Celebs truly are just like us—in the sense that some of them have incredibly unique names! Just like plenty of people around the world, the parents of many celebrities found some very rare and notable inspirations for naming their unborn babies who would go on to be rich and famous. And these are some of their stories!

In this list, we’ll take a look at the tales of ten celebrities who were named after notable things, people, or places. All ten of these stars were unborn, of course, and at the mercy of their parents’ whims and tastes. But their names were memorable from the get-go based on the inspiration these parents had. And now, after having risen to fame, we all know these stars’ tales of how they got their monikers. Get ready for a strange one!

Related: 10 Of The Most Unflattering Nicknames Given To Royals

10 Rachel Zegler

Rachel Zegler may only be in her early 20s, but she’s already made a major impression on Hollywood. The actress won a Golden Globe for her work in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, and in 2023, she starred in Shazam. Maybe it makes sense that she’s spending her life working successfully in front of the camera, though. Because the reason she was named “Rachel” in the first place all came down to her mother being a big fan of television! That’s right: Rachel Zegler is actually named after Rachel Green, the iconic character played by Jennifer Aniston on the long-running television sitcom Friends.

“That is a real fact, and nobody ever believes me,” Zegler told Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on The Tonight Show in November of 2023. “They think there’s no way I’m young enough to be named after Friends, but I am.”^[1]

9 Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift may be the biggest pop star on the planet right now, but she was actually named for an even bigger star who shone brightly long before her birth: James Taylor! Swift’s parents were big fans of James Taylor’s music, and so when they had their daughter in 1989, they decided to name her after the folk-singing sensation.

Years later, in 2015, James Taylor reminisced about how he came to learn that fact. And he was very honored by it! “It’s hugely flattering and was a delightful surprise when she told me that,” James said to the outlet Stereogum that year. “We did a benefit together… before Taylor really took off. But she was playing guitar and singing her songs, and I knew how remarkable she was. She told me that her mom and dad had been really, deeply into my music, and I got a real kick out of the fact that she’d been named after me. Obviously, it wasn’t her choice. It was her mom and dad, but nonetheless, a great connection, I think.”^[2]

8 Selena Gomez

Late in 2020, pop star Selena Gomez popped up on her Instagram account and confirmed to fans that she had been watching the then-popular Netflix series about the late Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla. The first Selena, as she was, took the American Southwest by storm and crossed cultural boundaries with both American and Mexican fans before she was tragically murdered by the director of her own fan club in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1995. But as it turns out, this second Selena was named in a way to honor the first!

“I wanted to check in and say ‘hi’ and that I have been binge-watching the Selena series on Netflix. It’s so good,” Gomez wrote about the late superstar Quintanilla in her Instagram Story in December of 2020. “She’s such an inspiration. I was named after her, and it’s unbelievable.” It’s pretty amazing to think that a future pop singer would be named after another Latina star, but that’s how it turned out. What are the chances?!^[3]

7 Dax Shepard

Dax Shepard rose to fame on the back of pal Ashton Kutcher when the two did the iconic MTV show Punk’d together in the 2000s. Since then, Dax has taken on a number of film roles in various projects, including a memorable turn in Idiocracy. More recently, his “Armchair Expert” podcast has become one of the more popular audio shows to be streamed, and he interviews all kinds of interesting celebrity guests about all sorts of quirky and fascinating things. But he was destined for fame even before birth—because his parents were already thinking uniquely!

According to Dax’s wife, Kristen Bell, who spoke to People Magazine about her beloved husband a few years back, he was named after the protagonist in author Harold Robbins’ 1966 novel The Adventurers. Kristen went so far as to track down an original copy of that book for one of Dax’s birthdays, too. And then she had family members and friends write messages of love for the star in the book! What a way to honor one’s namesake and recall the inspiration with which his parents picked out his name. Very sweet!^[4]

6 Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey may be a household name by now and one of the most famous women to ever see her star rise on television, but things didn’t start out that way. In fact, her actual name isn’t even Oprah; it’s actually Orpah! (Notice the alternate spelling—it’s easy to miss!) As the story goes, Oprah was named after Orpah, which is a character in the Bible in the 14th verse of the first chapter of Ruth. Basically, the future TV star-to-be’s aunt Ida named her like that. But then, nobody else in the family could pronounce “Orpah” the right way, and the name quickly reverted to what we know today!

“Originally, I was named from the Bible by Aunt Ida who named me from Ruth, the first chapter at the 14th verse: Orpah,” Winfrey explained in 1983 during the audition tape that would end up earning her a turn on her first-ever morning show in Chicago. “But no one knew how to spell in my home, and that’s why it ended up being Oprah.” It’s funny how fate can be changed on a dime like that, isn’t it? We almost had Orpah Winfrey, but instead, Oprah is one of the most recognized names in all of entertainment media!^[5]

5 Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio was still in the womb when his artistically inclined mother decided on what to name him. He’s got an Italian last name, of course, so that was a natural move to give him an Italian-inspired first name, too. But that’s not the exact impetus for calling the child Leonardo. What actually happened is that his mom was at a museum in Italy while she was pregnant with then-unborn Leo. She just so happened to be standing in front of a painting produced by the legendary Leonardo da Vinci when BAM! She felt her unborn son kicking in her belly for the very first time.

DiCaprio’s mom took it as a sign that she ought to name the baby after the iconic painter, and so she did. A few months later, Leonardo DiCaprio was born and entered the world with quite a high-end namesake. Of course, we’d say that the Titanic star did pretty well for himself in carrying on the name from there. But it’s definitely funny and unique to learn that he was named after the painter following such a memorable kicking experience in the hallowed halls of a museum that housed da Vinci’s works!^[6]

4 Ciara

In 2016, the R&B singer Ciara became the face of Revlon cosmetics and fragrances. She was officially named a global ambassador for the company that year, and she was extremely happy about it. But it wasn’t just because she’d inked a big deal with a world-famous brand; it was because she was actually named after a Revlon product by her astute parents when she was still in the womb!

“I’ve been a fan of the iconic Revlon brand my entire life,” football star Russell Wilson’s wife touted in a press release celebrating her move to become Revlon’s global brand ambassador. “In fact, my name comes from the Revlon Ciara fragrance. It was a gift given to my mother from my father, and she fell in love with the scent and the name. It’s incredible to think that after all those years, I would be joining the Revlon family as the newest Global Brand Ambassador.” Amazing to think about how that came full circle, isn’t it? From being named after a fragrance by her mother to several decades later becoming the celebrity that the world associates with the brand!^[7]

3 Lil Nas X

Lil Nas X completely took the entire world by storm when his song “Old Town Road” alongside Billy Ray Cyrus debuted and shot to viral fame. And while he hasn’t been quite able to repeat that success with subsequent music, he has made headlines for plenty of other things. For one, he came out as gay after the song got big, breaking down barriers in the worlds of both hip-hop and country music. But there are even more interesting stories beyond that, too—like how he’s named after a Mitsubishi!

Lil Nas X’s given name is Montero Lamar Hill. When he was born in 1999 in Georgia, his mother was apparently really impressed with the Mitsubishi Montero. She didn’t have one at the time, but she badly wanted the SUV for herself. So she willed it into existence by deciding to name her son after the car model! “It’s slightly embarrassing, but [I’m] not embarrassed,” Lil Nas X explained on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon back in 2021. “So my mom wanted the car, the Montero, and she never got one. It’s a Mitsubishi, so ya, I’m named after a car.”^[8]

2 Winona Ryder

Before Winona Ryder was born, her father and her pregnant mother were passing through rural Minnesota. At one point, they stopped in the tiny town of Winona—which today has a population of just 25,000 people and was even smaller back then. As they were there, Ryder’s mom bent down to pick up a pamphlet about the town that was inside a laundromat where they had been washing some clothes. All of a sudden, her water broke, and she went into labor! They rushed to the hospital, and Winona was born a happy and healthy girl. But they were so amazed at the sudden birth in the tiny town that they decided to honor the village in the only way they knew how: by naming their daughter after it!

“[My mom] bent over to pick up this pamphlet with a girl on the cover, which said The Legend of Winona, and she went into labor,” Winona told Vogue Magazine years later. “I was supposed to be named Laura!” Sure, while Laura Ryder may not have a bad ring to it, the name Winona is unique and beautiful. Seems to us like her parents inadvertently picked a winner with that one!^[9]

1 Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda was named after one of the most famous women to ever live: Jane Seymour, one of the wives of the long-dead King Henry VIII. In fact, Fonda is even distantly related to Jane Seymour, so the name makes some sense in that regard. Fonda revealed as much to late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel when she went on his show in 2015. Her full name is actually Jane Seymour Fonda, and the “Seymour” in her middle name is also a nod to the famous ancient wife who was murdered by her rampaging royal husband!

“She was one of the wives of Henry VIII, and we were related to her, which is how come the ‘Seymour’ appears,” Fonda explained to Kimmel during their interview. When she was a kid, it even went so far that everybody in her life called her “Lady Jane” as opposed to only knowing her by her first name. Now, that’s truly the royal treatment! But as it turned out, Jane flipped that script to become something of a modern-day royal herself—at least as far as Hollywood is concerned!^[10]

Explorers named the countries they discovered using a little bit of legend and a dash of superstition. Many of us know the fascinating tale of how Greenland and Iceland got their names. The viking Floki Vildegarson named Iceland for its icebergs after suffering misfortune, while Erik the Red named Greenland for its lush valleys to encourage his countrymen to settle there, and yet each country’s climate now seems to contradict its deceptive name. Here are 10 other tales behind the naming of countries.

10ChinaAll Under Heaven

The most populous nation in the world has had numerous names. The word “China” itself was derived from the Qin Dynasty (pronounced “chin”), established by Qin Shi Huangdi, the First Emperor. Likewise, another name, “Cathay,” came from the famous traveler Marco Polo, who referred to northern China by such a name (and southern China as “Mangi”). Readers may know of the airline Cathay Pacific, and its Marco Polo Club, exclusive to “modern-day Marco Polos”—frequent flyers.

Another name for China is “Zhongguo,” from the words Zhong (“center”) and Guo (“country”). Literally it could be interpreted as “the central country,” but a more apt translation would be “The Middle Kingdom.”

For centuries, the people of China believed the land was at the very core of creation under heaven. The further you travel away from this center, the more barbarous and inhospitable the lands become. In a sense, they were correct. Outside their borders and their famed Great Wall lay the various steppe tribes—the Xionnu and Shan Yue raiders and the countless hordes of the Mongols and Oirats. “Zhongguo” was also used as the shortened version of “The People’s Republic of China.”

9ArmeniaThe Family Tree

Armenia, the small landlocked nation bordered by Turkey, Iran, and Georgia, has had a long-storied history with monotheistic religions. It is widely considered the first nation to have adopted Christianity as the official state religion in the year 301.

Armenia, which is derived from the Old Persian language as “Armina,” has another name for itself: “Hayk,” after a descendant of Noah said to have settled in those lands near Mount Ararat. An even more complete interpretation would cite the country as “The Land of Noah’s Great-Great-Grandson, Hayk.” In legend, Hayk left for a time to assist in building the Tower of Babel. Upon his return, his lands were encroached upon by a Babylonian king whom he killed in battle.

Later on, the country’s name was changed to Hayastan (the Persian suffix “‑stan” means “land”).

Another legend tells of Armenia being derived from “Aram” (“a great-great-grandson of Hayk’s great-great-grandson”) who is considered by some locals the ancestor of all Armenians.

8Nauru A Pleasant Welcome, A Summer Destination

On November 8, 1798, a British captain by the name of John Fearn, sailing to China via New Zealand, landed on a remote island in the Pacific. The natives made quite an impression on him; Fearn wrote that “their behavior was very courteous, and they strongly invited us to anchor on their island.” So it was that the captain named this place as “Pleasant Island.”

However, Nauru, the smallest republic in the entire world, also had an entirely different name derived from the local word Anaoero. In the native Nauruan dialect, quite significantly different from Oceanic languages, the term means an action—“I go to the beach.”

