -hausen ending means houses.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    232Nordland, Norway. Said to come from the Old Norse male name Baldrekr.6.0Members
    233Powhatan County, Virginia, United States. Origin unclear.6.0Members
    234Manche, Normandy, France. From Old Norse klif, 'rock or hillock', and thorp, 'farm or village', so 'village by the hillock'. It was recorded as Clitorp in 1164.6.0Nether regions
    235Perugia, Umbria, Italy. From Latin Clitumnus. The name is of uncertain origin and was also borne by the river god worshipped at its springs.6.0Nether regions
    236Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom. Old English Feccahām, 'Fecca's village', or Feccahamm, 'Fecca's hemmed-in land'. It was spelled Feckyngham in the 16th and 17th centuries.6.0Profanities
    237La Rioja and Catamarca provinces, Argentina. Named after Pedro José Amadeo Pissis, a French geologist who worked for the Chilean government.6.0Bodily functions
    238Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, United States. Origin unclear. A post office called Muff operated from 1879 to 1908, and the place is also known as Snyderville.6.0Nether regions
    239North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Possibly from an older Celtic settlement called Muffo. It is first documented on 13 June 888 and appears as Moffendorf in a charter of 979.6.0Nether regions
    240Gwynedd, Wales, United Kingdom. Welsh: pen (end), isa' (lowest), 'r (the) and waun, a mutation of gwaun (moor or meadow), roughly 'the lower end of the moor'.6.0Members
    241West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Believed to come from Gamepenny Stone, a gambling game men played in its quarries, rather than from the town of Penistone.6.0Members
    242Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Pushulle in 1219. From Latin pisum, pea, and Old English for hill, meaning 'hill where peas grew'.6.0Bodily functions
    243Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. From Old Prussian pisa or pissa, meaning a bottomless bog where only small birches and spruces grow.6.0Bodily functions
    244Centre-Nord, Burkina Faso. Origin unclear.6.0Bodily functions
    245Vendée, Pays de la Loire, France. Recorded as Pixote Villa in 976. The name refers to a little stream with a tiny, trickling flow.6.0Bodily functions
    246Limassol District, Cyprus. Probably from the large-scale extraction of pine resin, called pissa in Greek, from Byzantine times onward. Local legends link it to pitch-dark nights instead.6.0Bodily functions
    247Uusimaa, Finland. Origin unclear. Older forms include Porneesi, and the Swedish name is Borgnäs. It split from Porvoo parish in 1869.6.0Carnal matters
    248Loire-Atlantique, Pays de la Loire, France. Disputed. Auguste Longnon proposed a Gallo-Roman estate of a man named Prunius. Albert Dauzat suggested Latin portus, 'port', plus a Breton personal name, Nitos.6.0Carnal matters
    249Butler and Warren counties, Ohio, United States. Named after the blue ball painted on its tavern's signboard, a picture sign for travellers who could not read.6.0Members
    250Lancashire, England, United Kingdom. Possibly 'hill of loose stones': Old Norse haugr (hill) plus a word like dialect clitter (loose stone debris), suiting the crumbling limestone crag under the castle. Ekwall says no definite etymology can be given. Spelt Cliderhou in 1102.6.0Nether regions
    251Phuket Province, Thailand. From Malay bukit, 'hill' or 'mountain', later written in Thai as Phukej, 'diamond mountain'. The island's older name, Thalang, is linked to Salang (Malay Ujong Salang, 'Cape of Salang'). Historian Gerini thought Salang had no Thai or Malay meaning and was indigenous.6.0Profanities
    252Bonthe District, Southern Province, Sierra Leone. Origin unclear.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    252Qabala District, Azerbaijan. Linked to the Old Turkic word bum, meaning a river valley or hard-to-cross place. Bum sits in a hollow between two mountains where the Kovdan river meets the Bum river.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    253Warren County, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1839 by Michael Robert Buttz and named after the Buttz family.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    254West Falkland, Falkland Islands. Origin unclear.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    255Essex County, New York, United States. Locals named it after the nipple-like shape of its summit. Ebenezer Emmons, who made the first recorded ascent in 1837, called it 'Dial', but that name was later moved to a neighbouring peak.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    256Heraklion, Crete, Greece. Analipsi is the Greek word for the Ascension, as in the Ascension of Christ.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    257Boone County, Kentucky, United States. Named for the huge mammoth and mastodon bones found in the swamps around this salt lick, a set of salty mineral springs where animals came to lick the ground.6.0Carnal matters
    258Shasta County, California, United States. Named after Kendall Vanhook Bumpass, a cowboy and early settler who worked around Lassen Peak in the 1860s and discovered the area.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    259Greater London, England, United Kingdom. 'Bottom' means a valley or hollow. The Pratts were a family seated in the area, recorded there in the 14th century.6.0Bosoms & bottoms
    260Charente, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. The name is probably of Germanic origin. Herpes was once a parish and then a commune in its own right, before it was absorbed into Courbillac in the 19th century.6.0Pure innuendo
