Silly English place names

England has a seemingly infinite supply of tiny villages and hamlets with names that are funny, bizarre or otherwise enjoyable to say.

Most of these names originally meant something like "church next to the tree" in some combination of Saxon, Norse, French, etc etc. But language has moved on, and the name of the place has not, and now it is Silly.

Sometimes I like to fire up Wikipedia or open a random spot on the map and go looking for them. This can bring you hours of fun if you are very bored (I often am).

These are some of my favourites:

  • Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire
  • Barnoldby le Beck, Lincolnshire
  • Belchford, Lincolnshire
  • Berry Pomeroy, Devon
  • Bicker Gauntlet, Lincolnshire
  • Bitchfield, Lincolnshire
  • Boothby Graffoe, Lincolnshire
  • Braintree, Essex
  • Burton Coggles, Lincolnshire
  • Chew Magna, Somerset
  • Compton Pauncefoot, Somerset
  • Cow Roast, Hertfordshire
  • Deeping St Nicholas, Lincolnshire
  • Doddycross, Cornwall
  • Duntish, Dorset
  • Giddy Green, Dorset
  • Goonhusband, Cornwall
  • Great Heck, Yorkshire
  • Hannah cum Hagnaby, Lincolnshire
  • Helions Bumpstead, Essex
  • Lower Clicker, Cornwall
  • Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire
  • Melbury Bubb, Dorset
  • Merry Meeting, Cornwall
  • Much Hoole, Lancashire
  • Mudford Sock, Somerset
  • Mumby, Lincolnshire
  • Nempnett Thrubwell, Somerset
  • Nether Poppleton, Yorkshire
  • Nether Wallop, Hampshire
  • Nimlet, Gloucestershire
  • No Place, County Durham
  • Papworth St Agnes, Cambridgeshire
  • Petty France, Gloucestershire
  • Pity Me, County Durham
  • Pudding Norton, Norfolk
  • Quaking Houses, County Durham
  • Queen Camel, Somerset
  • Ryme Intrinseca, Dorset
  • Shitterton, Dorset
  • Silk Willoughby, Lincolnshire
  • Six Mile Bottom, Cambridgeshire
  • Sixpenny Handley, Dorset
  • Spital-in-the-Street, Lincolnshire
  • The Shoe, Wiltshire
  • Tiddleywink, Wiltshire
  • Tilbury Juxta Clare, Essex
  • Titty Hill, Sussex
  • Tongue End, Lincolnshire
  • Turners Puddle, Dorset
  • Whitchurch Canonicorum, Dorset
  • Westley Waterless, Cambridgeshire
  • Westward Ho!, Devon

If you live in one of these places, congratulations. I list these names to appreciate them, not to mock them, and I hope the name of your hometown brings you as much joy as it does me.

What makes a name funny?

This is a tricky one to define. I would say most of these names meet some of the following criteria:

  • Inclusion of rude or unexpected words
  • Any Latin and/or French
  • Multiple words (the combination of "Nempnett Thrubwell" is funnier than either would be individually)
  • Could plausibly be the name of an Evelyn Waugh character
  • Otherwise appeals to my sense of whimsy

Why only England?

Because that's where I live. I will leave making fun of the rest of the UK to the people who live there (no Yetts o' Muckhart or Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch on this list).