Thursday, November 23, 2006

Cooler-Than Cool City Names

Don't get me wrong, Anchorage is fine and dandy but wouldn't it be that much cooler with a name like one of these beauties? I love the sounds of language. Grace, with her junior-high German class interests kept voting for European cities but darn it, Potsdam just doesn't do it for me.

13. Bogota, Colombia. I don't care if it is all about the drugs, it's a great name. You can mess with the accent on different syllables if you want to sound cooler.

12. Tripoli, Libya. And "Mommar Gadhafi" isn't bad either for a Evil Despot monkiker, if he'd just stick to one spelling. Is he still alive anyway?

11. Medellin, Colombia. Okay, so what's with those Colombians? Are all their cities so fun to say?

10. Marrakesh, Morrocco. It could be the Crosby, Stills and Nash song but nonetheless a great name and high on my list.

9. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. No, it's not a revival of Swedish disco it's a city at the bottom of Mount Entoto (a good name too).

8. Timbuktu, Mali. Also spelled Tombouctou--which I think I like even better.

7. Kinshasa, Congo. Africa has the highest per-capita of Cool City Names. It's true.

6. Reykjavik, Iceland. Iceland is so--I don't know blah but Reykjavik, now THAT'S a name!

5. Mombasa, Kenya. I'm in Africa, flying in an open cockpit plane over a flock of flamingoes with Robert Redford every time I hear this word.

4. Kathmandu, Nepal. Also with a fine song to accompany by Kat Stevens (and don't leave me a message, I know it's Cat Stevens, I'm being cute here). Who hasn't wanted to try this city?

3. Tegucigalpa, Hondura. South America's bid for the Coolest Ever City Name.

2. Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Yea, you've probably never been there but you know the name. Or maybe you don't. You should, it's so fun to say.

1. Barranquilla, Colombia. Just enjoy the feel of those Rs roll around on your tongue.

More about the Thursday Thirteen meme

48 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol. :) if only i could roll my R's.. i'm sure it all SOUNDS interesting though!

Anonymous said...

#6! My dad was stationed there in the Air Force! How cool.
Also, I have a sister who lives in Wasilla. She loves Alaska. Her hubby's family have been there forever. Run a big nursery.
Thanks for stopping by my Thursday Thirteen.
Yah, MG is the only one I've ever known to put olives in potato salad. I was skeptical at first...but it's REALLY good! He wants to impress my family tomorrow. :D
Happy Thanksgiving.

Anonymous said...

I've always liked the way marakesh and Reykjavic roll off the tongue. I think they're pretty cool city names. Thanks for stopping by

Anonymous said...

i love marrakesh! thats the coolest name ever!

Anonymous said...

Cool list! :) What a creative idea for Thursday Thirteen. :)

Since I spent the last year learning German, I've become partial to German city names. Munich, for instance, sounds much nicer in German - München. :)

LOL at #10. Crosby, Stills and Nash song. ;) But Marrakesh does roll off the tongue so nicely. :)

Happy T13. :)

Bec said...

Can't believe you completely missed Australia here:

Toowoomba
Cootamundra
Gulargumbone
Gilgandra
Coolangatta
Wangaratta
Woolloomooloo
Colleambally
Warialda
Urunga
Murwillumbah
Narrabri
Collarenabri

With our compliments!

lilfeathers2000 said...

Stepping out on a politically incorrect limb
*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*
HAVE A GOD BLESSED
THANKSGIVING.
*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*

lilfeathers2000 said...

Stepping out on a politically incorrect limb
*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*
HAVE A GOD BLESSED
THANKSGIVING.
*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*:-.,_,.-:*

Anonymous said...

I love your list and the additions in the comments! I like the sound of different languages too. You should try some Dutch! ;-)
Happy Thanksgiving! My TT is about past life regression.

Unknown said...

Im not sure i can pronounce most of those, but you are right, they are cool names

Unknown said...

Funny list, great comments =)
my tongue is knotted right now...

Happy Thanksgiving from Germany,

S.

The Mistress of the Dark said...

Now that's a neat idea for a Thirteen. Hmmm I wonder what we could call Pittsburgh. Ok, nevermind, what we ususally call it isn't exactly nice :)

Happy TT :)

i am jen [with1n] said...

Great list....thanks for sharing!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Anonymous said...

How fun!! Personally, I'm partial to Amy, Kansas. :)

Thanks for visiting and Happy Thanksgiving!

Julie Q. said...

What fun. We laughed at some of these helping Ethan learn his capitals for school. His favorite was Harare Zimbabwe. But pretty much anything sounds cool with Zimbabwe.

I'm totally with you on #5, Meryl.

Anonymous said...

happy TT. thanks for visiting my blog.