    261Gers, Occitanie, France. From Gaulish Condatomagos, 'market of the confluence', because the town sits where the Gèle flows into the Baïse. It was first recorded in Latin in the 10th century as Condomus.6.0Carnal matters
    262Pike County, Ohio, United States. Named after the initials 'P. P.' carved on a creekside tree, traditionally by pioneer settler Major Paul Paine, though accounts differ on who carved them.6.0Bodily functions
    263Pike County, Ohio, United States. Named after Pee Pee Creek, where pioneer Major Paul Paine carved his initials, P. P., on a tree.6.0Bodily functions
    264West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Formerly the River Cock. The name may refer to a mature salmon, as the beck was a spawning ground for salmon and trout.5.7Members
    265Trelawny and St Elizabeth parishes, Jamaica. Named for the large limestone craters or pits found across the area. Shallow caves there are also known locally as cockpits.5.7Members
    266New South Wales, Australia. Origin unclear.5.7Bodily functions
    267Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Cumquintina in the 12th century, believed to be named after Saint Quentin. Cum- is the local Cumbric word for a valley, like Welsh cwm.5.7Bodily functions
    268Matrouh Governorate, Egypt. Origin unclear.5.7Profanities
    269Florence, Tuscany, Italy. From Latin ficus, 'fig', via *ficetulum, a place with many fig trees. It was recorded as Ficcicclo in 1027.5.7Profanities
    270Lac La Biche County, Alberta, Canada. French for 'lake of the doe'. Indigenous peoples called it Elk Lake, which early Europeans rendered as Red Deer Lake in English and lac la Biche in French.5.7Profanities
    271West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. The same name as Lacock in Wiltshire, from Old English for a stream or watercourse. The village stands on Laycock Beck.5.7Members
    272Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, Morocco. From Arabic al-Maḍīq, meaning 'the Strait'. It is also known by the Spanish name Rincón.5.7Members
    273Kandy District, Central Province, Sri Lanka. Origin unclear.5.7Nether regions
    274Auckland, New Zealand. Māori, translated as 'hill reaching up to the sky'. Oral history credits Rakataura, a tohunga of the Tainui canoe, who named it after a hill in his Pacific homeland.5.7Bosoms & bottoms
    275Manawatū-Whanganui, New Zealand. Whakapapa is a Māori word. The Māori Dictionary gives meanings including 'give history', as in genealogy, and 'to lie flat'. The Whakapapa River rises at the skifield above the village.5.7Profanities
    276North Goa, Goa, India. Origin unclear.5.7Bodily functions
    277Region of Southern Denmark, Denmark. Recorded as Asnaes in King Valdemar's Census Book of 1231, meaning a headland overgrown with ash trees.5.7Bosoms & bottoms
    278Baraga County, Michigan, United States. Shares its name with Ojibwe leader Chief Edward Assinins, who invited Bishop Frederic Baraga there and was the first person baptised at the site. Its Ojibwe name is given as Asiniinsikaajiigibiig.5.7Bosoms & bottoms
    279Pemiscot County, Missouri, United States. Named in 1854 for the Coutre family, headed by Frenchman Portell Coutre of New Madrid. The family name was pronounced 'Coo-Tra'.5.7Nether regions
    280New South Wales, Australia. George and William Colless bought a sheep station here in 1862 and named it Come by Chance, reflecting their surprise at being able to buy land in the area. The town took the station's name.5.7Carnal matters
    281West Java, Indonesia. Either Sundanese suka (like) and bumen (to settle), a place people like to settle, or Sanskrit suka (happiness) and bhumi (earth), 'beloved land'.5.7Bosoms & bottoms
    282Southern Alps, West Coast / Canterbury border, New Zealand. Origin unclear. The name was approved in 1934 for 'twin peaks at source of Ramsay Glacier north-west of Whitcombes Pass'.5.7Bosoms & bottoms
    283Yucatán, Mexico. From Yucatec Maya pop, meaning a woven mat or petate, and possibly the reed used to weave it.5.7Bodily functions
    284Lewis County, Idaho, United States. Named after Josiah Slickpoo, who gave land for Jesuit priest Joseph Cataldo's new church. The place was also known as Aishnima.5.7Bodily functions
    285Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Cum- is the Cumbric equivalent of Welsh cwm, a valley. The meaning of the second part is unclear.5.7Bodily functions
    286Matara District, Southern Province, Sri Lanka. Commonly said to mean 'long beach' in Sinhala: dik- comes from diga, long, and wella means sand or beach. No formal place-name study confirms this.5.7Members
    287Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. From Old English prica, 'prickle or thorn', plus shaw, a small wood. It was recorded as Prikkeschagh in 1292.5.7Members
    288Effingham County, Illinois, United States. May honour Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham, who resigned his British army commission in 1775 rather than fight the colonists. Newer research points to a surveyor named Effingham; there is no written proof either way.5.7Profanities
    289Fakaofo atoll, Tokelau, Tokelau (New Zealand). Origin unclear. The whale ship General Jackson named it DeWolf Island in 1835, after the ship's owner. It was later called Bowditch Island, after navigator Nathaniel Bowditch.5.7Profanities
    290Devon, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. The English Place-Name Society's earliest record is 'Crap Stone' in a deed of 1678, and it offers no derivation.5.7Profanities
