“Ha, look at these funny names. At least I live somewhere with a normal and awesome name.”
Names are a lot like metaphors—we’ve never successfully created one. But, when we really think about it, our comfort with the names of most people, places, or things come from a level of familiarity—we don’t think twice about the name “Jonathan” but the first time some parents gave that name to their kid, they were probably viewed as whatever you’d call hippies during the Bible days.
The point being, names are weird, until you let yourself get used to them. But sometimes, a name is just…well, weird, and no amount of time will make it seem normal. This is especially true with certain towns you might find on the Wikipedia entry for “unusual place names.” The fact is, you don’t see a lot of new towns sprout up that often, so most of the names we have are pretty much set in stone, and they’ve had time for us to adjust. We talk about New York and never pause to think about Old York, we read about Chicago and never stop to think about how it’s really a gibberish word, and we only reference the fact that Los Angeles means The Angels when we’re a private investigator giving a gritty monologue at the beginning of a film noir.
So for a town to have an “unusual” name, it’s likely not to be a case of a town that just got named and we haven’t had time to get used to it. No, these town names are hilarious, and absolutely not the name of a place you’d be proud to live. Let’s take a look at America’s funniest town names.
The Funniest Names of American Towns
America Fun Fact of the Day 