CHANCES ARE THAT IF you come from a small town you are sick and tired of always having to describe to people where it is located. But if you're lucky, you won't have to explain why it ended up having one of these silly names!

This list is far from complete, and I have restricted myself to names where I could track down a sign and, wherever possible, a story to go with it. (I have also left a few out for reasons of taste.) If you know another one, and perhaps have a picture to illustrate it, I'd love to add it to this collection.

 
This quiet town is located in Transylvania, Rumania. It takes its name from a nearby river.

 
Pronounced SEX-mu-ahn, this Philippine town's name means "patriotic
meeting place beneath the nipa trees." Despite all the free publicity, the local council recently decided to alter the spelling to "Sesmuan"

 
A quiet place to be alone in southern Bavaria

 
Sighted in Lincolnshire, UK

 
Batman is a regional capital in eastern Turkey. Even though it is named after a local river and not after the Caped Crusader, in 2009 mayor
Hüseyin Kalkan sued director Christopher Nolan for allegedly stealing
his town's name for his movie The Dark Knight

Sighted in Oregon

 
Sighted in Leicestershire, UK. "Butt" is an Anglo-Saxon
word for water container

 
This lovely town in southwest France boasts not only some beautiful
medieval architecture but also a world-class prophylactics museum

Sighted in Devon, UK. The original meaning of this name has been lost
in the fog of history

 
Sighted in Spain

 
Sighted in Michigan

 
This town deep in Amish country derives its name either from a local
horse racing track or a crossroads

 
The name of this Danish port town means simply "middle passage"
and is shortened to "Melfar" in the local dialect

 
Sighted in upper Austria. The name has more to do with
the area's "red soil" than with actual eggs.

 
The proud town of Penistone in South Yorkshire
probably owes its distinctive name to the Celtic word
"penn," meaning "hill," and the Anglo-Saxon word
"tun," meaning "village"

 
This UK street probably has a similar story

 
The name of this Bavarian town translates to "cat brain"

 
Sighted in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The name
derives from "Kirchweiler," meaning "church village"

This lovely town is located on the River Piddle in Dorset, UK. "Piddle" derives from the Old English word pidele, meaning "marsh" or "fen"

 
This Brandenburg village translates to "puke,"
but derives from the Slavic name Cozym

 
I have no idea what this Albanian place name translates to.

Sighted in Cornwall, UK

 
Sorry, all I can say is that this rude Austrian place name has
anatomical implications

 
This name of this Dutch town probably has more to do with an old word for "monastery" than with Frankenstein

Sighted in Bavaria. Yes, it sounds just as silly in German. However,
the name probably goes back to Roman times and relates to the town's
original location on an island

 
Sighted in Norfolk, UK

 
Yes, it's a verb. The village bearing this exceedingly
rude name (even in German) is located in Saxony-Anhalt

 
What a difference a couple of letters make! This nearby town also has one of Germany's rudest names (the "ß" is a double-S), although it apparently derives from "Biscopestorp," an archaic name
meaning "bishop's village"

This apparently "bumpy" settlement in Brandenburg
translates to "bosom village." The name may derive
from a local monastery and the word "Buße" (penance)

The town of Pussy is located in the Haute Savoie region
of southeastern France. The charming name derives from an
ancient  Gallo-Roman landowner called Pusius

 
The name of this Harz Mountain village in Central Germany
translates to "worry." It derives from the medieval German
word "Zarge," meaning "boundary"

Shades of Stephen King:
The nearby Harz Mountain village of Elend translates to "misery."
It is named after a nearby river.

 
Sighted on the Orkney Islands, Scotland. The name goes
back to the Old Norse word þveit, meaning "small parcel of land"

 
One of Germany's rudest place names, "-hausen" merely refers to a
settlement. The three-letter prefix means a private activity that is
widely believed to cause blindness. In reality, however, the prefix
has Roman origins and is related to "village."

 
Sighted in Bavaria. "Titting" sounds just as silly in German, but
probably goes back to the Celto-Roman word
dunum, meaning "fortress"

 
The town of Wetwang is located in Yorkshire. Its rude name
may derive from the Old Norse term vaett-vangr, meaning
"field for the trial of a legal action."

 
The name of this Upper Austrian village derives from a certain Herr F*ck, who settled in this neighborhood centuries ago ("-ing" is a common place name suffix in this area). The local residents were not aware of the name's English meaning until American occupation soldiers pointed it out to them starting in 1945 (although you just have to change one letter to get the same effect in German). In a recent vote, the village council decided not to change the name. After all, the village of F*cking is quickly becoming one of Austria's premiere travel destinations, largely due to British tourists who like to stop off long enough for a photo. The sign itself is the most stolen one in Europe today.

The sign right below it has the children saying "Please - not so fast!"
It is ostensibly aimed at vehicle speeds, but as I always say,
context is everything...