There's a hot destination in Ireland that we haven't been to yet, but want to check out: Dingle. Doesn't the name alone make you want to visit this town in County Kerry, in the pretty southwest corner of Ireland? A recent decision could've made it very hard to find Dingle, but there's been a change of heart.
You see, changes to Irish language laws meant that the anglicized name of Dingle should actually have been changed back to its original Irish name of An Daingean. But many locals were concerned that the good reputation Dingle has with tourists--they say because of the landscape, we say because it's a silly name--would be lost, and with it, much of the town's revenue.
So in the friendly spirit of the Irish they've made a compromise. The official name of the town is now Dingle Daingean Ui Chuis. Nice choice, guys. We can really see that fitting nicely on a map.
It's just crazy what you can buy online these days. There was that guy who auctioned off his forehead (as advertising space, via tattoo) on eBay, and now a dude named Scott MacDonald is out to bask in the glory that comes with offering oneself up to the highest bidder. In exchange for cash, he'll let you choose his name.
Similar stunts are almost common these days, but the best part of Scott's scheme is that the highest bidder so far has offered $35,001 for him to legally name himself Schenectady New York. For those not in the know, Schenectady is a town in upstate New York, about 20 miles northwest of Albany. Scenectady has no booming tourism industry that we're aware of, though it is home to Union College and we may have stopped at a gas station there once or twice, and the high bidder is simply a t-shirt company.
If MacDonald is going to end up named for a place in the world, we're at least hoping some enterprising tourism board will catch on to his promotion. Armenia has a nice ring to it; Jordan is even a real name. The best, though, would clearly be Fjucky Sweden, and we hear they're looking to get rid of the moniker anyway. The auction ends on February 2, 2007.
Ever thought your hometown's name was a little dull, perhaps, or just not enticing for visitors? Spare a thought or two for the residents of the Swedish town of Fjuckby. Yes, F-J-U-C-K-B-Y, and if it's not already bad enough, you know that "J" is pronounced more like a "Y," of course. When the world was small and nobody spoke (or swore) in English, this village was happy. Globalization has destroyed that.
Unlike the people of Fucking, Austria, who don't want to change the name of their town, Fjuckby residents are desperate. They wrote:
The word 'Fjuckby' today appears to spontaneously and repeatedly lead to associations concerning certain carnal activities between people and between animals...This regrettable fact breeds feelings of weariness, embarrassment and conditioned shame among the residents.
The government office responsible for handling the matter suggests their chances, however, are not so good: town names are rarely changed in Sweden. They did change the name of Krakanger in the 1950s: fair enough, too, as the name translates to mean "vomit regret." A real "morning after" town.
What's in a name? A lot, if that's how you like to chose your travel destinations. Steve Knipp, over in the San Francisco Chronicle, points out that the name of a place can be considerably more evocative (and pleasant) that the reality. Atlantic City sounds pretty nifty to a Kiwi, right? Until they find out about the whole decay and Donald Trump thing, anyway.
We'd add that while the name changes of countries can be frustrating, not say a little bit disappointing, for the armchair traveler, they do tend to live on elsewhere. Ceylon is now Sri Lanka, but you can still buy Ceylon tea. Burma changed its name to Myanmar, but you can still listen to Mission of Burma--post-punk art bands and Southeast Asia go hand in hand, after all. Some names are just more fraught with excitement and possibilities: That's why there's not a single Vietnamese restaurant in the U.S. that's called Ho Chi Minh City Grill.
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by amandak