Her Bad Mother said...

My favorite place names: Schenectady. Cadaques. Nice. Mumbai. Rennes les Chateaux. Torremolinos.

Love the sounds...

Erica Douglas said...

My faves are number 9 and number 5 :)

Anonymous said...

What a neat idea for a TT. I love names like that too. Have a great day!

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy TT!

Anonymous said...

Love Tripoli and Reykjavik (and I can pronounce it correctly, thanks to the Air Force).

My cousin and I used to try to combine as many city names in one sentence as possible, twisting them to make them into verbs and nouns instead of places. For example:

They serve Bern-ed CatManDoo at the New Delhi in Bangkok.

Why Bangkok? Because it's the funniest serious name of a city that ever was.

Renee said...

Oh come on...Calgary, Alberta and
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan don't do it for ya?
That's OK...I love them anyway.
Great blog!

Lisa said...

Have a fun Thanksgiving. (And I'm forwarding your link to a good friend of mine. I can't beleive how you look EXACTLY like her! You have a twin in Illinois!)

Lisa said...

OH and thanks for the "Happy Feet" review. Good to know!

Anonymous said...

Now if only my city of Longmont would rename itself. ;)

Anonymous said...

hi, i love the name bogota too. did you know that columbia was named the 2 best place in the world to live!
happy thanksgiving

Anonymous said...

I loved this list. And you live in one of my favorite places in the world to visit...Alaska. I've been there twice and want to go back.

My list is my favorite concerts.

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Happy Thanksgiving and TT! What a great list, but how do you say that second-to-last one? I need a pronunciation guide!

Scribbit said...

My deepest apologies to the Australian contingency who was grossly overlooked. It's due to my utter lack of Australian geography past the basic Melbourn, Tasmania, Queensland, Sydney, Alice, English-root names. Thanks for setting me straight Bec :) If it helps alleviate the pain, I also left off a lot of cool Alaska names--but that's mostly because I did a list of those cities ages ago, you'd have to go to the list index for those. I stand corrected :)

Celfyddydau said...

There are some great ones there. Here's a Welsh one for you

llanfairpwllgwyngyllgochgerychwrydropwyllantysiliogochgochgoch

Yes it really is a place name. It's on Angelsey

Scribbit said...

That's funny because just as I posted my return comment I thought, "Oh, there are probably lots of Welsh ones too" but I couldn't possibly give you any examples because Welsh is a complete and utter mystery to me.

And my brother will get on my case for not including any Chinese names, but they're hard for me to come by too. Ones I like anyway.

Anonymous said...

So much fun!

How about Toungoo, Myanmar?

Scribbit said...

Oh yes, and I've always been partial to Kuala Lampur, that one nearly made it.

Anonymous said...

I agree with rav'n-- words like Marakesh just roll off the tongue so wonderfully. :)

Thanks for stopping by my T13. To answer your pondering about the cinnamon stick for my turkey-- it's used as an aromatic during roasting. It's completely for smell, not for flavor.

SUEB0B said...

Oaxaca. Wa-HA-Ca. The difference between the spelling and the sound is why I was intrigued enough to go there LOL.

And one that had so much mystery for me as a child and so much sadness for me as an adult is Baghdad. It used to be such a magic-carpet-sounding place.

Anonymous said...

Great list! Africa certainly has some cool place names. My hubby is Kenyan, and has told me about places I hadn't seen on any maps! Lol! When he speaks swahili, that's even better - there are some swahili words I'll likely never get my tongue around! ;)

Anonymous said...

I think the Newf's have the market cornered on cool names (all in one place). Where else can you find Bumblebee Bite, Dildo, Come-by-Chance, Blow-me-down, Jerry's Nose, Conception Bay, Dog Cove, Cat Gut...

Teena in Toronto said...

Very cool list! I've never been to any of those places.

Thanks for stopping by mine!

Joan said...

What an interesting idea for a post. You must be a language lover like I am.

Anonymous said...

Excellent list -- I heartily concur!

Anonymous said...

Awesome list!

Anonymous said...

hahahah you were on a ROLL!

Anonymous said...

I haven't ever heard of more than half of those places. Guess I need to get out the globe.

Anonymous said...

Very great list!
Some of them are really tongue-twisting...

Hope you had a happy thanksgiving.

Greetings from Germany,
Sonny

http://sweetlikekitty.blogspot.com

Sophisticated Writer said...

Yes, the Libyan President is still alive :)

Nice idea for a TT.

Anonymous said...

What about "Kautokeino"? Thats fun to say in kind of a finnish accent.

Audun

Anonymous said...

lol...some of this names are so funny,i cant even pronounce them. Names

David said...

Timbuktu and Marrakesh are cool to pronounce!