this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2025
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River River (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by zedgeist@lemmy.world to c/rpgmemes@ttrpg.network
 
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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 49 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

People naming things in Australia:

  • Townsville
  • Western Australia
  • Shark bay
  • Great Sandy Desert
  • Little Sandy Desert
  • Snowy Mountains

But you also have wildcards:

  • Tasmania (not actually a mental illness)
  • Monkey Mia (There are no monkeys, and nobody named Mia)
  • Lake disappointment (contains no water)
  • Blue mountains (they are mostly green)
  • King Island (we don't recognise its claim to the throne)
[–] Passerby6497@lemmy.world 29 points 3 months ago

Lake disappointment (contains no water)

I don't know, that sounds like a pretty accurate name for a lake without water

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)
  • Shark bay
  • Great Sandy Desert
  • Little Sandy Desert
  • Snowy Mountains

Lol these sound like Super Mario Bros levels

[–] Archpawn@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

They'd probably go with Sandy Sandy Desert.

[–] MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Didn't you cunts also name a swimming pool after your prime minister who died swimming in the ocean?

[–] psud@aussie.zone 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We did indeed. The Harold Holt memorial pool

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[–] mosspiglet@discuss.online 10 points 3 months ago

Lake disappointment (contains no water)

Well, that would be very disappointing if your lake had no water. So I think they nailed that one.

[–] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What's wrong with Shark Bay? I'd name every second bay I find, Shark Bay.

[–] Rubanski@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)
  • Greater shark Bay
  • Lesser shark Bay
  • Disappointment shark Bay ( no sharks)
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[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The Powerpuff Girls happened in Australia‽‽

[–] psud@aussie.zone 5 points 3 months ago

The city of Townsville, yes (it is in fact a city)

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

TIL Powerpuff girls is set in a place called Townsville

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[–] Tamo240@programming.dev 48 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Reminds me of

Torpenhow Hill is a hill in Cumbria, England. Its name consists of the Old English ‘Tor’, the Welsh ‘Pen’, and the Danish ‘How’ - all of which translate to modern English as ‘Hill’. Therefore, Torpenhow Hill would translate as hill-hill-hill hill

[–] poweruser@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 3 months ago

I believe there's also a Haversham Hill, which is also a hill hill hill hill

[–] Iunnrais@lemmy.world 41 points 3 months ago (3 children)

My d&d game tends to work better when I just name things like “The Nightmare Wood” and “The Old Hills”. The simplicity somehow lands harder.

[–] cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Sometimes name it after a person, or some shit that went down there, especially if its not someplace important. Like its not the nightmare town, there's nothing particular about it. So it's susanstown, and attempts to discover local lore would find stories about the ancient founder that have been embellished over the years.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

Derekshithispantsthereville

[–] Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

or invert it.. Nightmare Town is named because the founder had a nightmare the first night after establishing camp there, and nothing else. Susan's Hamlet, though had some real fucked up shit happen, is actively haunted and is the birthplace of the BBEG.

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[–] Anomnomnomaly@lemmy.org 31 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Reminds of the old story that I heard (unsure if it's true or not) about Torpenhow Hill in the UK.

Over centuries... various invaders and conquerors had come to that place and asked what it was called... First it was called Tor later on invaders added the word 'Pen' which was their word for Hill... later, more invaders came along and added the suffix 'How' which was their word for Hill.... and finally... it was named in more modern English as Torpenhow Hill.... which literally translates as Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill.

I don;t know if that's 100% true or not... but it's an amusing little story and given the oddities of the English language... I'd like to think it was.

Especially given there's a species of bear out there that's name is literally translated as Bear, Bear, Bear.

[–] TheOakTree@lemmy.zip 12 points 3 months ago

From the Wikipedia page:

A. D. Mills in his Dictionary of English Place-Names interprets the name as "Ridge of the hill with a rocky peak", giving its etymology as Old English torr, Celtic *penn, and Old English hoh, each of which mean 'hill'. Thus, the name Torpenhow Hill could be interpreted as 'hill-hill-hill Hill'.