It seems justified—Nauru was indeed a travel destination known for beautiful beaches. However, as time went on, the economy took a downward plunge. The country even entered into an agreement with Australia to build a detention center for offshore processing of asylum seekers.

7ArgentinaA Mountainous Wealth Of Legends

The Spaniard Juan Diaz de Solis allegedly murdered his wife in Portugal. To escape the authorities, he fled back to his home country and took part in numerous voyages during the golden era of Spanish exploration. On October 8, 1515, Diaz de Solis sailed in command of three ships, hoping to find a westward passage to the Pacific. De Solis found an estuary and named it “Mar Dulce,” the “fresh sea,” then sailed further inland. There, the explorer met with a cruel end close to present-day Buenos Aires. Cannibals hacked him and his entourage then ate them as the rest of the ships’ crews watched in utter shock.

His brother-in-law, Francisco de Torres, took command of the expedition, which again met with unbelievably bad luck when he was shipwrecked. The natives in this new land were quite friendly—among the items they offered were glistening ornaments made with fine silver.

Observations became legends. Another explorer, Sebastian Cabot, years later found survivors who told him of the natives’ wealth and a mountain of silver (“Sierra de la Plata”). De Solis’s discovery became known as the silver river (“Rio de la Plata”). As centuries passed, explorers sought the fabled treasure to no avail. The name stuck, eventually becoming “the land of silver,” Tierra Argentina (“Argentina” is another word for “silver).

6ChileA Spicy Dispute

Thanksgiving dinners are never complete without a slice of turkey, the fowl that makes young minds wonder why it’s named after a country. (The bird was earlier known as the “Turkey coq“— everything that came from the shipping ports of Constantinople were aptly affixed with that description, from “Turkey rugs” from Persia, to “Turkey flour” from India.)

Still, there’s Chile—derived from the Mapuche word “Chilli,” or “where the land ends.” Perhaps the native Mapuche walked westward from Argentina and found out that the continent ended at the Chilean shores overlooking the Pacific Ocean? Another possible origin is “cheele-cheele,” the Mapuche imitation of a bird call.

Whatever the case, Spanish conquistadors heard of these tales from the Incas. Upon arriving back in Europe, they called themselves “The Men of Chilli.”

5SpainA History Of Erroneous Names

Spaniards coined several names for the lands they discovered, which stuck until modern times. One such case is another nation in South America. In 1499, Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda and a certain compatriot named Amerigo Vespucci saw natives living in houses on stilts along the coast and rivers. They named the land Venezuela—the “Little Venice.”

The Spanish tradition of naming lands for erroneous or faulty observations goes back thousands of years. The ancient seafaring peoples of Phoenicia, forerunners of modern exploration, found lands far west of the Mediterranean some 3,000 years ago. These lands had a multitude of what they thought of as hyraxes (shrew mice), so they named it “I-shapan-im“—“Island of the Hyrax.” When the Romans came to rule much of the European continent they modified the name of this land to “Hispania.”

However, the animals on the “Island of the Hyrax”/”Hispania” were not even rodents—they were actually rabbits. Thus, Spain, the empire of explorers who’ve handed down the names of cities and countries based on false legends or erroneous interpretations, was itself derived from faulty observation.

4MoldovaMan’s Best Friend

The Roman prince Dragos had been hunting a wisent, or a wild bison, for many days. His companions, including several hunting dogs, chased the animal until they were spent. Disappointed that his quarry would escape, Dragos’s spirits were uplifted when his favorite dog Molda continued on with the hunt. Molda kept tracking the bison’s scent until man and man’s best friend cornered the wild animal near the banks of a river.

A vicious fight ensued, and when it was over, the bison was dead, and so was Molda. Dragos was so saddened by the loss of his faithful companion that he named the surrounding lands after her.

Some sources mention only the bison and the story of the hunt; others add the prince’s dog as part of the tale. Still, the legend of the hunt became symbolic for the country—even its flag contains the image of the bison.

3CanadaLittle Villages And Mostly Nothing At All

When the French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed past the St. Lawrence River, his native guides remarked that this was the route to “Kanata“—a village. It was. But no native tribes called themselves the Kanata; it was simply what they called assorted villages as they migrated across the vast, snowy wilderness. Cartier probably misheard the term and called the land “Canada” instead.

Another tale, albeit less popular, involves the Spaniards once more. The story tells of how the explorers were looking for fabled riches in the Americas. When they found none, they called the place “aca nada” or “ca nada” (meaning “nothing here“). When the French arrived years later, natives shouted “aca nada!” to tell them there was nothing of importance for the colonizers. The French, thinking it was the name of the country, ended up calling it “Canada.”

Combining the two stories perhaps illustrates what modern-day Canada is like—villages (towns and cities), and a whole bunch of unpopulated wilderness in between.

2PakistanThe Country, The Acronym

“Pakistan,” in Urdu, means “Land of the Pure” (“Pak” means “pure” and “-stan,” of course, means “land”).

Modern Pakistan formed on August 14, 1947, following the partitioning of India. However, the first use of the word “Pakistan” comes a decade earlier, from Choudhy Ramat Ali, a Muslim nationalist who advocated a separate Muslim state in the subcontinent.

Ali published his “Now or Never” pamphlet on January 28, 1933 as an appeal to the British government, writing of how 30 million Muslims wished for independence. These citizens were from the following regions: Punjab, Afghan Province, Kashmir, Sind, and Baluchistan. Combining their letters gives the acronym “PAKSTAN.”

1CzechoslovakiaThe Hyphen War

A hilarious dispute arose after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ruled by the Communist regime for the last 30 years, had fallen in “The Velvet Revolution,” a bloodless coup. Local politicians set to work on what the new democracy should be called.

The first idea was to drop the word “Socialist.” The new nation would be known as the “Czechoslovak Republic,” which had been one of its older names. But Slovak politicians did not like the idea, feeling it diminished their importance. They wanted a hyphen added, as it would symbolize a connection.

The new proposal calling the country the “Czecho-Slovak Republic” did not sit well with the Czechs, who hated it. Even Winston Churchill himself disliked its usage, saying that “one must regard the hyphen as a blemish to be avoided whenever possible.”

The citizens returned to the drawing board, with the Czechs and Slovacs now each using their own name. In Czech, the country was the “Czeskoslovenska federativni republika,” without a hyphen. In Slovak, it was “Czesko-slovenska federativna republica,” with a hyphen. A month later, it was changed to “Czech and Slovak Federative Republic”—this, too, was not satisfactory.

This Hyphen War only truly was settled on January 1, 1993. Facing conflicts on how to run the country, politicians just gave up and decided it would be in everyone’s best interest for the two nations to split up.

Everyone was finally happy. Just as the area had peacefully become democratic due to the Velvet Revolution, this peaceful split became known as The Velvet Divorce, creating the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

+The Forgotten Welshman Who Gave America Its Name

We’ve recently discussed how various civilizations, some from Europe, might have reached the Americas hundreds of years before Columbus did. Columbus, who had landed on modern-day Haiti, was sure he was somewhere near India. One man who was part of his expeditions, the aforementioned Amerigo Vespucci, knew full well that this was a new continent, and his tales of this “new world” amazed two Germans who were reprinting an ancient treatise on geography. The Germans incorporated Vespucci’s discovery in the treatise’s preface:

“There is a fourth quarter of the world which Amerigo Vespucci has discovered and which for this reason we can call ‘America’ or the land of Americo.”

However, a second theory involves Welshman Richard Amerike (or Ap Meryk), who funded an expedition that reached Newfoundland in 1496. One piece of evidence supporting this theory is that the US flag’s “Stars and Stripes” design is similar to that of the Amerike family’s coat-of-arms.

Jo lives in “The Island of King Philip II of Spain.” How about you? Share tales of how your country got its name in the comments section, or scold him if he forgot your nation via email at [email protected].

There are millions of words in the English language—too many to know the definition of every single one. However, it’s fun to learn what specific, tiny things have their own name. Take the word petrichor, which is the smell after it rains. Or aglet, which is the plastic on the end of a shoelace. While these are cool names, wouldn’t it be a little cooler if they sounded a little more… naughty?

Here are 10 small things you didn’t know had names that sound lewd but actually aren’t.

Related: Top 10 Coolest Slang Terms and Phrases from around the World

10 Bunghole

If you’re a fan of Beavis and Butthead, you may have actually heard this word before. But unless you’re really into barrel-making, you probably have no idea what it really means.

A bunghole is a small hole in a liquid-bearing barrel through which the contents can be emptied. They’re usually plugged with a cork of some kind. But the humor of the word dates as far back as 1653, in a translation of Gargantua by Francois Rabelais, which lists “bunghole” as one of many insults.

Since then, the word has evolved toward a more… er… colorful definition. From Beavis and Butthead to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, most people now use “bunghole” as a family-friendly alternative to “butthole.”^[1]

9 Vagitus

Even though it sounds like a yeast infection medication, “vagitus” is a word that means the cry of a newborn child. In ancient Roman religion, Vagitanus was the name of a religious deity who guided childbirth, specifically encouraging the child to speak for the first time.

However, this is different from helping the child say his or her first actual words. This was presided over by the god Fabulinus, an entirely separate entity. “Vagitus,” therefore, is specifically related to the cries and screams of the baby during childbirth.

The word has been in use since ancient times, with historical figures such as Pliny and Saint Augustine using variations of the phrase.^[2]

8 F-Hole

Most acoustic instruments are hollow with wooden resonance chambers to amplify the sound of the strings. In order to let the sound out, there must be openings within the object (think about the hole in the center of a guitar).

In a violin, these are called f-holes. Don’t let your mind wander, though. The “f” doesn’t actually stand for anything; it’s just the shape the hole takes. And this wasn’t just created because it looked nice. It’s actually the result of hundreds of years of experimentation on violins in order to find how to best amplify the sound. According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology acoustician Nicholas Matrkis, the longer the sound hole, the more sound can escape. The skinniness of the f-hole takes up less space on the instrument while still producing the same amount of sound as a rounder one.^[3]

7 Interrobang

Humans are amazing. Over the centuries, we’ve figured out how to make life easier with inventions such as the printing press, the Internet, the telephone, and the… interrobang.

No more do you have to type or write out both an exclamation point and a question mark when you want to convey confusion and excitement at the same time. Ever since the invention of the interrobang in 1962, you can save seconds by utilizing this mix between both punctuation marks.

Writer Martin K. Speckter believed advertisements would look better if rhetorical questions such as “How many times has this happened to you!?” would look better if they were punctuated by a single mark rather than two. After drawing up the symbol, Speckter decided to call it the interrobang after the Latin word “interrogatio,” which means “cross-examination,” and “bang,” which was slang for an exclamation mark.

Though it’s not used often, the symbol is basically a question mark with an exclamation point inside it. Sure, you could type out both, but where’s the fun in that‽^[4]

6 Gynecomastia

If you have any interest in etymology, you might be able to figure out what this word means. “Gyne” is an old Greek word that means “feminine,” and “mastia” means “breasts.” Think of gynecologists and mastectomy. Though this seems pretty straightforward, the combination of words, in this case, actually refers to breasts on men.

Today, we often see these as “man boobs,” but they’re actually quite different. Any overweight man might have a larger chest, but gynecomastia is an actual medical condition where a male experiences excessive breast development. This can be caused by many things, such as hormonal imbalances from higher levels of estrogen. In fact, more than half of male babies are born with enlarged breasts, but the swollen breast tissue usually goes away within a few weeks.^[5]

5 Aphthong

“One knight, a king and a queen went to bed. The doors were locked; no one came in, and no one came out. In the morning, the king and queen had been murdered. Who did it?” This riddle doesn’t quite work on paper but say it aloud to a friend, and the aphthong in “knight” will trick them into thinking “knight” actually meant “night.”

An aphthong is basically the term for a letter that appears in a word but isn’t pronounced. “Knight” actually has two of these. The “k” at the beginning and the “gh.” Sure, you could just say “silent letter,” but then you wouldn’t get to flex your knowledge.

