Submitted by roadtrip-ne t3_z901u6 in boston
Comments
pyrusbaku57338 t1_iyejum5 wrote
There is a great video that talks just about that! Map Men
shoffing t1_iyf0fww wrote
Big +1 to map men, and this is one of their best!
"Could you mispronounce Frome for me?"
geminimad4 t1_iyetxpk wrote
>A town name ending in Ham meant village or estate.
Ah, so "hamlet" must be related to this?
As a word nerd, I enjoyed your post very much. Upstate NY has interesting names as well -- I learned that the town names ending in "-kill" are related to the Dutch term for "creek".
3720-To-One t1_iyewj6c wrote
Kill Van Kull always surprised me.
When I first saw it, my first thought was what did Van Kull do that you want to murder him?!
michael_scarn_21 t1_iyf5jee wrote
Hamlet has really entwined roots. I've copy pasted below because I'll explain it poorly if I do it myself. It's also interesting that while hamlet has partly French routes, town is obviously old English (tun) and city comes from the Latin word civitas.
From Middle English hamlet, hamelet, a borrowing from Old French hamelet, diminutive of Old French hamel, in turn diminutive of Old French ham, of Germanic origin, from Frankish *haim, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (whence English home). Equivalent to Middle English ham (“home, village”) + -let (“small”).
UniverseModulator t1_iyfem5u wrote
The -ham suffix is ultimately related to the word “home.” German cognate is “-heim”, such as “Mannheim.” “Heim” also directly translates to home.
BsFan t1_iye8o73 wrote
Must be wild for someone to come to Massachusetts from England and know the names of almost every town around them.
sihtydaernacuoytihsy t1_iye9svt wrote
Sure, but the emotional valences are all fucked. "I'm from Chelsea" rings different, na' mean?
Ex-Pat-Spaz t1_iyfc56c wrote
It’s even more wild to come from Massachusetts moved to England and surprise everyone of them by being able to pronounce the names correctly unlike most Americans.
tacknosaddle t1_iyetc9r wrote
Definitely. A college friend from England came home with me and was weirded out when the highway sign listed a town from next to where he went to school and as he kept seeing other familiar place names.
michael_scarn_21 t1_iyedpzv wrote
Oh it is lol.
simolaw t1_iyf98e2 wrote
Yep we're there over Christmas...from the cathedral city of Lincoln here in the UK
hobokenbob t1_iye9zzg wrote
To bad we didn't ape some of the more fun British town names like Bitchfield,Netherthong, Cocks, Shitterton, Scratch Arse Ware, Wetwang or Fingeringhoe.
(look em up I'm not making those up.
michael_scarn_21 t1_iyetd65 wrote
I grew up near a place in England called Cockwood lol
Ex-Pat-Spaz t1_iyfaspx wrote
Not trying to be pedantic here but Scratch Arse Ware is not a town or village, it’s the name of a hiking trail and it’s Fingrininghoe.
But there other places over here called Penistone. There’s a name of a road called Fanny Hands Road. Fanny doesn’t mean ass in the UK, it means the name of a female body part.
marktheman0 t1_iyf53ed wrote
I went to Sandy Balls once. There is also a place in the far north of Scotland called Twatt. Which is kinda ironic because I am from the south coast of England. And what’s the similarity between my hometown and my sex life throughout most of my life until my mid 20s (apart from a few glorious years around 20/21)? Despite my best efforts, I was always a long way from Twatt. Badom ting.
___HeyGFY___ t1_iyerjqs wrote
Norton (north)
Sutton (south)
Easton (east)
Weston (west)
Middleton (middle)
What happened in Mass?
hce692 t1_iyf4unj wrote
To be fair Weston is west of Boston
Replevin4ACow t1_iyexv71 wrote
It's crazy that the British left their country, crossed an ocean, and discovered a place where the towns all had the same names!