I think it's a hill?

[–] 87Six@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 months ago

Guys I think that place might be on some elevated terrain

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[–] Mac@mander.xyz 25 points 3 months ago (2 children)

According to USPS, there are 32 towns in the US named Franklin. lol

[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There are 88 towns named "Washington".

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

USPS says Franklin tops the list at 32, but Washington is popular as well woth 24.

What's your source?

[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Worldatlas.com but I don't know how reputable they are.

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh, i see that. Interesting.
Maybe differences in what's being considered as a town? Who knows.

[–] Pronell@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

USPS has a way of combining smaller towns and suburbs to the largest nearby city. In practice this is very useful. You know your friend is near Nashville, say, and the zip codes do the heavy lifting.

So I would posit that using USPS as a source in this case is not a great idea.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 3 months ago

Honestly surprised it's that low

[–] Siethron@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Fantasy world names: scadrial, Pallimustus, Vulcan, Tatoine

Real planet names by locals: Dirt

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It was called "Earth" because we needed to distinguish it from Sky and Water, which were totally different things.

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[–] lauha@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (4 children)

Istanbul is literally "to the city" or in a way just "the city"

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 25 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Beijing is "northern capital", Tokyo is "eastern capital", and Kyoto is "capital capital".

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 28 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

"capital_capital_final_thistime.jpg"

(Karl Marx's revision history)

[–] DreadPirateShawn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 3 months ago

That's nobody's business but the Turks.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

The Nullarbor plain sounds like an Aboriginal word, but it's just Latin and means "No trees" because there are no trees on it.

[–] tmyakal@infosec.pub 6 points 3 months ago

Schenectady is "the place beyond the pines" because there was a big old pine barren between it and the next settlement over.

[–] mech@feddit.org 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Alaskan settlers wanted to call their new town Ptarmigan cause there were plenty of those birds around.
But they didn't know how to spell it, so they called it Chicken.

[–] VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 months ago

However, this is likely apocryphal, since it was popularized in the 1940s, almost 50 years after the town was founded. The most likely origin is from nearby Chicken Creek, as noted by Josiah Edward Spurr in 1896, “The creek is so named from the size of the gold, which is about that of chicken feed (corn).”

[–] XM34@feddit.org 18 points 3 months ago

Half the smaller villages in southern Germany are named "Ried" which comes from reed and roughly means "swampy place". The other half uses some variation of the suffix "-höfen" which just means "this place consists of farms" 😂

[–] MouseKeyboard@ttrpg.network 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Fun fact: Celts were originally central European, but the British Isles and Brittany were the only places Celtic culture survived the Romans.

[–] IronBird@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago (3 children)

that's not fun, that's horrifying

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[–] poweruser@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 3 months ago

In my group if the GM can't pronounce the name in one try in a way that makes it clear to us how to spell it the players with rename it something more like "Bonertown" or just "Dave"

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 15 points 3 months ago (2 children)
[–] CheesyFox@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 3 months ago

New Town (2)

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[–] AI_toothbrush@lemmy.zip 12 points 3 months ago

Fun fact in hungary there are no two towns with the same name. Or at least thats what everyone seems to say and to be fair i havent found a single pair yet so im pretty sure its true. Quite a neat thing actually, if you tell the name of even a small town to someone, they should be able to find it. And because hungarian has its unique characters and structures its quite likely that its the only place on earth named that.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Naming my main character "Alexander" and every time I visit a city I tell the DM to refer to it as "Alexandria" going forward.

[–] underscore_@sopuli.xyz 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There is an urban legend that when the Swedish map makers came to Finland the locals would mess with them when asked what a pace was called and that is why so many place names have “vittu” or “perse” etc. in them.

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[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 6 points 3 months ago

Yer da sells Avon.

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