See what I did there?^[6]

4 Peen

The less-useful side of the hammer has an even less useful name—the peen. Ball-peen hammers, also known as machinists hammers, are generally used in metalworking. Within this profession, “peening” is the act of “working a metal’s surface to improve its material properties, usually by mechanical means.”

Regardless of whether the hammer you’re referring to is a ball-peen type, the non-flat side of the object is always called the peen, whether it’s a ball, wedge, or cross.^[7]

3 Crapulence

No, this one wasn’t made up by The Simpsons.

Not to be confused with the polite word for a fart, “crapulence” is a word that sounds exactly like what it means: “sickness or indisposition caused by excessive drinking or eating, or gross intemperance, especially in drinking.” Basically, it’s a more fun word for bloating or hangover.

Oddly, the word has quite a rich etymological history. It’s derived from the Latin adjective “crapulosus,” which itself came from the Latin word “crapula,”‘ meaning “intoxication.” Crapula came to be used by the Greeks as a way to refer to that piercing headache you get after a long night of drinking. In the 1700s, “crapula” changed to “crapulence,” which is a more general sickness after alcohol, not just a headache.

Though you may think that this word or the aforementioned Latin root is the basis for calling something “crappy,” you’d be wrong. “Crap” comes much later from a British term meaning “residue from rendered fat.” Even weirder, calling the toilet “crapper” has nothing to do with either root words. Thomas Crapper invented the earliest version of plumbing equipment in the 1800s, leading to the moniker “crapper” for toilets.

That’s a lot of historical crap.^[8]

2 Tittle

Everyone knows the most fun part of learning to write is dotting your “i’s.” Or should I say “tittling” your “i’s?”

That’s right, it’s no ordinary dot. That little mark on the top of the lowercase “i” and “j” is called a tittle. Don’t believe me? Ask the Bible. Matthew 5:18 reads, “For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matthew probably didn’t literally mean the dot above the letter “i” but used it as a general way of indicating something small or insignificant.

Obviously, not many people use this word in everyday life, but you might be saying something similar without even knowing it. It is thought that the phrase “to a T” was originally “to a tittle,” meaning everything down to the tiniest detail was taken care of.^[9]

1 Throbber

Some call it the spinning pinwheel, some call it the loading circle, and some call it the… throbber.

Well, not many call it the throbber, even though that is the official name of any animated graphical control element that shows a computer is performing an action. They’re frequently shown when downloading content or calculating something. The icon is also often mixed up with a progress bar, though there’s one large difference. Throbbers don’t show you how far your computer is in the loading process.

So, who came up with this brilliant and not-at-all-sexual name? Before Internet Explorer was introduced, there was Netscape. This web browser’s loading icon was a blue “N” expanding and contracting, giving the impression it was throbbing. And that’s the name they went with.

I think I’ll stick with “loading circle.”^[10]

The United Kingdom really does have its unusual places. With such a long history of language developing over time, the country retains some of the oddest named places you may have ever heard of. Some of these can be quite hilarious. Bitches, sluts, muffs and breaking wind are just some of our features today. If you didn’t check out our first list on this topic, it can be found here:

SEE ALSO: 10 Rude-Sounding British Places With Unbelievable Backstories

10 Bitchfield

Bitchfield is an English village located in the county of Lincolnshire, on the east coast of the country. It is situated in the South Kestevan district and is referred to as a ‘shrunken’ medieval village, referring to the fact it was once likely much larger than it now is. The village was recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 and is listed as ‘Billesfelt’. The village is actually split into two distinct groups of buildings located in Bitchfield and Lower Bitchfield. The two groups of buildings are connected by Dark Lane and the village includes a parish church with Norman architecture. The village is largely unremarkable besides it’s tabloid coverage due to its humorous name – however this comes from a county with such spectacular names like Tongue End, Pode Hole, Cuckoo Bridge and Whaplode. Yes… these are all real places.^[1]

9 Townland of Stranagalwilly

The townland of Stranagalwilly is situated in Northern Ireland, in the parish of County Tyrone. The area is known as a townland, rather than a town, as it refers to the area of land rather than the place. The system of townlands come from Gaelic tradition, in which it is a designated area of approximately 325 acres. Other area sizes in Gaelic include an acre, a Gneeve, a Ballyboe or Ballybetagh. These system measurements sometimes are used as a prefix to villages and towns in Ireland and Northern Ireland, such as Ballyshannon or Ballybogey. In 1961, the townland of Stranagalwilly was the site of a discovery of four cist cemeteries dating back to the Bronze Age, with unburnt burials discovered alongside cremated remains. The discovery of the fourth cemetery happened when a local farmer was harvesting potatoes, with some of the remains indicating that the burial was of a leather worker.^[2]

8 Crapstone

Crapstone is an village located in the ceremonial county of Devon, on the South of England. The village is right on the edge of Dartmoor, the notorious haunt of many urban myths and legends. Most notably are the Dartmoor Hounds, which are said to be large black spectral hounds that haunt the moors. These hounds were the inspiration for The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The name Crapstone is reportedly derived from a family name which have strong roots in the town and helped develop the local church and a golf course. The town was featured on a 2007 British advert starring Vinnie Jones. However, there was a strong backlash from residents of Crapstone who said the advert used footage of a different village and the advert had used the unusual name of the village as the (excuse the pun) butt of their joke. Very much an oxymoron, the town is said to be extremely pretty despite it’s rather crude title.^[3]

7 Brokenwind

Now this one is a favourite of the ‘funniest’ or ‘rudest’ named places in the UK; The hamlet of Brokenwind, located in Newmachar in the county of Aberdeenshire. The name of Brokenwind, listed as ‘Broken Wynd’ from nineteenth-century records, takes its name from the layout of the area. A wynd is a snaking path between two larger roads and obviously this one must have been broken. The nearest village, Newmachar, was the location of one of many top secret British resistance patrols during the Second World War, put together in secret by Winston Churchill. The village had an operational base which housed the unit, who the in the aftermath of a Nazi Invasion, would have launched a guerrilla offensive preventing key lines of travel and communication. It is startling to ponder on the fact the UK could have become so desperate in its attempt to thwart Nazi Germany, and having to wage such desperation warfare is unthinkable.^[4]

6 Hole of Horcrum

The Hole of Horcrum is a part of the Levisham Beck valley in the moors of North York. The ‘hole’ is approximately 400 feet deep and features a horse-shoe like appearance, with high level trees surrounding the stunning valley. The Hole of Horcrum is described as ‘spectacular’ and a ‘must-do walk on the North York moors’ and is certainly the most visually magnificent place on this list. The unusual name comes from an urban myth about an Anglo-Saxon chief named Wade. According to legend, Wade was turned into a giant and when arguing with his wife, he picked up the turf and threw it at her – thus creating the hole of Horcrum. It’s unclear where ‘Horcrum’ comes from, but what is clear is that the bowl was formed due to a process called spring-sapping. Spring-sapping occurs when water welled up at the bottom of a hillside undermines the upper slopes, creating a small valley. Over time, this becomes deeper and wider.^[5]

5 Muff

Now the village of Muff is not strictly found in the United Kingdom. Sitting on the Irish border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, the village is actually part of County Donegal, Ireland. However it houses an influx of Northern Ireland residents who have crossed the border, as this is set to become a contentious issue in the current Brexit climate. However we have included it in this list due to its proximity to Northern Ireland and its ties with the area. The village name is Gaelic and means a ‘plain’. The word muff – in some British social circles – may be used as a slang word for the female genitalia. The village of Muff every August celebrates the Muff Festival, which includes a parade and street parties. It also has its own Mayor of Muff who is elected annually. Rather amusingly to some, the village has its own recreational diving club… named the Muff Diving Club. You couldn’t make this stuff up.^[6]

4 Wide Open

The village of Wide Open is situated in the northern part of the county of Tyne and Wear, in the North of England. The nearest city to Wide Open is Newcastle Upon Tyne. The village is very typical of a northern pit village, with roots in coal mining, as the Wideopen Colliery opened here in 1825. The colliery ceased operations in the twentieth-century and the town has declined since. The village is probably best known for the Grade-II listed Sacred Heart RC Church which is found just to the south, featuring multiple stained-glass windows. The village has been named in tabloids as one of humorous note, however it is commonly misspelled as ‘Wide Open’ (we have done so deliberately) when the correct local spelling is Wideopen. This mis-spelling is said to cause postal delivery issues to the area.^[7]

3 Penistone

Penistone is probably the largest place of this list, as it is a large town in the county of South Yorkshire. Penistone is a very typical Yorkshire town, with sweeping moors and rural countryside surrounding its picturesque town. Penistone is another place which is named in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it is listed slightly differently as ‘Penstone’. The name is said to be derived from the word penn in Old Welsh, meaning ‘height or hill’ as the town is situated on top of a high ridge. The town was said to be flattened during the Norman Conquest of England during the Harrying of the North, but has obviously remained a constant place in the area throughout the centuries. The town is thriving and despite its name – which is often used in numerous town names lists like this one – the residents of Penistone have an active community with a market, sports and recreational activities and an annual agricultural show just some of the on goings in the area.^[8]

2 Sluts Hole

This is probably the smallest place on our list today but perhaps the most shocking and crudely named. Sluts Hole Lane, found near Attleborough in Norfolk, England, is a road that links Silver Street and Bunwell Road with the nearest village being a place called Besthorpe. According to reports, the street name is a typo error from the nineteenth century, when Victorian census takers are said to have made a mistake transcribing ‘Slutch Hole Lane’. Residents of Besthorpe have tried to restore the original name but this has been prevented, presumably due to the attraction the name brings to the area. ‘Slutch’ would have been the original name due to the muddy and wet surroundings of the area, as this is said come from the Dutch word for ‘sluice’ – used in draining fens. The closest major city to Sluts Hole Lane is Norwich, approximately 10 miles north-east of the lane. The lane is often found on eccentric and unusual place names in the UK and it’s not difficult to understand why. P.S.: I advise against doing a web search on this place name.^[9]

1 Fanny Hands

Fanny Hands Lane is a street which can be found in Lincolnshire, near a town called Market Rasen. The lane has been featured in newspapers as residents have seen their house value reportedly be around £80,000 less than those of streets around them. The term in the U.S. is used to describe someone’s bottom, in the U.K. it is a slang word for the female genitalia, or sometimes a name for a girl. Whichever way you use the word, it is certainly an unusual name to have as the street you live on. The town of Market Rasen was featured in the 1086 Domesday Book, deriving from an old English word meaning ‘plank’ – this is thought to refer to a plank over a river being used as a bridge.^[10]

‘Insect’, from Latin, literally means “cut into”, referring to the divided bodies of ants, beetles, bees, and so on. But this list isn’t about insects; it has the broader focus of ‘bugs’, a word that somehow—mysteriously—rolls into one that massive diversity of animals most feared by domesticated humans. The origin of ‘bug’ isn’t clear. It may, like ‘bogeyman’, have something to do with the Middle English bugge (“something frightening”), Scottish bogill (“goblin”), Welsh bdwg (“ghost”), and Irish bocánach (“demons of the air”). We don’t know for sure.

As for the origins of individual bug names, they’re just as diverse as the innumerable species, genera, families, orders, classes, and even phyla that make up this imaginary kingdom. Here are ten of the most surprising.

10. Ant

Similar to ‘insect’, ‘ant’ means “to cut”. In this case, however, it refers not to their bodily divisions but the cutting they do with their mouths. Also unlike ‘insect’, it comes from Middle English not Latin. Ampte is the root. From there it can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European *mai- (also meaning “to cut”), the origin of ‘maim’ and ‘massacre’—as well as the other name for an ant, ‘emmet’ (æmette in Old English), which survived into the 20th century. 

Interestingly, the homonym ‘aunt’ (as in a parent’s sister) comes from the Latin amita by way of a similar contraction. In Latin, however, ‘ant’ the insect is formica—from the Sanskrit vamrah (meaning “ant”). Hence its scientific name (and formic acid).

