Yes, we know we’re impossibly immature to laugh at amusing words in other languages (or, er, our own language, or so we have been told). And yes, we also know that many of these funny UK place names derive from Saxon or Welsh and actually do mean something. We’ve even been to a few of these places and they are, for the most part, beautiful. So our giggling is not disrespectful, not least because we hail from the U.S., which contains such linguistic beauties as Blue Ball and Intercourse, PA, Cheesequake, NJ, and Truth or Consequences, NM. That said, here are fifteen names which, when spotted on the map of the United Kingdom, usually boost our mood.
- Cockermouth
- Gweek
- Bodilly
- Shortlanesend
- Mudchute
- Kingston Bagpuize
- Mousehole
- Chipping Norton
- Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter
- Wallish Walls
- Scratchy Bottom
- Tiddlywink
- Upper Piddle Valley and the River Piddle
- Little Snoring and Great Snoring
- Crackpot
Plus Some London Tube Stops
The London Tube is remarkably easy to use, more or less and runs 24 hours on the weekends, unlike some other major metropolitan mass transit systems we could mention (Paris, we’re looking at you!). We dig it, a whole bunch. And yet. Here are a few station stops that also amuse us:
- Barking
- Chorleywood
- Cockfosters
- Finchley Road and Frognal
- Gallions Reach
- Goodge Street
- Harold Wood
- Mudchute
- Peckham Rye
- Pudding Mill Lane
- Shepherd’s Bush and Shepherd’s Bush Market and Bush Hill Park
- Snaresbrook
- Tooting Bec and Tooting Broadway
Also: this just in (it looks like we’ve found our people):
What are your top funny UK place names?
