not only see, but to name a city after.
The liver in Liverpool comes from one of two Old English words. The name was originally recorded as Liuerpul meaning “Pool with Muddy Water,” as the Mersey can get less than pleasant at times. The former part of this name comes from the Old English lifer meaning “thick, clotted water,” which actually isn’t much more pleasant than the idea of a pool of organs.
The second idea for the origin of the city’s name comes from the name elverpool meaning “Pool of Eels,” referencing the large amount of eels that are found in the Mersey. The name of the city inspired the name of the city’s avian symbol, the Liver Bird (pronounced lie-ver in this case, however) which can be seen throughout the city, on its football team’s emblem, and atop of one of the cities famous landmarks, the Liver Building.
The legend goes that if the Liver Birds atop the Liver Building were to fly away, then the city would cease to exist. Luckily, however, they’re made of copper and are secured to the building, so I don’t think they’ll be flying away anytime soon.
SYDNEY
When I look at Sydney’s name, I immediately think to myself “Did someone forget how to spell Sidney?” But of course, there is far more to it than that. The city is named after someone, even though they weren’t even called Sydney!
Thomas Townshend was the British Secretary of State in 1783, and he was the one who recommended that the British establish a colony in Australia. The city was founded in 1788 when the first ship from England carrying over 700 people came to the land. It was Thomas Townshend that Sydney was named after as his full title was: Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney. How Thomas got that title is where the confusion kicks in.
Thomas Townshend was a member of British Parliament for twenty-nine years, and upon retiring, was entered into the House of Lords, earning himself the title of baron. He chose to be Thomas Townshend, Baron of Sidney. While he may have been Baron of Sydney, this wasn’t referring to anywhere called Sydney. Thomas just liked the name and it was also the surname of a distant family member, Algernon Sidney. He was, however, worried that the original Sidney family may have wanted to use the name in the future, so he changed the I to a Y and became Baron of Sydney, later working his way up the British peerage system to become Viscount of Sydney. This brings us back to his being Viscount of Sydney when he decided to settle in Australia, which went rather well, as we can see today!
The really silly thing about all this, however, is that they named the settlement of Sydney after someone who LITERALLY has the word town in their name! They wanted to name a town after someone called TOWNshend, but instead chose to use his title and a name that wasn’t even his. Very silly indeed.
BUDAPEST
While it may seem to be rich in history, having one of the oldest zoos and subway lines in Europe, the actual city of Budapest is fairly new. In fact, the city as we know it today was “created” in 1873. That’s less than two hundred years ago! Yet parts of it are much older, like the aforementioned zoo. The zoo opened in 1865, eight years before the city was formed. How is Budapest Zoo older than Budapest? And of course, where did the name Budapest come from?
The name Budapest, and in fact the city itself, comes from the fact that originally Budapest was three smaller cities that came together to form one city. These three cities were called Buda, Óbuda (which simply means Old Buda) and Pest. And when these cities came together to become one, instead of creating a whole new name for the city, they simply put Buda and Pest together to form the name. Though at one point, Pestbuda was considered, which…doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely.
“Óbuda” is very much part of Buda, hence, why it didn’t get a clearer reference in the city’s name (Óbudabudapest doesn’t sound as nice). So, let’s look more closely at the former cities of Buda and Pest. The Danube river runs through the center of Budapest. To the west of the river lies Buda, and to the east of the river lies Pest. While they are now one city, Buda and Pest still pride themselves on their unique identities. Buda is home to some of the city’s more historic landmarks, beautiful hills and nature, and more peace and quiet. Pest on the other hand is much more modern, bustling, and is the hub of the city’s nightlife.
So, we know about Buda and Pest, and we know that the name Budapest simply comes from putting Buda and Pest together, so (if you haven’t guessed by now what I am going to say have you even been reading?), where do the names Buda and Pest come from? The origins of both these names aren’t clear to us. Buda is thought to have been someone’s actual name (perhaps someone who was of importance in the city’s ancient history) while Pest is thought to come from what Greek writer Ptolemy called the city in his writings, Pession.
While we may not know where the names of Buda and Pest came from, we know for sure where the name Budapest came from! And really isn’t that what we are here for?
LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
Nope, I didn’t fall asleep on my keyboard. Llanfair-pwllgwyngyll-gogery-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysilio-gogo-goch is the longest place name for a human settlement on Earth, the only place name longer is a hill in New Zealand called Taumatawhakatangi-hangakoauauotamatea-turipukakapikimaunga-horonukupokaiwhen-uakitanatahu. I choose to talk about Llanfair-pwllgwyngyll-gogery-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysilio-gogo-goch here in the book as opposed to the YouTube channel so that I wouldn’t have to pronounce it. That’s something I’ll leave up to you.
The village of Llanfairpwll is in Wales, which explains to us the complexity of the village’s name as the country is also home to the villages of Ysbyty Ystwyth and Plwmp. While these might look alien to an English speaker, you must remember that in Welsh W and Y are vowels. The name of Llanfair-pwllgwyngyll-gogery-chwyrn-drobwll-llan-tysilio-gogo-goch is of course in Welsh, and that name actually translates into English rather neatly as “Saint Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave.”
What’s interesting about this ridiculously long name is that it isn’t a relic of an ancient past that has persisted in modern times. Not only was this not always the village’s name, but the village’s people went out of their way to deliberately give it a long, silly name in the nineteenth century! Initially called just “Llanfairpwll,” clever marketing gurus of the 1880s decided to add a crazy amount of extra letters to the end of its name to attract more tourists and attention to the village. It evidently has worked since we wouldn’t be talking about the village today if it weren’t for their outrageous name!
From a ridiculously long name to an adorably short name, we have Å, a village in Norway. There are actually a couple villages in Norway called Å, as the name simply comes from the Old Norse word “small river”; however, the most popular one is near the south tip of one of the Lofoten islands. This is this Å that get the most visits during the summer months and the one with the comical “Å” sign as you come into the village. Unsurprisingly, this sign has been stolen a fair few times.
Is there anything humans love doing more than having a good stare at things? I know that I have spent a good while mindlessly staring at pretty useless things and felt sufficiently satisfied. So you can only imagine how long I have spent staring at amazing things! Sometimes something is so amazing to gawk at that people from all over the world come to stare at it, touch it, take photos with it, and buy tacky souvenirs. These are also known as the landmarks of the world. Some are formed by nature, and some