The industrial laminate of the same name, however, has nothing to do with ants. The brand name Formica means “instead of mica,” which was the earlier, more expensive alternative.

9. Bee

How did the Latin apis become the English ‘bee’? It didn’t! ‘Bee’ actually comes from the Old English beo, from the Proto-Germanic *bion. The beo in Beowulf also means ‘bee’. In fact, Beowulf means “a wolf to bees,” a figurative name for a bear (from their penchant for honey).

Bees are also the origin of ‘spelling bee’, ‘quilting bee’, and all the other kinds of ‘bee’ (including a ‘hanging bee’ or lynching). These busy insects have been synonymous with work and productivity since at least the 1530s, and with collaborative effort or groups since the 18th century (in America).

Having ‘a bee in your bonnet’, meanwhile, appears to have come later, from Scottish—although it may date back to the early 16th century: having ‘a head full of bees’ meant you were “mad” or “manic”.

8. Slug

‘Slug’ is pretty straightforward. It refers to the slow, sluggish movement of this terrestrial gastropod mollusc. In fact, ‘slug’ was originally applied—in the 15th century—to lazy, lumbering humans (later known as sluggards). Only in the early 17th century was it applied to slugs as bugs.

A ‘slug’ in the sense of a piece of crude metal for firing out of a gun is almost as old. And it also derives from ‘laziness’, despite its possible resemblance to the mollusc.

‘Snail’, meanwhile, dates back to 1000 or earlier. It comes from the Proto-Indo-European *snog- or *sneg-, meaning “to crawl” or “to creep”. As you might have guessed, ‘snake’ (via Old English snaca) shares the same root.

7. Tarantula

‘Tarantula’ doesn’t mean what it used to. Nowadays, it applies to any of the 1,000+ species in the family Theraphosidae—big hairy spiders native to the Americas. Originally, however, it applied to a single species from a completely different family—Lycosa tarantula—a type of wolf spider found in southern Europe. It was named for the Italian seaport Taranto in its native Apulia region. (As for the origin of Taranto itself, it may come from the Illyrian darandos, meaning “oak”.) The Spanish are thought to have applied the name to spiders in the New World. They recycled Old World names for pretty much everything they encountered, despite the obvious differences. Lycosa tarantula, the tarantula wolf spider, is big for a European species, but nowhere near as big as a tarantula. In fact, it’s only around half the size of the smallest tarantula specimens.

In any case, it’s from the tarantula wolf spider that we get the words ‘tarantism’ and ‘tarantella’ too. First described in the 15th century, tarantism—a dancing hysteria—was thought to be caused by a Lycos tarantula bite. ‘Tarantella’, meanwhile, is the name of the cure, also a dance, invented around Taranto.

While we’re here, we might as well look at the origins of ‘spider’ and ‘arachnid’. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, ‘spider’ comes from the Proto-Germanic *spin-thron-, a reference to its web-spinning. And ‘arachnid’ comes from the Greek word for ‘spider’, arakhne. It was also the name of a mythical figure who challenged Athena to a weaving contest, then hanged herself because the goddess jealously tore up her tapestry. In the end, Athena turned the rope into spider’s silk and Arakhne into a spider.

6. Worm

‘Worm’ comes from the Old English wyrm, meaning “serpent,” “snake,” or “dragon.” Hence early records of St. Patrick driving the worms out of Ireland, not the snakes. It comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *wer-, meaning “to turn” or “to bend”. Pretty self-explanatory. It describes a movement as much as the creatures, forming a broad category that also included scorpions, maggots, and, in Russian at least, insects in general (vermie). 

As an insult it’s as old as Old English, you abject, miserable worm. So, in other words, ‘worm’ is the original ‘bug’: a catch-all for all things repulsive.

5. Cricket

The name of the cricket comes from Old French criquet, from criquer, “to creak” or “to rattle”. It’s basically onomatopoeic. And while it may seem worlds apart, the sports game has the same root; the rattling refers to wickets. 

‘Wicket’, meanwhile, means “to bend” or “to yield”, from Proto-Indo-European *weik. This gentlemanly yielding has long been synonymous with the sports game itself, hence “it’s just not cricket” refers to unsporting behavior.

4. Hornet

The name of the hornet, everybody’s least favorite vespid, was originally onomatopoeic, or imitative. In Proto-Indo-European, it mimicked the insect’s loud buzzing—which survives in the German Hornisse and Dutch horzel, as well as the Lithuanian širš? (pronounced sheer-share).

In English, as in other Germanic-derived languages, the ‘horn-’ also refers to a horn (as in a trumpet). In Old Saxon, the hornet was hornobero, or “trumpeter”.

‘Horn’ itself comes from Proto-Indo-European too—namely, from *ker-. This root survives in many seemingly unrelated English words, like ‘Capricorn’, ‘carrot’, ‘corn’, ‘triceratops’, ‘unicorn’, and so on. All of these are either horned or horn-shaped things, a category to which hornets—with their savage stinger spikes (or, alternatively, antennae)—definitely belong.

3. Flea

Another bug name surprisingly related to its homonym, ‘flea’ may come from ‘flee’ (as in “to run away”), in reference to its jumping around. It comes from the Proto-Germanic *flauhaz, not (as in Romance languages) the Proto-Indo-European *plou-. So the connection to Old English (fleon, “to flee”) would make sense.

Flea markets, on the other hand, have nothing to do with running away—despite folk etymologies to the contrary. One such theory claims the market stalls of Paris were forced to flee their alleyways and side streets to avoid getting caught in demolitions. But the French word for ‘flee’ (as in “to run away”) is fuir, so this theory doesn’t make sense. Another spurious origin for ‘flea market’ claims the Dutch traders of New Netherlands (New York) called their markets vlaie (“swamp”) markets because they were held on a former salt marsh. The truth is much simpler: dating to 1910, it comes from the French marché aux puces (“flea market”), so-called because of the fleas thought to live on old clothes and furniture.

2. Butterfly

It’s a common misconception that ‘butterfly’ used to be ‘flutterby’. But it’s not just an honest mistake; it’s a “genteelism” meant to hide the true origin: the butter-like color of its excrement. The Dutch are more frank; they just call this insect a boterschijte.

Another folk etymology suggests butterflies (or witches disguised as butterflies) would land on uncovered butter. Yet another suggests the name comes from the pale yellow color of many butterflies’ wings.

The butterfly’s larval stage, meanwhile, the caterpillar, is named for its hairy appearance. From the Old French chatepelose, it means “shaggy cat”. (‘Cat’ in Latin is catta and ‘shaggy’ is pilosus.) For the same reason, in modern French, it’s called a chenille (or “little dog”), and in Swiss German a teufelskatz (or “devil’s cat”).

1. Ladybug (or ladybird)

Ladybird or ladybug? There’s no meaningful difference—although ‘ladybird’ sounds more affectionate. As a family of more than 6,000 species, it’s long been a favorite of humans. One reason is pest control. In its brief, three-to-six-week life, a ladybug will eat an average of 5,000 aphids, starting from the moment of birth. Another reason, of course, is the shell—among the prettiest in the animal kingdom. 

Our fondness for the beetle explains the ‘lady’ too. It’s not just a reference to the patterning, but, specifically, to “Our Lady,” the Virgin Mary. In German, it’s name is even clearer: Marienkäfer, meaning “Mary’s beetle”. The seven black spots on a ladybug’s shell are Mary’s seven sorrows, while the red is the cloak that she wears. It’s this red, or scarlet (coccineus in Latin), for which the ladybug family is named Coccinelidae. Interestingly, the Catholic priest who came up with that name was spared execution because of his knowledge of beetles.

In English, the ‘bird’ may refer to “Our Lady” too. From at least the Middle Ages, it applied to a maiden, a woman of noble birth, or the Virgin Mary. Adding to the confusion, ‘ladybird’ was in use long before the beetle was named in the 1670s. It meant “sweetheart” and dates back to the 1590s. ‘Ladybug’, which came after ‘ladybird’ as a name for the insect, could have avoided confusion—if it caught on. But the British found it called to mind buggery and spent the next hundred years coming up with alternatives—like ‘ladycow’ and ‘ladyfly’—before finally settling on ‘ladybird’ again.

A rose by any other name would still be a rose. But were it called something silly, like Pukebud or Stenchflower, would it be the most overpriced florist flora come Valentine’s Day?

Names aren’t everything, but they’re certainly not nothing – unless, of course, you’re item #8 on this list. They can attract or repel, intrigue or dissuade and, as this collection shows, encourage widespread mockery.

10 Incredible People With Incredibly Unfortunate Names

10 Swastika, New York

Earlier this year, New York City resident Michael Alcamo was enjoying a vigorous cycling trip through upstate New York’s Adirondack Mountains, whose trails are dotted with quaint towns and historic Revolutionary War-era cemeteries. Winding through a stretch he’d never before explored, Alcamo bore witness to the most unorthodox street sign he’d ever seen.

He’d happened upon Swastika Road, the unassuming yet attention-grabbing main thoroughfare of the tiny, unincorporated hamlet of the same name. At a time when statues and place names with links to white supremacy are being debated across the U.S., Alcamo found the name unsettling; one could say he wishes he did “not see” it.

Apparently believing he’s the only person who ever thought a town named after the most reviled symbol in modern history should consider a rebrand, Alcamo contacted county officials to raise his concerns. Swastika was too small a town for its own council, so the matter was taken up by councilmembers of Black Brook, a nearby town of about 1,500 residents.

In September, the town’s four councilors unanimously voted against it. “Swastika was named by the founders of the area who settled there,” said Jon Douglass, Black Brook’s supervisor. The four-sided geometric character has been used for thousands of years in Indian religions and seen as a symbol of good luck, which promptly ran out around 1933.

Douglass said he understands why people might have a skeptical view of his beloved Swastika, considering – and I quote – “the Germans and everything,” who wore the symbol while committing genocide n’ stuff.^[1]

9 Accident, Maryland

Drivers are advised to be extra cautious while passing through this sleepy Maryland town of 325. If a fender-bender occurs, they’ll need to wait for police to fill out an Accident accident report. And should the accident involve a local resident, it’s no accident that Accidentals (actual term) look out for one another when accidents happen in Accident.

The story of Accident beings with a… well, an accident. In the early 1770s, Marylander George Deakins was in line to receive 600 acres of the colony’s land – of his choosing – from King George II of England as a royal debt payment. To find the choicest property, he hired two separate surveyors to make their best recommendations.

Independently, each returned to Deakins with identical reports – a happy “accident.” The finest land in all the land, they claimed, rested between two distinct white oak trees, and was roughly the same size as that promised to Deakins. A nod to the coincidence, Deakins dubbed the area “The Accidental Tract.”

The American Revolution soon followed and, upon the war’s conclusion, Deakins portioned out the surrounding countryside into military lots and distributed acreage among soldiers and generals returning from battle. Accident wasn’t officially incorporated as a town until 1916, meaning no one bothered to think of a better name for over a century. The Drane House, which dates to 1798 and was among the first structures built in the settlement, still stands today.^[2]

8 Knockemstiff, Ohio

The south-central Ohio town of about 56,000 is a joke writer’s dream. How many names open the door for violence, sex and the killer combo of sexual violence, all in just 12 letters?

Several competing origin stories exist concerning Knockemstiff’s name. One involves a massive brawl that allegedly took place during the community’s infancy, while another concerns some not-so-Christian advice from a preacher to a lady churchgoer seeking council about her husband’s infidelities. If he was knockin’ boots, reasoned the man of God, you should “knock him stiff.”

These tales, however, are mere hearsay, and naming a town after domestic violence or even a wide-scale royal rumble seems like a reach. Luckily, the likelier explanation for the town’s odd name is both more entertaining and historically referenced: moonshine.

During the American Prohibition period, which banned legal alcohol sales from 1920 until 1933, Knockemstiff was a haven for potent, amateur-concocted spirits. They were so popular that branding was common: the area’s moonshine frequently carried inventive names like Coffin Varnish, Tangle Leg, Stagger Soup and, semi-eponymously, NockUmStiff.