    291Bistrița-Năsăud County, Romania. Origin unclear. The village's Hungarian name is Ispánmező.5.7Bodily functions
    292Réunion, Réunion (France). Most often traced to Malagasy tampony or tampona, glossed as 'belvedere' or lookout point.5.7Pure innuendo
    293Trøndelag, Norway. From Old Norse hellir, meaning a cliff cave or a shelter under an overhanging rock.5.7Profanities
    294Rockingham County, Virginia, United States. Named after New Erection Presbyterian Church, so called because an older church, known as 'Old Erection', stood at nearby Dayton.5.7Carnal matters
    295Monroe County, Pennsylvania, United States. Villagers adopted Analomink around 1906, choosing a name long associated with the region. Its original meaning is unclear.5.3Pure innuendo
    296Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada. Origin unclear5.3Nether regions
    297Dorset, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. The site is a stream valley, and 'bottom' is an old word for a valley.5.3Bosoms & bottoms
    298Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. From a local Native American language, said to mean 'hard to pole', after the difficulty of poling canoes on the Humptulips River. Other sources say it means 'chilly region'.5.3Carnal matters
    299East Lothian, Scotland, United Kingdom. Cockenzie comes from Gaelic Cùil Choinnich, 'cove of Kenneth'. In Scots it is Cockennie.5.3Members
    300Cumilla District, Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. Said to derive from Komolangko, an ancient name for the region meaning 'lotus pond'.5.3Bodily functions
    301Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. Named after the Cockey family, prominent local landowners. Joshua Frederick Cockey opened a hotel and tavern on the York Road turnpike in 1810, and the village grew around it.5.3Members
    302Sucre State, Venezuela. Origin unclear. The city took the name Cumaná when it was refounded in 1569; the area's Indigenous people included the Cumanagoto.5.3Bodily functions
    303Ho Municipal District, Volta Region, Ghana. Origin unclear.5.3Carnal matters
    304Basra Governorate, Iraq. Arabic for 'river of the Arabs'. In Iran it is called Arvand Rud, 'valiant river'.5.3Profanities
    305Dublin, Ireland. From Ball's Bridge, built and owned by the Ball merchant family in the 1500s and 1600s. The Irish name, Droichead na Dothra, means 'Dodder bridge'.5.3Members
    306County Offaly, Ireland. The English name comes from the Blue Ball pub in Pallas townland. The village was historically called Pallas, Irish An Phailís.5.3Members
    307Bumthang District, Bhutan. Means 'beautiful field': thang is a flat place, and bum is said to come from bumpa, a holy-water vessel, or from bum, 'girl', making it the valley of beautiful girls.5.3Bosoms & bottoms
    308Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom. Named in 1801 for its distance of six miles from Newmarket and its position in a bottom, an archaic word for a valley.5.3Bosoms & bottoms
    309Wakatobi Regency, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Origin unclear.5.3Members
    310Frontenac County, Ontario, Canada. Origin unclear.5.3Pure innuendo
    311West Bay, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. From its jagged black limestone formations. Local versions say a visitor exclaimed, 'This is what Hell must look like.'5.3Profanities
    312Scottish Borders, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.5.3Bodily functions
    313Livingston County, Michigan, United States. One of four theories: asked what to call the settlement, George Reeves reportedly said 'You can name it Hell for all I care.' The name became official on 13 October 1841.5.3Profanities
    314Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. It was recorded as Le Cockett in 1583, and its Welsh form is Y Cocyd.5.0Members
    315Stann Creek District, Belize. Named after the Cockscomb Mountains ridge, whose profile resembles a rooster's comb.5.0Members
    316Varese, Lombardy, Italy. Cocquio comes from vulgar Latin coccum, 'small hill'. Trevisago may come from Latin tres vias, 'three roads', or the Latin personal name Trebicius.5.0Members
    317Haute-Garonne, Occitanie, France. From Gascon còth, 'hill', plural còths, from Latin collis. Its Occitan name is Còths.5.0Members
    318Borno State, Nigeria. Origin unclear.5.0Members
    319Fergana Region, Uzbekistan. The ending -kand means city in Sogdian and other Iranian languages; the first part may mean 'good', giving 'good city'. A Turkic origin from the Kokan tribal group is also proposed.5.0Members
    320Akmola Region, Kazakhstan. Kazakh for 'smoky-blue mountain', from kokshe (bluish) and tau (mountain), after nearby Mount Kokshe, which always looks hazy blue.5.0Members
    321Crimea, Ukraine. From Crimean Tatar Köktöbel, 'land of the blue hills', from kök, 'sky blue', and töbe, 'hill'.5.0Members
    322North 24 Parganas district, West Bengal, India. Origin unclear.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    323Balangir district, Odisha, India. Origin unclear. Also spelt Titilagarh.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    324Kossuth County, Iowa, United States. A Sioux name meaning 'big black', referring to the buffalo.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    325Norfolk, England, United Kingdom. Thought to derive from Old English for 'Tyttel's nook'. Domesday Book recorded it as Titeshala.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    326Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. One theory traces it to the Turkic word art, 'rear' or 'back', as its fort guarded the rear of the Kazan Khanate. Another links the Tatar name, Archa, to the Udmurt people.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    327North Denmark Region, Denmark. Named after the three mills that stood among the dunes (klitter) by the North Sea around 1600.5.0Nether regions
