What’s In A Name?

In Wales, on the island of Anglesey, there is a village named:

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking I placed my hands above the keyboard and wiggled my fingers randomly so as to type a line of gibberish. It’s understandable you would think that. But no, that “gibberish” really is the name of the village. And it raises a few questions in my mind.

First, when writing the name of their village, how do the residents know if they’ve made a typo? The entire name looks like one long typo.

Second, how does one address mail to this place? Maybe people abbreviate the name to “Llanfairpwllgwyngyll” – but then the postman may get confused and deliver the letter to another village whose name begins with “Llanfairpwllgwngyll.” Remember, this is Wales. There are probably a number of villages whose names begin with “Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.”

Third, how do you write this name on a form? Like, when you’re applying for a driver’s license? Or completing a job application? Or applying for a credit card? My own city’s very ordinary name contains 16 characters and yet I often have to abbreviate it. How do Welsh people deal with 58 letters? Are there no forms in Wales?

I’m sure the Welsh did this deliberately. By that, I mean they intentionally named their village using a long string of gibberish. Then they tell tourists that it’s not gibberish and that it means means such-and-such, all while stifling a big laugh. But guess what, Welsh people – you’ve been one-upped. There is a place in New Zealand with an even longer name! And that name is:

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu

Again, I’m assuming there is no typo in the name, but how would we know? And the name has longer variants. For example, there is "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaurehaeaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu" and the even longer “Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateahaumaitawhitiurehaeaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu.”

The longest place name in the United States is Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg located in Webster, Massachusetts. It isn’t the longest place name in the world, but it does have the most uses of the letter “g” (17) and the most uses of the letter “a” (10) of any word in the English language. The local newspaper in Webster just discovered that some signs at the lake have misspelled the name for years – and no one noticed. Are we surprised?