Of course, moonshine significantly predates the early 20th Century, as people have been making home-fermented alcohol for millennia. Nor are macabre monikers anything new. For example, during the American Civil War soldiers whipped up whimsical low-grade whiskies like Forty-Rod, Blue Ruin and Oh Be Joyful, often with ill-advised ingredients for added bite. Some even contained sulfuric acid or even strychnine, which could literally knock someone stiff.^[3]

7 Buttzville, New Jersey

Oh… my… god, Becky. This is the second consecutive list that has presented the opportunity to reference that Baron of the Backside, Sir Mix-a-Lot. In 2020, you take your wins where you can get them. Welcome to Buttzville, a tiny, unincorporated township in northwestern New Jersey that aligns with the state’s stench-tastic derogatory nickname: the Armpit of America.

More PC than Assburg and more risqué than Tushytown, Buttzville was bestowed its bootylicious name in 1839 by Michael Robert Buttz, who purchased the land from a local gristmill operator. Buttz built a hotel (#BedButtz) at which several generations of little Buttzes continued to live and work for decades. Then as now, there aren’t many butts in Buttzville, as the current population is less than 150.

Notably Michael’s son, Charles Wilson Buttz, became a second lieutenant in the Union Army during the Civil War. He later served as a congressman from South Carolina before founding a town of his own in modern-day North Dakota. It’s name? You guessed it: Buttzville. Then a frontier village, the North Dakota location is now a ghost town, meaning Americans unfortunately can’t pick their Buttzvilles.^[4]

6 Humptulips, Washington

Humptulips is Exhibit A for a general rule of thumb: Great name for a bar means bad name for a town.

Located 25 miles north of Aberdeen – famous as Kurt Cobain’s hometown – this tiny burgh was, like much of western Washington, once a major logging hub; in fact, the term “skid row” comes from a well-worn pathway down which woodsmen would slide felled trees in the hilly city of Seattle.

Humptulip is one of the rare ridiculously-named places whose origin story is as funny as its current designation. The name derives from a local Native American word meaning – not kidding – “hard to pole”. The phrase refers to the indigenous peoples’ difficulty in navigating a nearby river of the same name; traditionally, Native Americans traversed waterways in canoes propelled with poles, and the Humptulip’s rough waters were especially arduous to power up or across.

Several popular works of fiction have paid homage to the flower fornicating town. Humptulips is mentioned in Tom Robbins’ “Another Roadside Attraction” as a base of operations for an order of assassin monks, and a book referenced in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novel series cites a wizard named Humptulip as its author. It was no coincidence: Pratchett once called Humptulips his favorite place on Earth. Pervert.^[5]

10 Fascinating Tales Of How Countries Got Their Names

5 Boogertown, North Carolina

Precious metal prospectors take notice: there’s plenty of gold in them thar hills. Rolled gold, that is. No ax or shovel needed – just a good pick.

A suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina’s state capital, Boogertown is an unincorporated community of Gaston County, in the southwestern part of the state. Like Knockemstiff, its name also derives from illicit moonshine-making operations. Data on exactly when Boogertown earned its nostril-clearing name is snott… I mean, spotty, but many believe it also stems from the American Prohibition period of the 1920s and early 1930s.

Unlike Knockemstiff, however, Gaston County’s moonshiners were concerned not with bringing in customers but keeping other people’s noses out of their business. To deter would-be visitors, they invented a tell that a monster – a boogeyman – preyed on outsiders traveling through the area.

Today’s visitors to the Boogertown area have a plethora of winners from which to pick. Attractions include North Carolina Science Museum of Natural History, the sprawling Rankin Lake Park and, for vintage goods enthusiasts, an acclaimed 28,000-square-foot antique store. It’s name? Why, Gaston Pickers, of course.^[6]

4 Blue Ball, Pennsylvania

Many a man will agree that the only thing worse than getting blue balls would be only having one. But that’s the unfortunate reality for the frustrated menfolk of this testicularly troubling town in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Blue Ball’s name, of course, isn’t derived from sexually unsatisfied gentlemen residents. In the late 1700s, proprietor John Wallace constructed a humble building in what was then Earl Town, and converted the space into an inn. In an ingenious act of 18th Century marketing, Wallace hung a blue ball from a post outside the building to differentiate it from potential competitors, and called the distinguishing decoration “The Sign of the Blue Ball.”

The name stuck, and then some. Locals soon began calling not only the inn but also the town “Blue Ball” and, in 1833, Earl Town officially became Blue Ball. In the early 20th Century, the inn followed suit by changing its name to The Blue Ball Hotel – which, ironically, is also the nickname for this author’s bedroom.

Anecdotal symptoms of blue balls include mild testicular pain, an aching sensation at the base of the penis, heaviness of the scrotal sac and a faint blue tint to the testicles. People who deserve this deflating sensation include rapists, molesters and anyone with a man bun.^[7]

3 Nothing, Arizona & No Name, Colorado

Why place two towns in one entry? No reason. None whatsoever.

Let’s start with Nothing, which today is literally nothing – and didn’t take very long to earn its name. The antithesis of prime real estate, the settlement lies 100 miles northwest of the bustling city of Phoenix, and about 20 miles south of Wikieup, known as “the rattlesnake capital or Arizona,” which is about as comforting as being called a “rabid raccoon mecca” or, like Churchill, Canada, a place where 1,000 flesh-eating polar bears roam the streets.

Nothing lasts forever… including Nothing. Today Nothing’s population is… nothing: zero. A signpost there reads: “The staunch citizens of Nothing are full of Hope, Faith, and Believe in the work ethic. Through the years, these dedicated people had faith in Nothing, hoped for Nothing, worked at Nothing, for Nothing.”

Meanwhile, No Name, Colorado actually was named. But like Not Sure from the cult classic (and current American reality) Idiocracy, it was basically a misunderstanding compounded with a clerical error. When the state sent out questionnaires to the hamlet’s inhabitants, which number barely more than 100, the majority wrote “No Name” in the section labeled “Name of Town.” The state took them at their word and officially recorded “No Name” into the state records, sealing the town’s notoriously anonymous fate.^[8]

2 Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

This small city in southwestern New Mexico exemplifies the fact that our choices have consequences. Because it’s arguably the stupidest name of any town on this list.

Why? Because Truth or Consequences, which locals call T or C for short, already had a terrific name that spoke to its distinctive appeal and, from a tourism perspective, its destination-worthy allure. The town is located near Elephant Butte Dam & Reservoir (another ridiculous name), part of a large-scale irrigation effort under an early 20th Century land reclamation act. Incorporated as Hot Springs in 1916, by 1930 the settlement had no less than 40 natural hot springs spas – one for every 75 residents.

When your town is purposefully and appropriately branded to being in tourism dollars, renaming it is idiotic. But that’s exactly what the brain trust in Hot Springs decided to do. Why? Because in 1950, a radio quiz show called Truth or Consequences said it would air a show from the first town that renamed itself after the program. Despite having a moniker perfectly befitting its best quality, Hot Springs leapt at the chance.

Truth of Consequences still comes up on lists of best spas in New Mexico, which only emphasizes the idiocy of foregoing long-term brand equity for some dope with a microphone on a medium about to be overshadowed by television. Doing so was akin to Dollywood decideing that “Wheel of Fortune” would do just fine so long as D-listers Pat Sajak and Vanna White did a show there.^[9]

1 Satan’s Kingdom, Massachusetts

Per Charlie Daniels, when the devil once came down to Georgia lookin’ for a soul to steal, apparently he was visiting from New England.

Satan’s Kingdom has competing origin stories. The first dates all the way back to the 1670s, when European settlers first came to the area during a three-year conflict called King Philip’s War. Also known as the First Indian War, the violence pitted indigenous tribes against English settlers and certain native allies. Oddly, the war gets it name not from European royalty but rather a native chief called Metacom, a Wampanoag tribe leader who adopted the moniker Philip in honor of the friendly relations between his father, Massasoit, and the Mayflower Pilgrims of a generation earlier. In this version, Satan’s Kingdom denotes the especially brutal battles in which the Native Americans fought to keep the land they’d called home for centuries, if not millennia.

However, historians note that the area now known as Satan’s Kingdom lies about 10 miles from the fiercest fighting. A more plausible explanation comes from a coincidence combining the divine and the natural.

In the 1830s, New England was experiencing a feverish religious revival. In the adjacent town of Northfield, a preacher was giving a particularly spirited sermon leaning heavily on the “fire and brimstone” narrative permeating the days’ ecumenical lecturing. Upon exiting the service, churchgoers were aghast at a huge forest fire raging in a sparsely populated tract directly across the Connecticut River. Remarking on the conflagration, a worshipper is said to have remarked, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, that “the good parson’s prayer was being answered – Satan’s kingdom was on fire”.^[10]

Top 10 Hilarious Scientific Names

The world is full of places with names that would have most of us struggling to stifle laughter. For instance the UK is home to the childishly funny likes of Netherthong and Lower Swell! Sometimes the reasons why places end up with names that leave their residents red-faced are just as strange as the names themselves: like these 10.

Top 10 Places You Can’t Go

10 Truth or Consequences

Up until 1950, this town in the south-west of New Mexico went by the name of Hot Springs, which made sense because it was mainly known for its spas made out of natural hot springs. These made it a fairly popular place for people from out of town to visit, but apparently not popular enough for those running the town, who came up with a bold idea to boost its tourist trade.

One of the most successful shows on US radio in the early 1950s was called Truth or Consequences and it was decided to rename the town after it. This decision was made after a referendum, which proves again that direct democracy is a bad thing, and it led to the radio show visiting town for a broadcast not long after the big renaming – on April Fool’s Day. That was not the end of it though, as the host of the show Ralph Edwards went on to make a trip to the town every single year after that until he died. Furthermore it even managed to feature in an episode of Doctor Who called The Zygon Invasion, so maybe they were right to do it after all.^[1]

9 Frog Eye

This article could easily be made up entirely of places in Alabama, which seems to be the weird name capital of the world, but as no-one knows how Boar Tush got its name (perhaps they prefer not to ask), we are focusing on Frog Eye. This town can be found on the banks of the Tallapoosa River and there are a number of different tales that are told about where its name comes from. It might seem like something the residents came up with when they were drunk, but a local woman called Michelle Fortson has studied the history of the area and she believes that it actually happened during the prohibition era.

The story goes that its saloon sold alcohol illegally under the counter during this period and that it had to find a way of preventing this from being found out by the state police. So the saloon owner put a ceramic frog statue in its window and used this as a secret signal to local drinkers. If the frog had both of its eyes open, it was safe to ask for alcohol, whereas if one eye was shut, it meant the police were in the bar and they should stick to ordering soft drinks.^[2]

8 Tightwad

There is a good reason why this little spot in Missouri ended up with such an unfortunate name, but thankfully it has nothing to do with wedgies. The story goes that sometime in the early part of the 20th century the town was home to a watermelon farmer. One day, when the mailman was delivering to this farm, he asked the farmer if he would put aside one of the watermelons for him to collect when he had finished delivering the rest of the mail. According to the local legend, the farmer said that he would but then opted to sell the watermelon to another customer who had paid him 50 cents over what the mailman had offered.

Annoyed at being robbed of his fruit the mailman called the farmer a tightwad and continued to do so every day after that until the name stuck. Up until that point, the town – which has just 69 people living in it – was called Edgewood. These days, the small population seems happy to embrace the name and that is understandable when you think it could just as easily have ended up being called You Owe Me A Watermelon, Missouri.^[3]

7 Doubtful Sound

Doubtful Sound is a fjord that can be found in south western New Zealand and at 421 meters it is the single deepest fjord on its South Island. Part of the curious name was given to it by the British naval explorer Captain James Cook after he first set eyes on it upon arriving at the island back in 1770. Viewing the mysterious fjord shrouded in fog from his ship, he started to doubt that he could steer the vessel successfully in and out of the inlet, thinking it would be too tight a squeeze. That led him to christen it Doubtful Harbor.