    328West Sussex, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.5.0Members
    329Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom. Recorded as Fulcwardby in 1164 to 1177. It means 'Folcward's farmstead', a personal name plus the Scandinavian -by. The English Place-Name Society thinks the name is probably of post-Conquest origin.5.0Profanities
    330Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Fuchū (府中) means the seat of a provincial government. Ancient Musashi Province was governed from here after the Taika Reform of 645.5.0Profanities
    331Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. Nether, or Lower, Assendon is recorded in 1409, distinguishing it from Upper Assendon, the old name for Stonor.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    332Midlothian, Scotland, United Kingdom. From Old Brythonic for 'hill of the cuckoo'; the modern Welsh equivalent would be Pen y Gog. The Gaelic name, Ceann na Cuthaige, means the same.5.0Members
    333Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. First recorded in 1330 as Bonrade. A man named Bonclath, mentioned in 1239, may have founded the village or given it its name.5.0Members
    334Queensland, Australia. Captain Cook and other European explorers called it Booby Island for its booby seabirds. Its traditional owners, the Kaurareg people, call it Ngiangu after a giant forced from a neighbouring island.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    335Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    336Tasmania, Australia. Origin unclear.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    337Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Probably 'broad valley floor'. Bottom in northern place names usually comes from Old English botm, a valley bottom, and the village sits in the valley of the River Etherow.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    338Tawang district, Arunachal Pradesh, India. La is Tibetan for mountain pass. The meaning of 'Bum' here is unclear.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    339Na h-Eileanan Siar, Scotland, United Kingdom. Sources do not explain the English 'Butt'. The Gaelic name, Rubha Robhanais, comes from Norse Rófunes, meaning 'promontory of the tail'.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    340Queens County, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Crapaud is the French word for toad. The sources checked do not record how the name came to be applied.5.0Profanities
    341Dorchester County, Maryland, United States. Said to come from 'crapaud', the French word for toad.5.0Profanities
    342Lyon Metropolis, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. Probably from Old French crappe, meaning a quagmire or muddy bog.5.0Profanities
    343Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. Named for its appearance: early settlers thought its V-shaped peaks looked like the fork, or 'crotch', of a tree.5.0Nether regions
    344São Paulo, Brazil. Portuguese for 'abundance'. The most accepted explanation is the region's fertile purple soil and the abundance of fish in the local stream.5.0Bodily functions
    345South Australia, Australia. Anthropologist Norman Tindale linked the name to the Kaurna word parnpangka, meaning 'rain water lake'.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    346Siena, Tuscany, Italy. Origin unclear.5.0Carnal matters
    347Gelderland, Netherlands. Origin unclear.5.0Carnal matters
    348Cluj County, Romania. Via Hungarian Torda, probably from Old Bulgarian *tvьrdъ, meaning citadel or fortress. The Romans knew the site as Potaissa.5.0Bodily functions
    349Shetland Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.5.0Bodily functions
    350County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Irish Sraith na Gallbhuaile. Sraith means a river-meadow or valley-bottom, and buaile a summer milking-place or fold.5.0Members
    351Bell County, Texas, United States. Named after a sign that painter C.C. Hoover made for a country store run by Zulis and Bert Bell. It showed two bells bearing their names and the words 'Ding Dong'.5.0Members
    352Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Thought to derive from Mayanno, a Native American chieftain. The neighbourhood was formerly known as Mayamus and Upper Landing.5.0Bosoms & bottoms
    353Santa Cruz province, Cajamarca, Peru. Origin unclear.5.0Carnal matters
    354Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom. Named after the Piddle Brook, which joins the River Avon here. A Worcestershire place-name writer suggests 'piddle' was an Old English word for a small stream, and that 'Wyre' may be the brook's older Celtic name.5.0Bodily functions
    355Kalamazoo County, Michigan, United States. In 1834 Daniel B. Eldred, son of Judge Caleb Eldred, climbed a tree, saw the prairie and declared: 'This caps the climax of everything we saw.'5.0Carnal matters
    356Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. Called Cross Keys after a local tavern until 1814. Theories include the meeting of two old roads, the old sense of 'intercourse' as fellowship, and a nearby racecourse called 'Entercourse'. The true origin is unproven.5.0Carnal matters
    357West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Old English neotherra (lower) plus thwang (narrow strip of land), the lower of a pair with Upperthong.5.0Pure innuendo
