Today, I discovered that Perkiomenville is an actual town.

[orangewhip]

    I have a collection of PBR calls that I downloaded, and the one where he mentions Perkiomenville get a lot of play (my kid loves that call, I think it's the "The have ring bologna at the Wawa I go to" episode).  I always imagined it as being spelled Perkyomenville.  As in "a perky omen".  I also thought Wurster was making it up.  But nope.  It's real.  DIfferent spelling, but still re al. Tom was right.  Why does everything in PA have weird names?

[jed]

    I have a collection of PBR calls that I downloaded, and the one where he mentions Perkiomenville get a lot of play (my kid loves that call, I think it's the "The have ring bologna at the Wawa I go to" episode).  I always imagined it as being spelled Perkyomenville.  As in "a perky omen".  I also thought Wurster was making it up.  But nope.  It's real.  DIfferent spelling, but still re al. Tom was right.  Why does everything in PA have weird names?

A lot of the towns, rivers and streets around Philadelphia are (probably butchered) Native American names, e.g. Manayunk, Passyunk, Weehawken (NJ), Conshohocken, Tuplehocken, Wissahickon, Susquehanna...

[Beth]

Jersey's got some weirdies.

My favorite has to be Ho-Ho-Kus

[orangewhip]

Michigan has Hell

[mokin]

I've always loved the weird names in Pennsylvania. Let's not forget King of Prussia. And Jersey Shore, which is located in the middle of the state, nowhere near the Jersey shore. A cruel cruel joke of a name.


In Oregon, so many towns seem to be named after other more famous or older towns. For example, there's Portland, Salem, Albany, Detroit, Lebanon, Damascus, Harrisburg, Toledo, Florence... probably others I don't know about. And then right across the border, about 15 minutes from Portland, there's Vancouver, WA. Which is the most confusing since there's another Vancouver just a little ways north.

The pioneers sure were unoriginal.

[mattmaher]

Here are some other Philly suburbs with odd names.

Bryn Athyn, Lower Gwynedd, Schwenksville, Schuykill, and Langhorne Manor

... and there is an actual Zieglerville, PA

[jed]

Here are some other Philly suburbs with odd names...Langhorne Manor

I guess no one calls Langhorne Manor by its full name anymore.  I used to go there every day and I didn't know that is what it was really named until I read your post this morning.

[Steve in North Hollywood]

Pennsylvania is not only loaded with place names that are hard to pronounce, it's also got plenty of towns that you wouldn't dare mention at the dinner table.  Like:
Blue Ball
Intercourse
Shipoke
Middlesex
and my personal favorite ...
Foulmouth! which is right near good ol' Three Mile Island.

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