What has been lost to history is why it ended up changing from Doubtful Harbor to Doubtful Sound – although it is known that it was whalers who came up with the revised version, several decades after Cook had visited. Perhaps they were trying to convince themselves that they could not actually hear cries from the whales they were killing. The fjord may be a Doubtful Sound, but it is also a glorious sight, with its stunning natural beauty making it a beloved tourist attraction today.^[4]

6 Saint-Louis-du Ha! Ha!

This sounds like the name of a French sitcom featuring too much slapstick, but it is actually a town in Quebec, Canada. It is not far from the US border, but its weird name makes it sound like it belongs to a different world entirely. This owes its origins to several sources, with the ‘Louis’ bit believed to be the name of one of the men who founded the town, but the reason for the ‘Ha Ha’ part is more unusual. It was not stuck on the end of the name because everyone laughed at poor old Louis, but because of a lake situated just outside the town. ‘Ha-ha’ is an old-fashioned French word that means a block of some kind that brings a route to an end. Lake Temiscouata does just that for the town, as the start of the lake marks the limits of it and thus the ‘ha ha’ part of the name probably refers to that.

The one thing that no-one seems to know is why two exclamation marks were added; maybe someone thought the name without them was just too forgettable! On the plus side, it gives the 1,300 people living there the claim to fame of living in the sole town in the world to have two of these in its name.^[5]

10 More British Places With Hilariously Rude Names

5 Deception Island

This sounds like the title of a B-movie thriller, but it is the name of a real place. Deception Island is one of the South Shetland Islands, in the Antarctic Regions, and it got its name courtesy of a very frustrated visitor. In 1820, the US hunter Nathaniel Palmer stumbled across it with the crew of his ship while they were on an expedition to hunt seals. Thinking it to be a perfectly normal island, they decided to approach and land there. The very tight inlet that you have to sail along to get to the shore of the island is called Neptune’s Bellows and it is only once you have made it along there that it becomes clear that the island is in fact the edge of a huge volcano.

Although this volcano had collapsed by the time Palmer and his crew arrived, the shock of discovering it instead of what he had expected led him to name the land after its deceptive appearance. The volcano may have fallen in on itself, but it was not extinct – and it remains technically active to this day.^[6]

4 Intercourse

You will find the town of Intercourse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but it is Amish country so you should probably not get your hopes up too much based on the name. The picturesque little village has not always had its current eyebrow-raising moniker, as it went by the much less exciting name of Cross Keys when it was first founded in 1754. What is known is that the big name change took place in 1814, but varying reasons are cited for why it happened.

One of the most popular tales behind the name is that it was just a reference to the fact that two important roads happened to intersect in the village. A more interesting theory is that there was a race track there at one point that had an entrance known as Entercourse, with this name gradually mutating over time to become Intercourse. The third possible reason for the name is that the word ‘intercourse’ can mean sociability, community and friendship of the type that was common in rural villages of this sort. Of course, there is a fourth possibility, but we will leave that up to your imagination.^[7]

3 Wet Jacket Arm

Certain parts of the world seem to produce a lot of weird names and the Fiordland region of New Zealand is one of them. We have already looked at Doubtful Sound, but that is a boringly normal name compared with Wet Jacket Arm. This inlet owes its name to that man Captain Cook once again, who visited it with his crew during a New Zealand voyage in 1773. It seems they did not pick a particularly good time of year for the weather in Fiordland as they got caught up in severe rainstorms for most of their time there. This left their naval uniforms soaked through and a combination of annoyance at that and a real lack of imagination led them to name the area Wet Jacket Arm.

Although it is a name that does nothing to capture the wonder of an area that is so beautiful it is now part of a National Park, we should probably be grateful that they were most upset about their jackets. After all, who would want to visit a place called Damp Underwear or Soggy Socks?^[8]

2 Glen Campbell

Who would not want to name their borough after the Rhinestone Cowboy? Well the 306 people who live in the tiny part of Pennsylvania called Glen Campbell apparently. Despite having the same name as the Wichita Lineman singer, the origin has absolutely nothing to do with him. Instead it dates all the way back to 1889 and was actually a tribute to a man called Cornelius Campbell. Now we know what you are thinking: why did they not just call the borough Cornelius Campbell? Well, for one thing Cornelius Campbell is a stupid name for a place.

Apart from that though, Campbell also worked as superintendent at the most important company in the borough at that time – the Glenwood Coal Company. A lot of the men in the area had jobs mining for the firm, which took the ‘Glen’ part of its name from the Scottish word that means ‘valley’. Thus Glen Campbell as a name for the borough was a combination of the name of the company and the man who ran it. None of this prevented Glen Campbell the country singer from being flattered enough to visit in 1971 though. Maybe the people living there were too nice to tell him the truth.^[9]

1 Slaughter Beach

For a coastal town hoping to attract carefree sunbathing tourists, sounding like a straight to video slasher about a holiday resort stalked by a maniac with a chainsaw does not seem like an advantage. Slaughter Beach in Delaware was founded in 1681 and there are many theories for where its delightful name comes from.

One is that an attack by Native Americans on a group of settlers there led these settlers to ask the tribal chief to meet with their god on the beach for peace talks. The story goes that this ‘god’ was in fact a cannon that was used to kill the Native Americans. A second, almost as grim tale is that it was named for the horseshoe crabs that crawled up it to spawn. According to this version, these crabs often found themselves flipped onto their backs by waves and unable to get back to the ocean, causing them to fry to death under the sun. A third suggestion is that the name comes from another nearby area called Slaughter Neck. This last one makes a lot of sense and is less morbid than the first two, but then…how did Slaughter Neck get its name?!^[10]

Top 10 Places You Don’t Want To Visit

About The Author: I am a freelance writer who lives in Dundee. In addition to my writing work, I make short films as one half of a duo called Wardlaw Films.

Frequently animals working as actors achieve considerable fame, though under the name of the character they portrayed, rather than their own. That hardly seems fair, especially as many animal actors played several different characters over the course of their career. Animal actors work just as their human counterparts do. They need to hit their spots, respond to cues, and convey a sense of reality to their audience.

According to human actors, some are a joy to work with, others a pain, and some even demonstrate the prima donna attitudes displayed by some humans. And many have earned sums over the course of their careers that have made their owners and trainers quite wealthy. Yet their real names remain known to few. Here are ten relatively obscure animal actors whose characters were quite famous.

10. Bamboo Harvester

Mr. Ed was a 1960s television situation comedy featuring a character which originated in a series of short stories written by Walter R. Brooks. The first of the short stories, which featured a talking horse owned by a dipsomaniac, appeared in Liberty Magazine in September, 1937. Eventually he wrote 23 short stories featuring the talking horse, Mr. Ed. In 1961 the series was adapted for television, though the drunken nature of the owner was dropped. For the role of the talking horse, the producers selected a horse named Bamboo Harvester.

Bamboo Harvester played Mr. Ed in the series, though he had no notable acting experience. He was a gelding out of an American Saddlebred mare, sired by an Arabian, eleven year old when the television series began. His trainer, Les Hilton, had been a protègè of Will Rogers. As Mr. Ed, Bamboo Harvester opened the show by saying, “Hello, I’m Mr. Ed”, followed by the program’s theme song. Mr. Ed’s lips moved to appear as if he were actually speaking and though many theories have emerged as to how this was done, though the means have never been officially revealed. .

Obviously, Mr. Ed/Bamboo Harvester did not actually talk, an actor named Allan Lane provided the voiceovers. Bamboo Harvester also had an understudy, a horse named Pumpkin, to pose in his place for publicity stills and occasional personal appearances. But he played the title role of Mr. Ed in all 143 episodes of the show over six seasons before retiring. He was put down in 1970 after a series of illnesses at the age of 20.

9. Pal

Lassie, the character dog in film and television, is a female Rough Collie. Pal, the dog which first portrayed Lassie on film in 1943’s Lassie Come Home (with a young Elizabeth Taylor), was a male Rough Collie. In fact, in feature films to date, the female Lassie was always portrayed by males, many if not most of them descendants of Pal. The same holds true for the long-running live action television series Lassie. The series began in 1954, with Pal filming the pilot, replaced by his son Pal II, renamed Lassie Jr, for the first season. It ran for 19 years and 591 episodes, with several dogs eventually portraying Lassie.

Pal and his many descendants were owned and trained by Rudd Weatherwax. Weatherwax used the earnings from Pal’s successful seven films as Lassie to acquire the rights to the name Lassie and the franchise, which he then helped develop for television. As noted, Pal performed in the pilot television movie for the series, after which a number of Pal’s descendants performed the role of Lassie. Pal thus created a famous character and a long family line of actors, though without achieving the fame of the Booths or the Barrymores.

Pal also performed as Lassie in personal appearances and even on radio where, obviously, he only needed to bark, whimper, or growl on cue, though with suitable emphasis as the role dictated. He retired as Lassie in 1954 and died in 1958. Since his death attempts to cast non-Pal bloodline collies in the role of Lassie have engendered legal disputes and negative commentary. The Lassie trademark was sold by the Weatherwax family (Rudd Weatherwax died in 1985) in 2000 and after changing hands due to mergers and other business dealings is now held by Universal.

8. Popcorn Deelites

The 2003 film Seabiscuit told a fictionalized story about a real race horse which caught the nation’s attention at the height of the Depression in the 1930s. To film the racing scenes, several horses were used to portray Seabiscuit, as well as the horses he raced against. Several real jockeys also took part in the film, including Gary Stevens as George “Iceman” Woolf. But in the scenes with interactions between Tobey Maguire, as Red Pollard, and others where humans interacted directly with Seabiscuit, the famous racehorse was portrayed by a thoroughbred racehorse named Popcorn Deelites.

Popcorn Deelites had a less than stellar racing career, starting 58 races with 11 wins, and just $56,800 in career earnings, racing both before and after filming Seabiscuit. In the paddock and around the barns he was called Pops, the name Tobey Maguire used for him in their scenes in the movie. Gary Stevens spoke fondly of Popcorn Deelites when he learned of the horse’s death in 2022, calling him his “go-to guy in all the big scenes”.

The film Seabiscuit, with its story of a disregarded underdog achieving success and winning the hearts of fans was a huge success in 2003. It was the only appearance in Popcorn Deelites acting career. He returned to racing, with limited success and retired to Old Friends, a thoroughbred retirement farm in Kentucky in 2005. He lived there for his remaining 17 years, forgotten both as a racehorse and as an actor.

7. Spike

Frank Weatherwax, a brother of Lassie’s Rudd Weatherwax, was also an animal trainer who assisted his brother training Pal and his offspring for their roles as Lassie. Another dog he trained was Spike. Spike was a Labrador Retriever/Mastiff mixed breed (sometimes called a mastador), yellow in color and lop-eared. He appeared in several films in the 1950s and 1960s, often uncredited. One such film was a major hit upon its release and again when it was shown on television. It was the story of a stray dog and the boy who found him in post-Civil War Texas, and though Spike played the titular role he was again uncredited.

The film was the Walt Disney production of Old Yeller, starring Tommy Kirk, Fess Parker, and Dorothy McGuire. Old Yeller became a cultural icon of the late 1950s and early 1960s, spawning comic books, merchandise, posters, toys, and other items now deemed collectibles. Old Yeller was rereleased in theaters in 1965 and again achieved considerable financial success. It achieved popular and critical acclaim, and in 2019 the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry. Try watching the end of Old Yeller without tearing up. Only the coldest can do so.

Spike went on to additional films, including appearing in A Dog of Flanders playing the featured dog mentioned in the title, Patrasche, again uncredited. He also appeared in the television series Lassie, The Mickey Mouse Club, and in the Brian Keith series The Westerner, again, all uncredited. He finally received a screen credit for one of his final roles, as Pete in the 1961 film The Silent Call. Spike died in 1962. Old Yeller, his most famous role, continues to hold high approval ratings on streaming and film review sites online.