    358Haute-Marne, Grand Est, France. From the Germanic personal name Saxo plus Latin fons, 'spring', so roughly 'Saxo's spring'. It was recorded as Saxonis Fontane around 1034.5.0Carnal matters
    359New South Wales, Australia. Named after Royal Navy Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, who reported finding it in 1788 on the same voyage on which he discovered Lord Howe Island.4.7Members
    360The Narrows, Saint Kitts and Nevis. Origin not recorded. It is a major seabird nesting site, and its brown pelicans are colloquially called 'boobies'.4.7Bosoms & bottoms
    361New South Wales, Australia. From the Worimi word butibuti, meaning 'plenty of honey'.4.7Bosoms & bottoms
    362North Brabant, Netherlands. Early settlers lived on donken, raised sandy ridges, beside a stream called the Aa. Donkaa gave rise to Dongen for the town and Donge for the brook.4.7Members
    363West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. First recorded in 1538. From Old Norse lumm and butte, a pool by an abutment of land; butte may also mean a log or stump.4.7Bosoms & bottoms
    364Mokhotlong District, Lesotho. Origin unclear.4.7Bodily functions
    365Poinsett County, Arkansas, United States. Named after a St. Louis railroad official when the railroad built a depot here in 1881. The stop had earlier been known as West Prairie.4.7Members
    366Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Either 'ram's valley', from Old English ramm (ram) and botm (valley), or 'wild garlic valley', from hramsa. It was recorded as Ramesbothum in 1324.4.7Bosoms & bottoms
    367Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Thought to be a derivative of 'burgh'. The exact origin is unclear.4.7Bodily functions
    368Vaud, Switzerland. Sex is a Franco-Provençal place-name word for an isolated rock or cliff, so the name means 'red rock'. It is pronounced 'say rouge' and also spelled Scex Rouge.4.3Carnal matters
    369Orange County, Indiana, United States. The town began as a French trading post built near a spring and a salt lick, where animals came to lick mineral deposits.4.3Carnal matters
    370Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom. Named from nearby Lickey, recorded from 1225 as La Lecheye and Lekeheye. The name is thought to come from words for a clearing and an enclosed space, perhaps a clearing in the forest.4.3Carnal matters
    371Metropolitan City of Rome, Lazio, Italy. First recorded in 997 as 'Castellum qui vocatur Arsule'. Its origin is debated, with suggestions including Latin arx, 'stronghold', or words for a crag or cliff.4.3Bosoms & bottoms
    372Drenthe, Netherlands. Origin unclear. The town grew around the Mariënkamp convent, which moved there from Coevorden in 1259.4.3Bosoms & bottoms
    373Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia. Origin unclear. Alternative names include Havaiki-te-araro, Havai'i and Farea, and Bellingshausen called it Wittgenstein Island in 1820.4.3Profanities
    374Queensland, Australia. From the Yuggera words kutchi, meaning red, and mudlo, meaning stone. Europeans called it Innis Island from 1825 to 1850.4.3Nether regions
    375Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine. Founded in 1680 by Colonel Semen Samoilovych of the Starodub Cossack Regiment and named after his first name, Semen.4.3Bodily functions
    376Saba, Caribbean Netherlands (Saba). From old Dutch De Botte, 'the bowl', for its valley ringed by mountains. 'The Bottom' is an English corruption.4.3Bosoms & bottoms
    377Conception Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Origin unclear4.3Carnal matters
    378Devon, England, United Kingdom. Possibly Brythonic: Pen y cwm coet, 'head of a wooded valley', or Pen y cwm gwyk, referring to a nearby creek. Locals have long linked it to The Penny pub by the roundabout.4.3Carnal matters
    379Peace River Country, Alberta, Canada. First called Bennville, but that name was already taken, so it was renamed after a local trapper named Sexsmith who came to the area in 1898.4.3Carnal matters
    380Hiyama Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. From the Ainu language. Proposed origins include at-sam, 'beside the elm bark', and hatcham-betsu, a river named after a bird.4.0Bosoms & bottoms
    381North Goa, Goa, India. Origin unclear.4.0Bosoms & bottoms
    382Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago. Local legend links the name to a naval battle in 1666.4.0Profanities
    383Highland, Scotland, United Kingdom. From Gaelic Am Ban Àth, 'fair ford'. Maps recorded it as Bana, Bona, then Bonar Ferry in the 1700s. Locals usually just say Bonar.4.0Members
    384Mount Aspiring National Park, New Zealand. Origin unclear.4.0Members
    385West Coast, New Zealand. Named by James Cook in 1770 after his ship Endeavour was blown a long way offshore from this point.4.0Bodily functions
    386Essex, England, United Kingdom. Means 'hill-spur of the Fingringas', a tribal name meaning 'the people who dwell on the finger of land'.4.0Carnal matters
    387Goochland County, Virginia, United States. Named after its county, which honours Sir William Gooch, royal lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1727 to 1749. The community is also called Goochland Court House.4.0Nether regions
    388Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Combines -trup, from Old Danish thorp, 'village', with a personal name, Hune or Humpi. It was first mentioned in 1462. The Danish name is Humtrup.4.0Carnal matters
    389Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear.4.0Bosoms & bottoms