/s
thebig01 t1_iyerh1r wrote
I visited Christchurch NZ once and one of the main streets in the city center is Worcester street. One of the first things I asked was how they pronounced it and it's the same as us. Some of the locals were impressed I pronounced it correctly first try.
outsideroutsider t1_iyeny5r wrote
What I'm curious about is the lack of "New" prefix to town names like New York, New Hampshire, New England, New London, New Haven... etc
michael_scarn_21 t1_iyfcpov wrote
Interestingly Cambridge, MA was originally known as Newtowne. Once Harvard was founded, naming the town after the famous university city in England appealed to the citizens.
tacknosaddle t1_iyetj92 wrote
>New York
It'll always be New Amsterdam to me.
Ex-Pat-Spaz t1_iyfbb2k wrote
I live nearish to Newhaven, England. It’s spelled like that, one word.
bellicosebarnacle t1_iyex65x wrote
Missing Lincoln, just northwest of Boston!
marktheman0 t1_iyf4jlo wrote
And Chelsea in West London. Shirley, Weston and Stoneham are also suburbs of my hometown (Southampton)
roadtrip-ne OP t1_iyf7iop wrote
You know, I wasn’t sure if Lincoln was for Abe or for the UK. The three most common town names in Massachusetts are places in the UK, Native American words and Founding Fathers.
simolaw t1_iyf9lik wrote
My home town in the UK... fabulous medieval cathedral, once the tallest building in the world for 300 years!
KGBspy t1_iyfbhjf wrote
I've been to Brighton over in the UK, London and the UK is a great country to visit and I've been several times w/USAF and now as a civilian. Back in 2007 I was on a mission to get patches from each fire department w/the same name of my department. I contacted the one over there (it doesn't exist per-se) I did a patch swap of my fire department to the one over there and ended up corresponding w/a guy from that department. I try to go to London on even years each Dec and we meet up, he's been here a few times as well and we met up out in Framingham while he was staying in Boston w/his wife. Great guy, has a nice wife, works as a paramedic for NHS, great friend, all because of a patch swap in 2007.
tateotw t1_iyehitz wrote
ITT: you missed a couple!
roadtrip-ne OP t1_iyesa0y wrote
I can imagine I did. I hope to expand the map to include the Midlands, Scotland and Ireland plus include the other New England states. Maine was technically Massachusetts in the early days and should follow in naming convention
Michelanvalo t1_iyeruaj wrote
That's neat, I've never seen it laid out like this
Rossum81 t1_iyeu9dm wrote
Any in Scotland or Ireland?
roadtrip-ne OP t1_iyf7vt0 wrote
I’m hoping to expand to include the whole of the British Isles.
theurbanmapper t1_iyf27s7 wrote
Royal Borough of Kingston! Maybe now that the royals are here we could get them to elevate the commuter rail station there…
Snufflarious t1_iyeonmx wrote
You say you want a revolution
thezenviousone t1_iyf9813 wrote
Where’s Flutieville?
roadtrip-ne OP t1_iyf9ouj wrote
Boston College is in Chesnut Hill on the border with Newton. His statue is at the stadium
RobNY54 t1_iyfavu0 wrote
Billerica here - Billericay there pretty 😎
hce692 t1_iyf4ny9 wrote
Exeter, Newport and Portsmouth all on that map not circled too
roadtrip-ne OP t1_iyf6pxr wrote
Just Massachusetts here
hce692 t1_iyf6zar wrote
I know! Just pointing it out, thought it was interesting :)
michael_scarn_21 t1_iyedmv5 wrote
Place names are very interesting and often changed much over the centuries. For example Exeter (we have one in NH and one in RI locally) was founded by the Romans as "Isca," Over the centuries it became Exanceaster, Excester and finally Exeter.
If a town name ends in Cester or Chester, for example Gloucester, Exeter or Worcester, it comes from the old English ceaster which means a Roman fort or town. It is a borrowing from the Latin "castrum."
A name ending in sex denotes a Saxon origin. For example Essex was the land of the East Saxons. There is also Middlesex, Sussex etc.
Borough is a corruption of the Saxon burh which meant a fort or fortified town. King Alfred the great was famous for establishing burhs across his kingdom.
A town name ending in Ham meant village or estate.
Wic means trading settlement or dwelling place.