I love pouring over maps and finding silly names for towns and other places. I don't know why it entertains me so much but I can waste hours squinting at the tiny text on a road map. At college we had a map of the state of Georgia hanging in one of the hallways in the Art building, and during class breaks I would search for and circle the weirdest names I could find. My classmates thought I was crazy for a while but then started getting a huge kick out of the odd towns to the point that there would be four or five us standing in the hall looking at a map. Before the end of the school year a friend of mine took it down off the wall and snuck it into my dorm room. I've kept it ever since.
If you live around small towns you know that there are some communities with absolutely ridiculous names out there. Where do people come up with this stuff? Don't they realize people are going to be writing this on envelopes for years to come? Below are my Top 5 towns in Ohio with silly names.
5. Risingsun
All I could find about the village of Risingsun is that it includes 0.6 square miles, and is home to 620 people, as of the 2000 census. I'm guessing the name is from native American heritage, but it could just as easily be from the song. I know I would make a lot of House of the Rising Sun jokes if I lived there.
4. Alert
According to Google Maps, there are restaurants 5 miles away, but it looks like there is absolutely nothing in Alert. Such an ambitious name for a sleepy little town.
3. Brilliant
Wikipedia says that Brilliant was named after a glass factory that used to be in town. Which makes sense. Why it has also been known as Phillipsburg and La Grange, however, is unknown.
2. Cygnet
Cygnets are baby swans, cute fluffy little things that get mistaken for ducks and end up feeling ugly when really it is just a state of mistaken identity. Unless you're from Ohio, then it is also a town. If the Wikipedia photo is accurate they have a post office, fire station, AND a watertower! Talk about living it up!
1. Knockemstiff
This town has the best name ever. Apparently this is a ghost town, abandoned ages ago and is now just a dirt road going through the countryside. Where the name came from is a thing of myth; it's either because of a fight that broke out or is slang for moonshine. There are a few good ghost stories and photos about Knockemstiff on
forgottenoh.com - like Foggymoore, the permanently foggy dip in the road where ghosts are known to lurk. Someone from nearby Chillicothe wrote a book entitled Knockemstiff and there's even a story on the
New York Time's website about the town. This is, obviously, the most awesome of all of the weirdly named towns.