    390Imo State, Nigeria. Origin unclear.4.0Carnal matters
    391New South Wales, Australia. Governor Philip Gidley King named it after a Norfolk Island hill that was hard to dig because of tree roots. The name first appears on a map from 1803.4.0Carnal matters
    392Clay County, West Virginia, United States. Origin unclear. 'Booger' was local usage for the bogeyman. One story says a stonemason fleeing the valley's violence explained he was 'leaving Booger Hole'.4.0Bodily functions
    393Polk County, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1896 and named after Climax, a brand of chewing tobacco seen in an advertisement.4.0Carnal matters
    393Rural Municipality of Lone Tree No. 18, Saskatchewan, Canada. Named after Climax, Minnesota, the home town of early homesteader Christ Fuglestad.4.0Carnal matters
    393Decatur County, Georgia, United States. Named because it sits at the highest point of the railroad between Savannah and the Chattahoochee River. It was platted in 1833.4.0Carnal matters
    393Guilford and Randolph counties, North Carolina, United States. Named for its location at a high point on the Atlantic and Yadkin Railway, near the northernmost point of Randolph County.4.0Carnal matters
    394Randolph County, North Carolina, United States. Origin unclear. A post office called Erect opened in 1883 and closed in 1935.4.0Carnal matters
    395Sumter County, Alabama, United States. Named for the crossroads where the community sits. At the time a road intersection could be called an 'intercourse'.4.0Carnal matters
    396Western Australia, Australia. Named for 'intercourse' in its old sense of communication and dealings, between explorer Philip Parker King's party and the Aboriginal people they met during his 1818 survey. King's 1827 book calls the group The Intercourse Islands.4.0Carnal matters
    397County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. From Irish Lóiste Beag, meaning 'little lodge'.4.0Carnal matters
    398Dorset, England, United Kingdom. From its position on the River Piddle plus 'trent hide', because Domesday Book assessed it at thirty hides of land. Domesday recorded it as Pidrie.4.0Bodily functions
    399Victoria, Australia. William Bunce's 1859 word list records Poowong as an Aboriginal word meaning carrion.4.0Bodily functions
    400Shkodër County, Albania. May derive from Latin via publica, 'public road', as the town lay on an old trade route.4.0Bodily functions
    401Friesland, Netherlands. Named after Saint Sixtus, patron of its church, plus Old Frisian bere, meaning barn or house. The oldest certain record is Sixtisberen, from the 13th century. The Frisian name is Seisbierrum.4.0Carnal matters
    402Meurthe-et-Moselle, Grand Est, France. From a Latin personal name, Cercius or Circius, plus the suffix -acum. It was recorded as Cirseium in 965.4.0Carnal matters
    403North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Old Norse sexhou or sekkshaughr, 'the hill of Sekk', a personal name plus haugr (hill).4.0Carnal matters
    404Bullock County, Alabama, United States. One account says local men spent all day socializing at the blacksmith shop and went home with soot-covered faces.4.0Pure innuendo
    405West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Old English uferra (upper) plus thwang (narrow strip of land), the higher of a pair with Netherthong.4.0Pure innuendo
    406Texas County, Oklahoma, United States. Honours John 'Hooker' Threlkeld, a foreman on the OX Ranch, according to regional historian Henry Chrisman.4.0Carnal matters
    407Perry County, Arkansas, United States. Disputed. One story says idle rivermen at the tavern would 'suck on the bottle till they swell up like toads'. Another says it is a corruption of a French phrase for a narrow river channel.4.0Pure innuendo
    408Tonkolili District, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Origin unclear.4.0Bosoms & bottoms
    409Litchfield Municipality, Northern Territory, Australia. Uncertain. It first appeared in 1910 as Umpity Doo. Suggestions include army slang 'umpty', used for the dash in Morse code, or an Aboriginal name, Umdidu, supposedly meaning 'popular resting place'.3.7Carnal matters
    410County Kerry, Ireland. Irish Dá Chích Anann, 'the breasts of Anu', an ancient mother goddess.3.7Bosoms & bottoms
    411Adams County, Ohio, United States. Named after the local Seaman family. The village was laid out in 1888 when the railroad was extended to the spot.3.7Bodily functions
    412Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Named for the spot where US Route 45 splits into 45W towards Humboldt and 45E towards Milan, creating a three-way junction.3.7Carnal matters
    413Queensland, Australia. Origin unclear. The headland was first marked on an 1840s survey map by James Charles Burnett, and its Aboriginal name is Ningeryoun.3.7Members
    414Bavaria, Germany. First recorded as Pettinga in 1048. Historical sources say the name describes a place subject to the ebb and flow of water. It sits on the shore of the Waginger See.3.7Carnal matters
    415New South Wales, Australia. From the Kamilaroi language, meaning 'fire for roasting'.3.7Bodily functions
    416Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom. Uncertain. Possibly 'hill-spur of the dwellers among the ferns', or 'ferny-place hill spur'.3.7Bodily functions
    417Củ Chi commune, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. From old Mon-Khmer words Tonle Sre, 'river of rice-field', or Sre, 'rice field'.3.3Nether regions
    418New South Wales, Australia. Gazetted in 1863 as Pooncaira, described as an Aboriginal word meaning 'large sandhill'. The spelling later changed to Pooncarie for no recorded reason.3.3Nether regions
