17 June,2016 02:00 PM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
Did you know there's an Austrian village with a name so unfortunate that English speakers won't even say it (or even type it)! A look at 10 unusually named places around the world...
Do you know that there was a town named by accident, and it was called just that! A Turkish city shares it's name with a popular superhero and an Austrian village has a name so unfortunate that English speakers just can't say it (or even type it). A look at 10 of the most unusual and unfortunately named places around the world...
Batman: No the Dark Knight didn't go here on vacation! This Turkish city's ex-mayor even threatened to sue Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for their use of its name in the films 'Batman Begins' and 'The Dark Knight'. Batman was called Iluh till 1957, when it was renamed after the river namesake, received a city status, and became a district center. It isn't the only place to share it's name with the DC superhero. There are Batman railway station, Batman's Hill and Division of Batman in Melbourne, Australia and a Batman Highway/Bridge in Tasmania.
Accident: This town in Maryland, United States is believed to have been actually named by an accident! The locals resident of Accident is called an 'Accidental', and no we are not making that up.
The Austrian village's signboard has been stolen multiple times by tourists
F'''ing: Yes, that's right! A place named after the F-Word! Not really. This Austrian village is actually called 'Fooking'. It was spelt Vucchingen in 1070, Fukching in 1303, Fugkhing in 1532, and got its current spelling in the 18th century. The village has a population of 104 recorded in 2005. Its road signs are a popular visitor attraction, and they were often stolen by souvenir-hunting tourists until 2005, when the signs were modified to be theft-resistant.
Beer is a beautiful and scenic coastal village in Britain
Beer: Good news for beer lovers! There's a British village named after your favourite beverage. Located in Devon, England with a population of over 1800 people, the name was not derived from the drink, but from the old Anglo-Saxon word "bearu" ("grove"), referring to the original forestation that surrounded the town.
Rape: This is the traditional term for a subdivision of the county of Sussex, in England. The county had several "rapes": the rape of Arundel, the rape of Bramber, etc. The rapes may also derive from the system of fortifications devised by Alfred the Great in the late ninth century to defeat the Vikings.
Condom: Also referred to as Condom-en-Armagnac, it is a commune in southwestern France in the department of Gers, of which it is a subprefecture. It's name has no relation with the English word and comes from the Gaulish words condate and magos combined into Condatomagos, which means "market or field, of the confluence". Condatómagos evolved into Condatóm and then into Conddóm. Condom was first recorded in Latin in the 10th century as Condomus or Condomium.
Disappointment Islands: True to their name, these islands are arid, and are not especially conducive to human habitation. They are a small group of coral islands in French Polynesia and were named so by British explorer John Byron because he found the natives to be hostile toward him.
Nameless: This is an unincorporated community in Tennessee, United States. There is no agreement on its origin. One version of the name's origin holds that when residents applied for a post office, the place for a name on the application was left blank, and the U.S. Post Office Department returned the application with "Nameless" stamped on the form. In another version, the residents themselves decided that the community should be "nameless" after one of them said "This here's a nameless place if I ever seen one, so leave it be."
Bangkok at night
Krungthep Mahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathani Burirom-udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amonphiman Awatansathit Sakkathattiya Witsanu Kamprasit: This is not an enourmous typo but the full ceremonial name of Thailand's capital city Bangkok. It translates as -- City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Visvakarman at Indra's behest. The name is even listed in Guinness World Records as the world's longest place name.
Hell: It's a village in the Lånke area of the municipality of Stjørdal in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway and has become a minor tourist attraction because of its name, as visitors often have their photograph taken in front of the station sign. The name stems from the Old Norse word hellir, which means "overhang" or "cliff cave". There's also a town named Hell in the US state of Michigan, which is ironically located 294 miles (473 km) from another town named Paradise.
