It's all in a name- strange place names from Upstate NY

[nachtjaeger]

Those are great!

Not sure if I can top those, but this one is interesting. There's a town in Western NY (Cattaraugus County) called Onoville. According to local legend, when the meeting was held to incorporate as a Township, whenever somebody suggested a name for the new town, a bunch of the ladies present would all pipe up "Oh, no- we can't name it that!" This got so annoying that the assembled residents (on a motion and a second) voted to name their town "Onoville" (pronounced oh-no-ville.)

There's also a town called Friendship (Allegany County) that has an interesting history to the name. Back in 1815, the current "downtown" (where the taverns were) was called "Bloody Corners" or "Fighting Corners" due to the drunken brawls on Saturday nights. The more residential Western end of the community (where dogs roamed loose) was and is referred to as "Dogtown." Anyway, a feud broke out between the inhabitants of the two hamlets. Not quite as bad as the Hatfields and McCoys, but it got pretty intense. When the feud was settled, the residents celebrated by incorporating as the Town of Friendship. Interesting side note- that little burg lays an excellent claim to being the birthplace of the Republican party on May 16th 1854, predating Jackson, Michigan's claim but not that of Ripon, Wisconsin. Horace Greely himself, in a letter published in the Genesee Valley Free Press, backed Friendship's claim.

[Lomax]

I read once that Nome in Alaska got its name by accident. Some cartographer, offended at a large white space supposedly wrote Name? Also supposedly, someone later mis-read what he'd put.

In the local language Yucatan means "I don't understand" (although it is a myth that Kangaroo is Australian Aborigine for "I don't know.")

Nearer home, we have a town called Bury St Edmunds because that's where they buried St Edmund; Westward Ho! is officially spelled with an exclamation mark; we have a River Piddle (the locals sell bottles of Piddle Water); and residents of Scunthorpe periodically have trouble with Google when it thinks they're trying to sneak a naughty word past them.

[Fred588]

Apparently there is a town or "Hooker, Arkansas"

[Herzeleid]

Also in the UK we have a village called "Ugly" and one called "Pratt's bottom "