One of Josh’s uncles came back with this photograph after a recent camping trip. Yes, this is a real sign for an actual place. Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu is the longest place name in the world. (Really! The Guiness Book of World Records says so!) In case you’re counting, it has 85 letters. I already counted. Of course it’s a Māori place name and it roughly translates to The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one.
Sure, it’s often called Taumata because… well… who can actually say all of that every time you want to talk about the place? Still, it’s pretty awesome. Can you imagine someone asking you where you’re from and you just casually but realistically being able to say “Oh yeah mate, I am from Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, New Zealand!” That would be sweet.
Do you live by a town or a place that has a cool history like that?
That’s impossible to pronounce :P
Wow. That’s like ridiculously long, but it’s an interesting meaning for it. I don’t think there are any places with that kind of history behind them around here.
Haha wow, what a great place name! I’m not even going to attempt to pronounce that :)
I used to live in Rotorua (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotorua) which has a bunch of cool history behind it. My “hometown” of Whangarei is also close to some really awesome historical places like Russell (the first capital of New Zealand) and Waitangi (where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed).
Nah, not really. But there is this in Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%E1%B8%B5wxw%C3%BA7mesh but its not that close to where I used to live.
Llanfair in Great Britain is like that… I think. Here is the article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll It’s not as long, but woah! Apparently the full name of the country Libya has 50+ characters.
I don’t live near any cool places like that. But it would very amusing to explain to someone where you’ve been or where you are from if you live near there. We have Woolloomooloo which is just a crap to spell, but that’s it! XD
The longest town name from around here that I can think of is RONKONKOMA!! Nothing too great, I know! ~ That sign is pretty amazing! ~ Love, Mom
That sign is AWESOME.
Awesome! You know those German words that are formed just like that, bu juxtaposition, so you get a big-ass word instead of a phrase, well, they got nothing on this one. :)
I tried to pronounce it, and then promptly gave up. There’s no way I could possibly do that, so Taumata it is :P
Sadly my city has a boringly normal name, actually the full name is made up of two words (both very easy to pronounce), and people only ever use the first one. We’re lazy people like that XD
pretty sure I’ve seen that sign on digg a few times :D
if anyplace around here has an interesting history, I don’t know about it :P
That’s really cool, LOL. :P Wills Point is a rural area of Texas, and Big Foot sitings have been seen? o.O Yeah … I guess that’s what Wills Point is known for. :O
Because I believe that everything and everyone is different, I believe that Pluto is a planet.
Purple is my mom’s favorite color. ^^ Mine is green.
… I disliked the layout in green, and the grey one didn’t go well with my blog post. I’m actually sick of grey for my blog.
I’m still giggling about “nose flute”.
I live in northern VA, just minutes from DC, so we’re pretty saturated in history here. My roommate is from South Carolina and she is blown away by how blasé we are about history up here. We saw a production at Ford’s Theatre and she was the only one excited about it, but we’ve all been going to Ford’s since we were kids so it’s not a real big deal to us.
A few years ago there was a commercial that came on the radio all the time where that town name was said.
The only interesting history about my town that I know off the top of my head is that a Revolutionary War battle was fought here. General Nathanael Greene, who our city is named after, defeated Lord Cornwallis.
Where I grew up, the australian river murray met the sea. Pretty cool. Also Dan Redcliffe filmed December Boys not far from where I live.
In Wales, UK, we have the longest place name in Europe: Llanfairpwllgwyngyll – its translation is St Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio by the red cave.
Wikipedia.
I’m from Hawaii and yes words can get that long in the native tongue lmao Even names can be long! :)
That sign is awesome! I love how much larger than the info sign it is! :D But erm, no, there’s no where around here with a name THAT long o_O I’d get tired of writing it.
Imagine needing to write that down every time you had to write down where you were from. Or having that printed onto your driver’s license. Gack.
LOL! I wish I lived in a place with a cool name like that. That would be awesome to tell people who asked me.
Ha! Awesome. But seriously, he played his nose flute? NOSE FLUTE? Uh …
LOL at the nose flute! Also, I think I just sprained my tongue trying to pronounce it :P
The only somewhat interesting fact about the name of my town is that nobody knows where the name comes from or what it means. It’s probably some old Sami word, but not even the Sami knows.
Taumata-what? That’s really awesome, though. I like the translation. :)
That just gave me a headache. omg.
It’s so hard to even look at or Even pronounce. Lol
That’s a pretty cool place though. It sounds interesting.
I’m also loving the translation.
The first thing I thought of was writing your address on an envelope or trying to tell a foreign call centre agent how to spell it. Wow.
Yep, and I don’t think my dad’s side of the family reads 6birds, but I know my mom reads it. Sometimes she gets mad because I write about my life and “too much of personal details”.
Like, I think she is mad at me because I said that blogging is just as important to me as whatever else it was we were talking about. Blah.
I feel like I’m always being pulled each way.
Wow! And I thought we had long words in Finnish: “epäjärjestelmällisyydellistyttymättömyydellänsäkään” (and don’t ask what it means in English, I don’t quite get in Finnish either ;D) but that place name is definitely quite extraordinary :D
So much fun! There isn’t enough space on a line of a form to fill that hometown on! I live on a street called ‘rue de la Libération’ (Liberation Street) in France. it was named after WWII when the Americans walked through here (then it was just a wheat field) from Normandie liberating the French from German occupation… as a French/American, living on such a historical street is very special for me, combining my and my sons’ two cultures!
That’s interesting and I did not know that such a place with so many characters exist! I definitely have to add this to my “places to visit” list! :p
Wow, 85 letters!! That is quite the name!
The Blogger
I'm Caity! I am a New Yorker who married a Kiwi and recently moved across the world to New Zealand. I'm a math teacher who enjoys the outdoors, photography, video games, music, and general geekery.
Life is a great big adventure and I am beginning a whole new journey. It isn't always easy but it is always worth it. ♥
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