6. Bruno

In the early 1900s there was a silent film bear actor known as Bruno the Bear. Trained as a circus performer Bruno the Bear appeared in film shorts such as Mack Sennett comedies. The later bear actor known simply as Bruno was born around 1962, though there are several disputing stories regarding his early life. The North American black bear eventually arrived and was trained at Africa USA Animal Ranch in California. From there he was recruited to appear in the film Zebra in the Kitchen, and later in an episode of Daktari.

In 1967 the 650 pound, nearly 8-foot bear (he had been declawed) appeared in the film Gentle Giant and the television series Gentle Ben in the role of Ben the bear. For the role Bruno’s name was changed to Ben, and like other actors he commuted from his California home to the sets in the Florida Everglades while filming the series. He found the humid Florida heat not to his taste. It had little effect on his appetite however, and Bruno was known to eat any food he found around the set, including packs of cigarettes left lying around by the crew.

Bruno eventually appeared in over four hundred roles, usually as a comic relief, and often appeared hesitant to work, due to laziness or heat, or his interest in food rather than work. He appeared as Watch Bear in the 1972 film The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, with Paul Newman and Jacqueline Bissett. In his career he was nominated for three PATSY awards, winning in 1968 for his appearance in Gentle Giant. He also appeared as a guest on television variety shows, including on a 1973 special, Don’t Call Me Mama Anymore, featuring Mama Cass. The date of Bruno’s death is unknown, speculated to have been around 1981.

5. Higgins

The dog actor Higgins first appeared on television as the little dog who lived at the Shady Rest Hotel in the series Petticoat Junction. Trained by animal trainer Frank Inn, Higgins went on to a 14 year career in film and television. 

But back to Higgins. The dog, a Norwich Terrier, won a PATSY award for his role on Petticoat Junction and was featured on a 1966 TV Guide cover, but he was uncredited in the role. Additionally, his character had no name, referred to simply as dog by other characters. Higgins performed in a guest role on Green Acres with Eva Gabor, and with her sister Zsa Zsa Gabor in the 1971 film Mooch Goes to Hollywood, in which Zsa Zsa played herself, one of several actors to have worked with two of the three Gabor sisters.

But it was as the original Benji that Higgins tugged at the hearts of audiences, pairing with his old friend and star of Petticoat Junction Edgar Buchanan in 1974. Frances Bavier, Mayberry’s Aunt Bee, also appeared in the film, and it was the last for all three actors. As in his other roles Hiigins was not credited. By that time Higgins was 16 years old, an advanced age for any dog, and he was unable to appear in any of the sequels. He had by then sired many puppies, and it was one of his daughters, Benjean, who appeared as Benji in the first sequel, For the Love of Benji, in 1977.

4. Skippy

From 1932 to 1947 a Wire Fox Terrier appeared in more than two dozen films, appearing with stars such as Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Katharine Hepburn, William Powell, Irene Dunne, and other stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. The dog’s name was Skippy, though he was credited under many names, including the character which he made famous, Asta. Asta was the faithful companion of Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man and its many sequels on film, and a later television series. Skippy was owned and trained by Gale and Henry East, and he became one of Hollywood’s highest paid animal stars during the run of The Thin Man series.

Most animal stars of the day were paid about $3.50 per day for their contribution to the film. Skippy received over $250.00 per week plus expenses and a stipend for his handlers. He could also be temperamental on the set, once biting Myrna Loy during a rehearsal. Beside his role as Asta, it was Skippy who played the dog in Bringing Up Baby who buried a paleontologist’s prized bone fossil. He also appeared as Mr. Smith, the subject of a custody dispute between characters played by Cary Grant and Irene Dunne in The Awful Truth.

But he is remembered primarily as the dog who portrayed Asta, in at least the first three Thin Man films. The role is credited to Asta in all of the Thin Man movies, and it is likely another dog filled the later roles, as Skippy would have been too old for the final films. His last role credited as Skippy was in 1939’s Topper Takes a Trip. Beyond that, little is known of the remaining days of Skippy, the dog who created a role frequently used as the answer to crossword clues in newspapers and magazines across the country.

3. Sykes

The story of Sykes, the dog actor, is a true rags-to-riches tale (pardon the bad pun), canine style. Sykes was a foundling, a stray dog with the good fortune to be found by a stunt dog trainer named Gill Raddings. Raddings estimated the dog’s age to be about seven months when she found him in 2004. Trained and handled primarily by the reward with food method, Sykes first appeared before the public in British television advertisement campaigns. A mixed terrier, the dog soon had roles in major motion pictures, including in Curse of the Black Pearl, The Other Boleyn Girl, and Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Sykes starred in several advertising campaigns in the UK, starting with Every Home Needs a Harvey, a Thinkbox advertisement which extolled the power of television advertising. He played Harvey, a dog awaiting adoption. As a result he became known to the public as Harvey, rather than his real name. He later appeared in two additional Thinkbox advertisements, as well as in an ad with British actor and comedian Peter Kay for John Smith’s Brewery. He also appeared in several British television programs.

He then appeared in several seasons of Midsomer Murders, a British crime drama set in the fictional British county of Midsomer. Sykes portrayed the family dog of the character John Barnaby and was credited as a supporting character for several seasons of the show, a total of 29 episodes. He was replaced on the show with another dog actor named Paddy when Sykes went into retirement following his fifth season in 2016. His character died on the show. Sykes lived in retirement with a foster family, his expenses paid for by Raddings, until he died in June, 2019.

2. Orangey

In the 1958 fantasy film Bell, Book, and Candle, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, the latter as a witch, no fewer than 12 Siamese cats were needed to perform the role of Pyewacket, her cat, and herself a witch. The reason so many cats were needed was the difficulty in training the animals to perform their stunts. That wasn’t the case with Orangey, an orange tabby owned and trained by Frank Inn. Orangey was a professional cat actor that appeared in many films, including as Mouschi in The Diary of Anne Frank, and as Holly Golightly’s unnamed roommate in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Like many actors before and since, Orangey was known to be temperamental on the set, scratching his fellow cast mates and biting from time to time. But he got away with his less than professional attitude to his fellow players through his ability to perform, winning two PATSY Awards, for Rhubarb (credited as Rhubarb), in which he had the title role of a cat which inherits a fortune, and for Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Orangey also appeared on television. He was the cat Minerva in the 1950s series Our Miss Brooks, and also appeared in a 1967 episode of Mission: Impossible, titled The Seal, in which he played a cat trained as an agent of the Impossible Mission Force. His final known appearance was in a two-part episode of the 1960s camp version of Batman, in which he appeared alongside Eartha Kitt in her role as Catwoman. Orangey is the only cat to have won the PATSY Award twice, and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills, California, along with many other stars of the screen.

1. Terry

Terry was a Cairn Terrier with an impressive list of films on her resume in the 1930s and 1940s. During the filming of her most famous role, as Toto in 1939’s The Wizard of Oz, she was injured when her foot was stepped on by one of the Winkies, breaking it. Star Judy Garland kept her in her home while she recuperated, the filming temporarily stopped. During the filming of the movie, Terry earned $125 per week. That was a wage level not achieved by average American workers of the time. It was also more than some of the actors in the movie were paid for their work.

She was credited not as Terry, but as Toto for the film, which became a classic and remains one of the most beloved films of all time. She was credited as Toto again in the film Son of the Navy, which led some to conclude her name had been changed to Toto following the success of The Wizard of Oz, but the claim is undocumented. She, like so many animal actors, became known as the character they performed, rather than for their own identity.

Terry performed with Jack Benny, Nelson Eddy, Joan Bennet, William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and many other A-list Hollywood stars during her career as an actor, always performing her own stunts under the guidance of her trainer, Carl Spitz. Yet she was never credited as Terry. Even on her memorial stone, in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, her name of Terry is shared with her role’s name of Toto. The site is not that of her burial. Her gra

Science is a serious business. The search for knowledge requires dedication, patience, and rigorous analysis of the facts. When the hard work is over and a new entity has been discovered, a scientist gets to celebrate the crowning moment of his achievement by putting a name on what he has found.

For most scientists, this means thinking up a profound or descriptive name that will be recognized across the world. For some, though, it is a chance to be playful after years of serious study. Sometimes, a name just happens to be hilarious.

Here are 10 of the funniest names you’ll find in the annals of science.

10 Scientific Names With Ridiculous Backstories

10 Turdus maximus

The thrush family of birds never really had a chance when it came to their names. For starters, thrush is the common name for a yeast infection in the genitals. But long before the English language played a dirty trick on the thrushes, the Romans had labeled them with another. To a Latin speaker, a thrush was called a turdus.^[1]

When Latin-loving scientists decided to create the binomial method of naming animals, they stuck the name Turdus on all thrush birds. This has led to some now-amusing names like Turdus ignobilis, but there is one bird that got the worst label of all. The Tibetan blackbird is rather large, so what would you call it but Turdus maximus?

9 Scaptia beyonceae

Taxonomy, the naming and classification of species based on their supposed relationships, is usually considered a dry and arcane subject. However, those who spend their time studying species can use their power of naming to raise public interest in their work. Naming a species after a famous person is usually good for a few articles in the press—even if the associated person is not always thrilled by the animal named after him or her.

In 2011, when researchers described a rare fly discovered in 1981, they took note of its most notable feature and worked out the perfect name. This fly has a glorious set of golden hairs on its rear end. You could say it was “Bootylicious.” Taking this as a sign, the researchers named the fly after Beyonce, who also shares a birth year with the discovery of the fly.^[2]

8 Tiny Frogs

The smallest vertebrate in the world is a frog called Paedophryne amauensis. When fully grown, it is a minuscule 7.7 millimeters (0.3 in) long and could comfortably fit on your little fingernail. Faced with this tough competition, the three species of frog named in 2019 had to set themselves apart in the world of small frogs somehow.^[3]

Searching through the vast Madagascan jungles for such tiny frogs was just one difficulty. Once they had been tracked down by listening for their calls, the frogs had to be studied.

Given that the three new species ranged in size from 8 millimeters (0.31 in) to 15 millimeters (0.59 in), this proved a fiddly job. But eventually, the scientists were sure that they were all new species belonging to a brand-new genus—Mini. So, of course, the researchers named the frogs Mini mum, Mini scule, and Mini ature.

7 Spermidine

Chemistry is known as the smelly science—and for good reason. Working in a lab can be an assault on your senses, ranging from the subtly pleasant to the downright noxious. In earlier centuries, the sense of smell, and sometimes taste, was the best way to distinguish different compounds—though licking chemicals today is frowned on. But some chemicals still bear the names of their smells.

The polyamine group of chemicals have strong odors, and their names match this trait. As their names suggest, putrescine and cadaverine are some of the chemicals that give rotting meat its smell. As for spermidine? It smells as you might imagine.

Spermidine is not only found in male ejaculate, however. It is found in foods like aged cheese, and some studies have shown that it can help fight liver cancer. Swallowing this may be good for your health.^[4]

6 Arsole

If you name a chemical using the agreed international standard, you will be able to picture it precisely from its descriptive moniker. However, these names can be so long that they are unwieldy. So scientists give the substances nicknames.

When one group of researchers synthesized a new chemical, they must have celebrated and forgotten to close the window. During the night, a pigeon flew into the lab and left droppings everywhere. They took this as a sign and nicknamed the chemical “cristane” after “crissum,” the anus of a bird.

Arsole has a more prosaic etymology. A chemical known as phosphole contains a phosphorus atom. After that atom was replaced with one of arsenic, the researchers simply added that to the name instead.

Although arsole has not been purified, scientists have created a group of similar molecules, all of which are arsoles. There is no reliable report describing the smell of an arsole.^[5]

10 Bizarre Scientific Photographs from the 19th Century

5 Penguinone

3,4,4,5-tetramethylcyclohexa-2,5-dien-1-one does not really roll off the tongue. For a chemist, this name conjures up an image of a ring molecule with various appendages. For the nonscientist, however, the name probably doesn’t mean much. But give the compound the name penguinone, and you can probably guess what it looks like.^[6]

There is no known use for penguinone yet, but it does at least give chemists something to put on their Christmas cards.

