25 Funniest and Strangest Place Names on Earth

The only U.K. town with an exclamation point, Westward Ho! is named after Charles Kingsley’s 1855 novel of the same name, based in the nearby town of Bideford. City planners named the town Westward Ho! to drive up tourism to the area.

With a name like Te Puke, it’s hard to believe this New Zealand town is one of the country’s most famous kiwi producers. Pronounced teh poo-khe, this town is home to Kiwi 360, an immersive kiwi orchard attraction with its widely recognisable giant kiwifruit.

Swastika in Ontario, Canada, is a pretty strange place. Swastika isn’t a Nazi stronghold, though, as it was founded almost 30 years before Adolf Hitler started using the swastika: an ancient Sanskrit good-luck symbol.

Isn’t it odd there are many strange places named “Hell” on Earth but no heaven? Score another point for the underworld – there are two towns in the U.S. named Satan’s Kingdom, one in Vermont and one in Massachusetts, and a recreation area for demons and denisons who love river tubing in Connecticut.

Saint-Louis-du-Ha!-Ha! in Québec, Canada, is the only city name in the world with two exclamation points. The city name likely came from the outdated French word haha: a ditch dug below a fence which allowed a farmer to see his animals but prevented the animals from crossing the fence.

Local stories give two possible reasons for the naming of Punkeydoodles Corners in Ontario, Canada. The most common cites a local innkeeper who loved to sing “Yankee Doodle” (which guests claimed sounded more like “Punkey Doodle”). The other says a lazy pumpkin farmer’s wife gave him the nickname for wasting time.

Penistone in Yorkshire, England, likely takes its name from old forms of Welsh and English, originally meant as a village on the hilltop. That hasn’t stopped hordes of people from giggling at this strange place name.

A north English town goes by two different names: Once Brewed if you enter from the east and Twice Brewed if you enter from the west. Named after the town’s inn, Once/Twice Brewed may have been named because the inn served stronger ale than the farmer’s weak, “once brewed” beer.

Formerly (minimally) inhabited, Nothing, Arizona, was abandoned in 2005. Its town sign reads: “The staunch citizens of Nothing are full of Hope, Faith, and Believe in the work ethic. Thru-the-years-these dedicated people had faith in Nothing, hoped for Nothing, worked at Nothing, for Nothing.”

A town in both Alaska and New York, North Pole is all about Santa Claus. Famous TV landscape painter Bob Ross lived in North Pole, Alaska, while the New York town is home to Santa’s Workshop: a theme park with live reindeer, Santa, and a parade led by Frosty the Snowman.

A small Colorado town, No Name was named when highway developers planned an exit in the yet-unnamed area. Temporarily writing “No Name” on the sign, this strange place name soon stuck. Nearby you can find No Name Creek, No Name Canyon, and the No Name Tunnel.

Situated near the border of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, Muff city has grown in recent years. Locals can join the Muff Diving Club (one of Ireland’s most successful) and visitors can attend the annual Muff Festival filled with live music and parades.

Just northwest of Pittsburgh, Moon is a Pennsylvanian township likely named for its river’s crescent bend. Local legend says a crescent moon used its end to plow farmers’ fields but killed many of the witnesses.

Budding astronauts can skip the G-force training, opting instead to visit Mars, Pennsylvania. This strangely-named town has a non-functional spaceship and locals are called Martians. Now going to the Moon (PA) doesn’t seem so strange!

The word intercourse used to refer to the fellowship shared within a faith community. The word’s history makes this eastern Pennsylvanian town’s strange name especially ironic since it’s in the middle of Amish country.

Halfway between the equator and North Pole, Halfway, Oregon, renamed itself Half.com in 1999 at the height of the dot-com bubble. Website Half.com promised $110,000 and 20 computers for the school to a city which renamed itself after the company for a year.

George, Washington is the only town in the United States to be fully named after a President. In a nod to George’s fame for chopping down a cherry tree, George’s streets are named after cherries.

Though ganja can be found in Colorado and Amsterdam, only Ganja can be found in Azerbaijan. Though it might seem to be a strange place name, to the locals it’s not strange – it’s even the second largest city with over 1 million Ganjans.

Chinatowns exist in major cities all around the world, but in Wisconsin, a city on Long Lake’s northeastern shore is actually named Chinatown.

Bitchfield is actually a combination of Bitchfield and Lower Bitchfield in eastern England, both of which used to be larger in medieval times.

Located in the northern tip of Kentucky, Beaverlick was named for quite clean reasons: it’s located along the Beaver Branch of Big Bone Creek.

More than just a comic book hero, Batman is a city in southwestern Turkey in the Batman Province named after the Batman River, a major tributary of the Tigris River. Beyond its major oil refineries, Batman also has a major military airbase, something Bruce Wayne could use if he ever decided to relocate from Gotham.

A small town in County Wexford, Bastardstown is a picturesque seaside Irish village just down the road from Rackardstown.

A gorgeous seaside village in the northernmost parts of Norway, Å is also the name of six other Norwegian towns as well as one Swedish and one Danish town. The towns were called Aa until standardization of the Norwegian language in 1917 turned aa into å.

Dating back to the 1770’s, Accident in West Maryland was an actual accident! King George II of England owed a debt to George Deakins which he repaid with 600 acres of land. Two surveyors were sent to the area to find the best land, unknowingly marking the same oak tree as a reference point. People from the town are called Accidentals.