All Fun and Games

Bangkok, the name of the capital city of Thailand, means "wild plum village".

The official name for Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, is Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, which is an abbreviation of its ceremonial name, "Krung Thep Mahanakon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit". (source)

The Canary Islands got their name not from canaries but from the wild dogs that the Romans found when they landed there. They called the island Insulae Canariae, which means "Island of the Dogs." (source)

What we now call Iran has, in the past, been called Persia, Parthia, or Media, depending on the ethnic group ruling it.

Over 1,500 years after they occupied parts of Spain, the Vandals, a Germanic tribe, are still present in name: the region in the south known as Andalusia is merely "Vandalusia" with the initial letter missing. (source)

The modern country of Ghana is not the same as ancient Ghana. Today's Ghana was formerly known as the Gold Coast, on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. Ancient Ghana, which lasted until around 1240, occupied parts of what are now Mali and Mauritania, between the Senegal and Niger rivers. The word "ghana" was a title meaning "war chief", and the area got its name from Africans from the north who would trade with "ghana".

On January 19^th, 2000, Halfway, Oregon accepted an offer from the website Half.com to rename itself to Half.com, Oregon in exchange for $100,000.

The word "uptown" was in use before the word "downtown" was. Both words were originally used to describe parts of Manhattan. (source)

The word "spa" comes from the Belgian town of Spa, in the Ardennes, whose mineral springs and baths were popular among the wealthy starting in the 18^th century. (source)

The names of Minnesota and Winnipeg have the same meaning. Minnesota means "murky water" in Sioux, and Winnipeg means "murky water" in Cree.

Levan, Utah, is "navel" spelled backwards. It received this name because it is located in the centre of Utah.

"Idaho", the name of one of the states in the United States of America, doesn't mean anything in any language. (source)

Los Angeles can be abbreviated to a two-letter-long abbreviation, "L.A." However, the city's original name was quite long. It was "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula", which means "The Village of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of 'Little Portion'" in Spanish. (source)

There are places in Texas named Chocolate Bayou, Cut and Shoot, Ding Dong, Earth, Egypt, Gun Barrel City, Happy, Lollipop, Nameless, Noodle, and Tarzan. (source)

Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, means "mud-yellow estuary".

Pakistan was named by the British by taking the initials of Punjab, Afghanistan, and Kashmir, and added the ending "istan", meaning "land of", creating the Asian-sounding name.

Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, was once known as Fort Dearborn, Indian Territory. (source)

There are 66 cities in the United States named Fairview. (source)

Among the unusual place names in the U.S. state of Florida are places called Two Egg and Acres of Diamonds. (source)

There used to be a place called "6" in West Virginia. (source)

There are several Christmas-related unusual place names in the United States of America. They include Christmas, Florida, North Pole, Alaska, Santa Claus, Indiana, Santa Claus, Georgia, Noel, Missouri, and Snowflake, Arizona. (source)

New England was originally on the west coast of North America, not the east. When Francis Drake claimed that area for Queen Elizabeth I, he named the area Novus Albion (New England) because he thought the white cliffs near Point Reyes resembled the chalk cliffs near Dover. (source)

The name of Switzerland used on Swiss stamps is not in any of Switzerland's four official languages (German, French, Italian, or Romansch), but in Latin (Helvetia).

The shortest place names in the world are only a single letter long. There is a village of Y (population 143) in France, which has been so named since 1241, and villages called Å located in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. (source)

The Cambridge River (in England) is the current spelling of a name that has been previously spelled in three different ways. (source)

The longest place name in the world is the name of a hill in New Zealand, Tuamatawhataktankihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukuokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which means "the place where Tamateakokai-whenua—the man with the big knees who slid, climbed, and swallowed mountains, known as land eater—played his flute to his loved one." (source)

There are townships in Ontario named after Protestant reformers Luther and Melanchthon. They were named by a Catholic surveyer, who wanted to encourage Protestant settlement into these swampy, nearly uninhabitable areas. (source)

The American capital of Washington, D.C. is the only major world capital named after a non-legendary founder of the nation.

The words canteloupe, cashmere, champagne, cherry, coach, cologne, copper, and currants are derived from place names. There are many other words derived from place names that start with the other 25 letters of the alphabet as well. (source)

There are seven two-letter place names in Kentucky, including Ed, Uz, Oz, Ep, and Or. (source)

Some other unusual place names in the United States are Romance, Arkansas, Toad Suck, Arkansas, Sleeping Giant, Connecticut, Coffee Pot Rapids, Idaho, Young America, Indiana, Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky, Boring, Maryland, Frankenstein, Missouri, River Styx, Ohio, Kremlin, Oklahoma, Fearnot, Pennsylvania, Panic, Pennsylvania, Looneyville, West Virginia, and Dull Center, Wyoming.