Just learned about this, thanks to commenter cathyf. If anyone knows the story behind it, please let me know. And please feel free to mention other similarly amusing names, though stay away from the obvious ones (this and this, plus the others linked to from here) unless you have something new to say about them.
Oh, and if you want to use Google directions to get to UCLA, don't ask for Westwood, CA.
UPDATE: According to Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois, the name stems from "the preemption laws passed by the U.S. Congress that gave squatters the right to 'enter' (register) their land with the government and purchase it later when the tract became legally available for sale. The preemption laws protected settlers from claim jumpers and from having to bid against speculators at open auction." I found some 1800s court cases that confirm the existence of settler-protective "preemption laws," so this adds plausibility to the account. Thanks to commenter Alfred for the pointer.
With regard to non-sexually named towns, I've always liked Enigma, GA.
Norman Mailer once said that Endicot Peabody was the only governor of Massachusetts to have three cities named after him: Peabody, Marblehead, and Athol.
If you'll take roads as well as towns, Fishersville, Virginia (between Staunton and Waynesboro) is blessed with a Mule Academy Road. (It connects Barren Ridge Road to Tinkling Spring Road.) None of the locals have been able to tell me whether there was once a training school for mules in Fishersville, assuming mules are even trainable, or how it got its name.
Oblong, IL 62449
And since the competition seems to have been opened to foreign countries (Austria, Australia, Austrasia, whatever) there is a small coastal village in Viet Nam called Suc My D#ng.
I can't answer to that, but in the town where I lived, one of the local companies that would come around and pump out septic tanks had as its company motto:
Hogeye was apparently the result of a bureaucrat's misspelling of Haggai, after the OT prophet.
Then there is 56, Arkansas.
"EROS early sought mailing privileges from the postmasters of Intercourse and Blue Ball, Pennsylvania. The trial court found the obvious, that these hamlets were chosen only for the value their names would have in furthering petitioners' efforts to sell their publications on the basis of [**946] salacious appeal...."
Neither is Santa Claus, IN.
Needmore, IN? (Hey, don't we all?)
But the funniest city in the state is Gary. Though not really because of its name.
The first mayor's race was a tie, so a game of Show Low was used to select the winner. Recently, this happened again.
Liberal, Kansas. It isn't.
There's also another place called Ipava, Illinois. According to my grandfather, who was born not far from there, the town is named for Isaac Pava, who signed his name I. Pava. There's only one town with this name. Zip code is 61441.
Near the Rock River in Illinois, there's a town called Grand Detour. Zip code is 61021.
Great Snoring, Norfolk.
Ugley, Essex.
No Place and Pity Me, both in County Durham.
And everybody's favorite,
Beer, Devon.
Up near Buffalo, NY, we have Lackawanna, Cheektowaga and Tonawanda. All Indian names that some people find funny.
I like towns named after great cities of Europe, like Troy, Rome, Athens, Paris, Syracuse, Naples, Carthage, and so on.
Here in Washington, there is a part of town called Friendship Heights. And then there is Tenleytown, which sounds like a place for munchkins.
In addition to Vermont, Illinois also has an Oregon, a Washington, and a Virgina. Internationally, Illinois is represented with a Havana, a Cuba, a Peru, a Columbia, a Paris, a Marseilles, a Vienna, a Warsaw, a Waterloo, a Cairo, a Lebanon, and an Orient. Normal, Sandwich, Hometown, and Metropolis are eye-raising names to some in IL, but Mounds, IL gets the most snickers.
In the useless trivia department, there was once a state named Franklin, kind of. And if you already knew that, then you may have also have known the first written constitution adopted by "Americans" was established in that Franklin area in 1772. The Watauga Compact.
And if you ever get the chance, that is one of the most beautiful areas in the US, especially in fall.
Violent is fairly low in that part of the country, so the news papers don't think much about how a headline should work. That could account for the blaring local headline when a female from there was discovered to be a victim of foul play:
"Big Ugly Woman Found Murdered"
Another unusual one in Illinois-Foosland 61845 (near Champaign).
I see that Illinois has been cited a number of times here. I read somewhere (I cannot remember the source) that Illinois has more small towns than any other state in the nation. It said that 75% of the towns have a population of 750 people or less and that 75% of those have a population of 250 or less. Having driven the state any number of times I can certainly vouch that once you are out of range of Chicago, say 60 miles south or southwest you get nothing but farmland and small towns. Finally in California there appears to be a town or at least a road near Barstow named Zzyzx. I was not able to get a zip code on it. God knows how it is pronounced.
Mercer County Names
I am told, though I cannot verify from personal knowledge, that the developer of Uncertain had not settled on a name when it came time to file the plat. He entered "uncertain" in the space for a name and it stuck. Uncertain is loctaed on the back end of Caddo Lake, which is a large cypress swamp. I have always preferred the explanation that, once you are out on the lake, you are uncertain how to get back.
Coin, Iowa
What Cheer, IA
Osage, IA wasn't named for the Indian tribe, but after a banker named Sage. O. Sage
Then there's Primghar, Iowa. Which was named by taking the initials of the last names of the eight founders. The eight north-south streets in the city are each named after one of the founders.
High Point City website
Climax, NC
Horneytown crossroads
Home of Big Assawoman Bay! Represent!
I am told that Smut Eye is named for the dark sooty faces of coal miners, and Slapout is named for the poorly supplied general store where the usual response of the proprietor when asked for somethat was that "we're slap out of it".
"Don't forget the ever popular Condom, France."
You reminded me of my favorite name for a (Catholic) college: College of Notre Dame of Maryland. (Think initials. And irony.)
UDallas had flireted with the name Catholic University of North Texas before someone pointed out to the Hungarian Cistercians that one ought to avoid that string of initials. I'm not sure anyone explained *why*.
This reminds me of the famous South Hanoi Institute of Technology.
There used to be a Unitarian church in Kensington (a neighborhood in the northern part of Berkeley, CA) called the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley in Kensington. I believe the clumsy attempt to avoid the string of initials generated by the most obvious name proved, in the long run, a bit too obvious itself; it is now the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley.
Why do I have the suspicion that I would not fit in there? (I mean, besides the fact that I'm lower-middle class.)
Best name of a city in the Anglo-Saxon world: Wagga Wagga, NSW.
It even has an "Effect" named after it. Though by my lights it should be the "Roma Effect," after Roma, QLD.
George, WA.
Duck, NC.
Middle Spunk Lake, MN.
Hossier: ever taste the prize winning Cuvee Reserve Château-Bottled Nuit San Wogga Wogga?
Nameless
Buck Snort
Wartburg
Short Dix Creek
and
Dix Creek Number 2
"Heh-heh Beavis, he said number 2."
"Yeah-yeah, Butthead. And 'short dix.' Short. Heh-heh."
"Ashville is cool."
But... wait for it now... I have the winner. The big one.
And it's in North America.
It's just below. Scroll down.
Just a bit more.
It's a real place.
"Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump", Alberta, Canada
http://www.head-smashed-in.com/
It's long.
It's descriptive.
It says exactly what it means.
It's not just a (small) town, it's a historical site.
And it's FUNNY.