Names – a world of fascination
September 27, 2020 Leave a comment
Names intrigue me. People’s surnames, place names. Of course, the fascination for a particular name has not always existed. Over time a meaning will change. People’s vocabulary changes and expands, and they see words in a different light.
I’ve met people who are particularly proud of their unusual name and would never consider changing them, despite what that name has come to mean in our time. I think of the surname Lillycrap, displayed on boards at building sites in South Africa. I can imagine that such a person is dogged about his surname, knowing that, for commercial purposes, the name will never be forgotten. And I often imagined the post-Second World War predicament of a person with the English surname of Hittler. And the joy of a person with the surname Lovely. Thus, if I include an unusual surname or place name it is not to be derogatory, but to celebrate these names.
There are surnames that strike one, sometimes seen in a split second on a television screen… an Italian name of a priest Father Purgatorio, a German surname Naktgeboren (born naked). It is known that the Middle Ages was the time, as towns grew bigger and there was need for identifying people, that surnames were bailed out to people and totally absurd names were given to Jewish members of the community, perhaps so that they would be eternally mocked. Look at these English surnames: Sidebottom, Smallbone and even Shakespeare. A Dutch name Reep Verloren van Temaat where Reep is the first name, meaning, in Afrikaans, a strip (of something). Someone must have been famously lost (Verloren) for that name to have stuck. Of course, as in so many cases, it could be a corruption, over time, of something else.
One can make a meal of strange names in French. Certainly, they sound strange to me as an outsider.
La Poul-Pétit a surname meaning The Small Chicken.
The surname Gateau which means cake.
Marie la Guerre, a surname meaning The War. She is a French feminist journalist.
A nurse with the surname Guerin seemingly derived from guerison, healing. The surname of a French virologist Lescure, which can seen as wordplay by an English speaker.
The surname Maloiseaux meaning Bad Birds, the surname Malherbe meaning Bad Grass or vegetables. It is also a name found in Afrikaans and, it seems to me, one of those names that was doled out to Jewish people in the Middle Ages. Then the first name Sibeth (of a member of Parliament) which sounds, in French, like So stupid (Si bêth). Another parliamentarian Frenchman has the surname La Foll meaning The Mad One, and it’s especially mad because it is feminine. And, the surname Chaudemanche meaning Warm Sleeve.
One could throw in a few examples from South Africa: a dermatologist called Dr Derman, a urologist called Dr de Kock (well, one needs to know informal English to get that one), a gynaecologist called Dr Koekart (and again, you need to know Afrikaans informal language to appreciate that one.)
With place names, the fun begins. The last city before the Italian border in the south of France is called Menton, the French word for chin.
Then, in the green fields of England, there is a treasure trove:
Eye (place unknown)
Lost (Scottish town, Aberdeenshire)
Catbrain (suburb of Bristoff, Gloucestershire)
Pity Me (County Durham)
Ugley (place unknown)
Piddletrenthide – Dorset, near the Piddle River
Nempnett, Thrubwell, near Chew Valley Lake
Great and Little Snoring, Norfolk
Little Willey in Warwickshire
Dunge in Wiltshire, near Bretton
Wetwang in Yorkshire
Piddlehinton and Shitterton in Dorset
Peniston
Inner Ting Tong
Six Mile Bottom, Tiddleywink
Christmas Pie near Aldershot
Sandy Balls in Dorset
Twat in Shetland
I want to end with place names in South Africa that have a ring for me, three in Afrikaans and one in English. The first is Baardskeerdersbos (Beard Shavers Bush), the second Wolwedans (the Dance of Wolves), Hazyview and the fourth, perhaps the most beautiful place name I know Rivier Sonder Einde (River without end).
I celebrate strange and unusual names. They are intriguing, hilarious and, in how we’ve come to see them, sometimes charmingly risqué.
© Will
www.willwilltravel.wordpress.com
Les Semboules, Antibes
September, 2020
Sources
32 UK towns with Hilarious Names; Strange place names in Britain. (It is worthwhile to visit these sites for the origins of some of the names) It is worthwhile to visit these sites for the origins of names.
With thanks to Dawn Denton and Dan Wood for their contributions
Images
Sources unknown
Notes: Dawn Denton has provided me with fascinating links on the towns of Eye and Ugley, both ancient places. And there is one more, quite unbelievable, the town of F§cking!
Will Will Travel 