    419Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. From the Wampanoag word 'Tataket', roughly meaning 'at the principal tidal stream'.3.3Bosoms & bottoms
    420Warwickshire, England, United Kingdom. Thought to derive from Old English weoh, 'temple or holy place', suggesting a pagan shrine once stood here.3.3Members
    421Argyll and Bute, Scotland, United Kingdom. Named for their breast-like conical shapes. Pap is an ancient word of Old Norse origin for the breast.3.3Bosoms & bottoms
    422Baden-Württemberg, Germany. First recorded in 861 or 862 as Secchosouua, roughly 'meadow of Seccho'. Nobody knows who Seccho was or when he lived.3.3Carnal matters
    423Västra Götaland County, Sweden. Probably means 'six hauls'. It first named a spot on the river Ätran with six places for net fishing. It was written Sexdraeghum in 1314.3.3Carnal matters
    424North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. Kirkby means a settlement by a church. Overblow is a corruption of Oreblow, recalling the village's iron-smelting past.3.3Carnal matters
    425North Carolina and South Carolina, United States. Named after the Pee Dee people, the Native American tribe whose historic territory the river flows through.3.3Bodily functions
    426Kwango Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Origin unclear.3.3Bodily functions
    427Essex, England, United Kingdom. 'Shellow' is from Old English for a bend in the river, here the River Roding. 'Bowells' comes from the Bueles family, who held the manor in the 13th century. Domesday Book lists it as Scelda.3.3Bodily functions
    428Kent, England, United Kingdom. First recorded as Thuange in the Registrum Roffense of about 1200. It may correspond to Middle Low German dwenge, 'trap', but this cannot be confirmed.3.3Pure innuendo
    429Western Australia, Australia. Origin unclear. It is often said to be an anglicised form of Thung-arra, a local Wattandee name for the estuary, but this is unsourced.3.0Members
    430Krapina-Zagorje County, Croatia. Named after its river, which once teemed with carp. In the local Kajkavian dialect a carp is called krap.3.0Profanities
    431Greene County, North Carolina, United States. Origin unclear. Before the American Revolution the settlement was known as Caswell's Landing, after Benjamin Caswell, brother of Governor Richard Caswell.3.0Carnal matters
    432Bavaria, Germany. From the Old High German male name Kiso or Cisso plus the suffix -ing. It is first securely recorded in 935 as Chissingun.3.0Carnal matters
    433Shropshire, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. The village was formerly recorded as Cnukyn.3.0Carnal matters
    434Krabi Province, Thailand. From Malay: the original name was Pulau Api-Api, after the api-api, or grey mangrove, trees found on the islands.3.0Bodily functions
    435Kinnaur district, Himachal Pradesh, India. Origin unclear. It is also known as Spuwa.3.0Bodily functions
    436Henrico County, Virginia, United States. Local legend says it was named after a short-handled water pump under a tavern porch, where stagecoach horses drank. The origin is debated. The name was official by 1853.3.0Carnal matters
    437Florence County, Wisconsin, United States. Named after the Spread Eagle Chain of Lakes, which from the air resembles an eagle with its wings spread.3.0Carnal matters
    437Trinity Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Origin unclear3.0Carnal matters
    438Norfolk, England, United Kingdom. First recorded in Domesday Book (1086) as Stiucai. It means 'stump island', an island with stumps of trees. Locals say 'Stiff-key'; 'Stew-key' arose from misreading the Domesday spelling.3.0Carnal matters
    439Chester County, Tennessee, United States. Disputed. Residents say settlers found the creek water 'sweet to the lips'. Other theories name Sweet Lips, a gun used to kill Loyalist leader Patrick Ferguson in 1780, or George Washington's dog.3.0Pure innuendo
    440Pittsylvania County, Virginia, United States. In the 1870s a general store and a blacksmith's shop were built on opposite edges of the road. They stood so close that wagons had to slow down for the 'tight squeeze'.3.0Pure innuendo
    441Northland, New Zealand. Origin unclear.3.0Bodily functions
    442Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom. Origin unclear. An 1860s Ordnance Survey map spells it as two words, Wide Open, with East Wideopen and West Wideopen nearby.3.0Pure innuendo
    443Northern Cape, South Africa. Disputed. Most say it is a Korana word for 'poor pasture'; another version is 'place of the raging cow'. The ford was recorded as T'Kakamas from 1779.2.3Bodily functions
    – (formerly Fucking)Upper Austria, Austria. Recorded from 1070 and probably derived from Adalpert von Vucckingen, an 11th-century local. Legend says it was founded by Focko, a 6th-century Bavarian noble. The -ing suffix is a common Bavarian place-name ending. A 19th-century cadastral map spells it Fuking.renamedProfanities
    – (formerly Wankie)Matabeleland North Province, Zimbabwe. Named after the local chieftain Whange, now styled Chief Hwange. The colonial spelling Wankie was used until the town was renamed Hwange in 1982.renamedCarnal matters
    – (formerly Poo)Llanes, Asturias, Spain. Origin unclear.renamedBodily functions
    – (formerly Sexmoan)Pampanga, Central Luzon, Philippines. From the old Kapampangan root sasmo, 'to meet', so Sasmuan means meeting place. Spanish friars wrote it Sexmoán, when Spanish x was pronounced like English sh.renamedCarnal matters