4 Sonic Hedgehog

The SHH gene is one of the most important genes in the development of animals. In everything from insects to humans, the product of this gene plays a vital role in embryo growth. It is involved in everything from brain growth to the development of the eyes.

What does SHH make? Sonic hedgehog.

Sonic hedgehog is the name given to the protein made by SHH. When researchers knocked out several related genes in fruit flies, they noticed that the animals developed short, spiky hairs—a bit like a hedgehog’s bristles. So the genes were named after hedgehogs—like the Indian or desert hedgehog. One researcher decided not to name his gene after a real animal and went with Sonic the Hedgehog.

Not every scientist was pleased by this name. “It’s the kind of idea that you talk about in a pub and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we named it Sonic?’ ” said one researcher. “But then you don’t do it.”^[7]

3 Moronic Acid

Naming a chemical from its source is a common way of distinguishing compounds—as spermidine showed. What else would you call an acid derived from a tree called Mora except moronic acid?

Moronic acid is not as stupid as its name may suggest. Studies of the compound have found that it may be a powerful agent against HIV and herpes.^[8]

Moronic acid is not the only humorously named chemical derived from a plant. When naming a compound purified from the plant Vinca pubescens, researchers decided that pubescine was a perfectly normal name.

2 Tuojiangosaurus

Tuojiangosaurus is a genus of herbivorous dinosaur that looked like the North American Stegosaurus. Living around 155 million years ago in China, Tuojiangosaurus was an early relative of the stegosaurs that would later evolve. Despite being an early ancestor, it had already developed a four-spiked tail used for defense against predators. Let’s hope it also had a well-developed sense of humor.

Tuojiangosaurus may not strike you as a funny name at first. However, next to a near-perfectly preserved skeleton, the Natural History Museum in London gave the pronunciation of its name as “Two-wang-oh-sore-us.” Little is known about the dinosaur’s genitalia, but it is unlikely to have had two wangs or to have been sore about it.^[9]

Since then, the scientific community seems to have realized its mistake and changed the pronunciation guide on most websites to “too-YANG-oh-sore-us.” The physical sign in the Natural History Museum remains unchanged.

1 Cummingtonite

There is no higher honor for a mineralogist than to have a mineral named after him. Each year, the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names at the International Mineralogical Society grants the names of around 40 new minerals as they are discovered.

This process ensures that new minerals are not given the same name as one already discovered. When colleagues wanted to name a mineral after the mineralogist Paul Moore, it was discovered there was a mooreite already on the books. So paulmoorite was born.

Most minerals will end up with the names of their discoverers. That’s how you end up with jimthompsonite, but that’s not how cummingtonite got its name. Discovered in Cummington, Massachusetts, this mineral is usually found in the form of slender crystals. It has also become a favorite chat-up line for geology students the world over.^[10]

10 Goofy Pranks Involving Serious Scientists

No surprise that women were the brains behind the invention of many useful household items ranging from the dishwasher (Josephine Garis Cochran, 1893) to the foot-pedal trash can (Lillian Moller Gilbreth, best known as the mother in Cheaper by the Dozen) and an early version of the disposable diaper (Marion Donovan, 1950s).

But from the very birth of the United States, women have made countless, little-known contributions, both major and mundane, that continue to aid us, entertain us, enrich our national heritage, improve our wellbeing, and save lives. Here are ten women whose contributions you know even if their names remain unknown.

Related: 10 Life-Changing Inventions That Were Discovered By Accident

10 The Declaration of Independence

No, Thomas Jefferson had no woman at his elbow as he penned those immortal words. By mid-July of 1776, the text of the Declaration of Independence appeared in newspapers throughout the colonies. However, it was not until the following January, after George Washington had crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day and beaten the British at Trenton, did the Continental Congress dare to distribute the first edition that identified the rebels who had signed it. So they set about printing official copies for distribution. And below the names of John Hancock, John Adams, Josiah Bartlett, and other traitors to the Crown, King George III could read the bold statement: “Baltimore, in Maryland: Printed by Mary Katharine Goddard.”

Following her experience publishing the Providence Gazette in Rhode Island and the Pennsylvania Chronicle in Philadelphia, Goddard (1738-1816) took over the Maryland Journal in 1774. During the run-up to the American Revolution, she reported on its early battles, reprinted Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense, and encouraged women to boycott British goods. She became postmaster of Baltimore in October 1775 and held that job until 1789, which may have made her the new nation’s first female employee.^[1]

9 Paper Bags

An advance does not have to change history to affect how people go about their daily lives. If you have ever been offered “paper or plastic?” and chosen the former, you have Margaret E. Knight (1838-1914) to thank. After losing her father at age twelve, she went to work in a Manchester, New Hampshire, textile mill. Within a year, she had devised a system to keep loom shuttles from flying off and injuring weavers. After holding various other jobs, she moved on to the Columbia Paper Bag company, where flat-bottom paper bags were a specialty item made by hand. To automate this process, she built a machine that could feed, cut, and fold the paper and then form the squared bottom of the bag.

Having made no money from her earlier improvement to the loom, this time Knight took the rare step—for a woman—of applying for a patent. And when a man who had seen her machine during development tried to claim the invention as his own, she fought back. In response to his argument that no woman could have possibly designed such a thing, she produced detailed blueprints, while he offered nothing in his defense. She won the case and received her patent in 1871. Knight went on to found the Eastern Paper Bag Company in Hartford, Connecticut, and receive patents for at least twenty-six more inventions.^[2]

8 “America the Beautiful”

Katharine Lee Bates (1858-1929) was an English instructor at Wellesley, her alma mater near Boston, when she took a cross-country train to Colorado Springs for a three-week teaching assignment in the summer of 1893. Along the way, she visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, whose famous White City fairgrounds she would later refer to as “alabaster cities.” While out West, she and other professors took a wagon to the top of Pike’s Peak. As she would later write, “It was then and there, as I was looking out over the seas-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.”

Her completed poem titled “Pike’s Peak” appeared in the weekly newspaper The Congregationalist on July 4, 1895. A small check for its publication was the only payment Bates ever received, even though her words were set to music repeatedly. While few people may live in Bates Dorm on the Wellesley campus or visit the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum where her bronze statue sits facing Pike’s Peak, we all know the first verse of her song.^[3]

7 Medical Syringe

In recent years, we have become all too familiar with shots in arms. In its simplest form, a syringe is a pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly into a cylindrical tube. The plunger can be pulled and pushed along inside the tube, allowing the syringe to pull in or push out a liquid or gas through the opening at the end of the tube. That open end may also be fitted with a hypodermic needle, a nozzle, or tubing to help direct the flow into and out of the tube.

While not what we use today, syringes themselves date back to the Greeks and Romans. They weren’t used to inject medication but rather to anoint the skin with ointments and creams. They are mentioned in a journal called De Medicina for use to treat medical complications. Then, in the 9th century AD, an Egyptian surgeon created a syringe using a hollow glass tube and suction. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century that they took on their more familiar form using the hypodermic needle.

Early designs for a syringe with a hollow needle fine enough to pierce skin have been around since 1844, but those contraptions, operated by either a plunger or a screw, were large and required the use of two hands. A New York nurse, Letitia Mumford Geer (1852-1935), helped revolutionize healthcare with her 1899 patent of a compact syringe that could be operated with one hand, making it easier for a medical professional or even a patient to use. While little is known of her life, other than she died in Kings County, New York, the basic design of her brainchild lives on.^[4]

6 Monopoly

In 1904, while working as a secretary, Elizabeth “Lizzie” J. Magie (1866-1948) secured a patent for what she called The Landlord’s Game. According to its detailed rules, players rolled dice to land on spaces with different costs for rent and purchase, as well as Water Franchise, Light Franchise, four railroads, and Public Parking. Each time they passed the square labeled “Labor Upon Mother Earth Produces Wages,” they collected $100. Sound familiar?

Her 1924 patent for a revised edition, which featured properties of increasing values with names such as Lonely Lane, Rickety Row, Progress Park, and Easy Street, included a statement that the game was intended not simply for amusement but also to show players the unfair financial advantages of greedy landlords.

Magie’s game had circulated in various forms for a decade by the time Charles Darrow played on a board featuring the names of Atlantic City properties. In 1935, Darrow sold his version to the Parker Brothers company, falsely claiming, “being unemployed at the time, and badly needing anything to occupy my time, I made by hand a very crude game for the sole purpose of amusing myself.”

More than two million copies flew off the shelves in the first two years, and Darrow made a fortune in royalties. Also, in 1935, Lizzie Magie Phillips, by then married to a successful businessman, sold her patent to Parker Brothers for a flat $500 in the hope of reaching a wider audience with her warning about economic inequality. Instead, Monopoly went on to teach generations of children that greed is good. However, in a twist of fate, Magie Phillips’ role and her viewpoint were revived in the 1970s during a trademark legal case over another game: Anti-Monopoly.^[1]

5 Kevlar

While this superplastic may be best known for its most dramatic use, the bullet-proof vest, Stephanie L. Kwolek (1923-2014) discovered Kevlar in the course of research seeking a new lightweight material to use in tires to make cars more fuel efficient. She was born in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, where she picked up a love of fabrics and sewing from her mother and a love of science from her father. In 1946, she graduated from Margaret Morrison Carnegie College with a degree in chemistry. To earn money for medical school, she took a job as a chemist in a DuPont research lab, where she went on to spend her entire career.

In the course of Kwolek’s experiments in 1965, she created a cloudy solution that, when spun, made a heat-resistant fiber that was lightweight yet five times stronger than steel. Today, Kevlar is used in products ranging from helmets to brake pads in addition to body armor. Though she was recognized with multiple awards and inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the would-be doctor once said of her discovery, “I don’t think there’s anything like saving someone’s life to bring you satisfaction and happiness.”^[6]

4 3D Movies

If you have ever jumped in your theater seat because an object looked to be coming at your head, credit Valerie Thomas (1943– ). Though not encouraged to study science as a child, she earned a degree from Morgan State University as one of only two women in her class to major in physics. After graduation, she took a job at NASA as a data analyst/mathematician, remaining there until her retirement in 1995.

In addition to her work on the Landsat program, which captures images of Earth from space, she invented an “illusion transmitter.” This transmitter uses two curved mirrors and a camera to reflect an image to the eye at two different angles that combine in the brain to create the illusion of three dimensions. While not the first 3D technique, Thomas received a patent in 1980 for an invention unique in its simplicity.^[7]

3 Vietnam Veterans Memorial

When “The Wall,” as it is frequently called, was dedicated in 1982 in Washington, DC, its design was controversial, like the war whose veterans it honored. A panel of eight artists and designers considered more than 1,400 anonymous submissions. They ultimately chose the work of Maya Lin (1959– ), who turned out to be a 21-year-old undergraduate architecture student at Yale who had created her design as a class project.

Lin was born in Ohio to parents who had fled mainland China. Her simple yet powerful design for a V-shaped wall now inscribed with more than 58,000 names only earned her a B on her assignment. However, she did beat out her professor in the competition.^[8]

2 Laser Photoablative Cataract Surgery

This medical mouthful is not exactly a household term, even under its more common name, the Laserphaco Probe. But quite likely, someone you know is able to read these words because of it. Patricia Era Bath (1942-2019), a graduate of Howard Medical School, had already racked up an impressive list of accomplishments and “firsts” when she became the first female African American doctor to receive a medical patent in 1988.

Her device, using laser technology to break up and remove cataracts that cloud vision with age, is faster, easier, and less invasive than earlier techniques. In 2014, her invention was recognized by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as “one of the most important developments in the field of ophthalmology” for having “helped restore or improve vision to millions of patients worldwide.”^[9]

1 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Marian R. Croak (1955-) earned a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 1982 and went straight to a job at AT&T’s Bell Laboratory. During the 1990s, her groundbreaking work changed the way we communicate, as she received more than one hundred patents related to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies.

This is the electronic magic that supports video chat and has allowed millions to perform tasks as diverse as casting a vote for American Idol or donating to a charity via text. She is a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame class of 2022, joining the late Dr. Bath as only the second Black woman to be so honored.^[10]