    How we did it

    The method

    We set out to find every real place on Earth whose name makes English speakers snigger. Researchers combed published lists, local news, national gazetteers and GeoNames, the open database of 13 million place names. Each place was checked against at least one official or encyclopaedic source for its location, its real origin and one true fact. Streets, pubs and businesses don’t count. Neither do slurs. That left 452 places in 92 countries, plus 4 that have since changed their names, which we show on the map as retired from rudeness.

    Every place then got a Blush Rating out of 10, and the public can now vote on the ranking too.

    The Blush Rating in full

    Word strength (up to 5). How rude is the word the name evokes? For words in Ofcom’s October 2026 research into offensive language (an Ipsos UK survey of 4,289 UK adults), we used Ofcom’s own ratings: 5 for the words still not fully acceptable on TV even after the 9pm watershed, 4 for words that are unacceptable before 9pm but fine after it, 3 for words that are only moderately acceptable before 9pm, and 2 for words that are fine before 9pm. Words Ofcom didn’t test, like willy or bum, were placed on the same scale, up to a maximum of 3.

    Clarity (up to 3). How unavoidable is the rude reading? 3 if you can’t read it any other way (Twatt, Shitterton), 2 if the rude reading leaps out but there’s a normal one too (Cockermouth, Fanny Bay), 1 if most people would see the innocent meaning first or it only works said aloud (Beaver, Phuket).

    Snigger factor (up to 2). A comedy bonus for a double meaning that lands, or a name famous for its rude reading, such as a stolen road sign.

    Each place was scored independently three times and each part is the average of the three. Where totals are level, a separate ranking round decides: the tied places were put in order three more times, independently, and we used their average position. Places with the same name and the same score share a rank.

    The rudest countries

    We took all 5,172,792 current populated places in GeoNames (towns, villages, hamlets and neighbourhoods) and searched their names for a list of rude English words, including Ofcom’s. Every one of the 2,474 matches was then reviewed twice, and a third time where the reviews disagreed, to remove false alarms like Arsenal or Dickson. Matches were split into names that are English in origin and names that only look rude to English eyes by accident. Rates are per 10,000 places listed in GeoNames, for countries with at least 3,000 places. GeoNames coverage varies by country, so treat small differences with caution.

    The public vote

    “Which is ruder?” shows two places at a time. Each vote counts as one win for the place you pick. The public ranking shows each place’s share of duels won, once it has been in at least three. Votes are real and the count started from zero on launch day. Each device is limited to a few hundred votes an hour.

    Sources

    Ofcom and Ipsos UK, Public attitudes towards potentially offensive language on TV, radio and video-on-demand, October 2026. GeoNames, downloaded 27 October 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Coastlines from Natural Earth via world-atlas. Each place in the gazetteer links to its own sources.

    For journalists

    Press & data

    “Spain may have the rudest place name on Earth, but Britain has the rudest map. Almost all of these names are centuries old and perfectly innocent in their own language: Twatt was just a Viking word for a clearing. Our advice to anyone who lives in one is simple. Keep a spare road sign in the shed.”
    Brenda Jensen, Head of Data & Research at Erobella

    Press contact

    Dara Weston, PR Manager
    dara@erobella.com

    The full data set is free to use with credit to Erobella and a link to this page.

    Embed the map

    Put the interactive map on your own site. It works on phones and keeps every tool.

    About Erobella

    Erobella is the UK’s fastest growing escorting website and a progressive brand. Its Data & Research team publishes original studies, including the annual survey of sex-worker wellbeing, the Liberal Cities Index, Out on Campus and the Sex Work Statistics series.