What Balkan country has the nicest place names in your opinion?
Posted by Happy-Hour88@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 92 comments
As a Bulgarian I will choose Romania, Albania and Kosovo.
Romania because I love Latin languages and it's a huge patchwork of different influences. Alba Iulia sounds Roman, then they have Hungarian (Arad, Timisoara), Slavic (Bistrita, Targoviste) and even local Dacian (Deva)-derived place names.
Albania has a great variety as well. Albanian itself has come with some nice place names (Durres, Vlore), while other place names probably come from Greek (Gjirokaster) and Slavic (Pogradec) but I like their modifications where available like in Gjirokaster, Corovode and Rrogozhinë with the cool double R.
Same applies to Kosovo, so those are my top 3. What about yours?
Ujemegaz@reddit
Greece. Manu place names there sound familiar...
Thodor2s@reddit
Eh... Sure, our place names are nice-sounding and recongizable but if you actually speak Greek the etymology is usually pretty cringe.
Αιγάλεω for example, a suburb of Athens, named after a nearby hill (a rather tall one, almost a mountain), pronnounced Egaleo with a soft g, right? Ancient name, nice sounding, starts with Alpha ends with Omega. You would think this extremely prominent geographical feature would be named after something cool? But it literally means "Goat people" because the people who raised goats were
Think the other mountains that define the Athens Platau have better names?
Υμηττος - Himittos -> Shimmering Rock
Πεντέλη - Penteli (where the Marble comes from)-> Five... Something
Βριλησσός - Vrilissos (the ancient name of Penteli) -> STRONG Rock
Πάρνηθα - Parnitha -> Etymology lost, probably for the best...
See what I mean?
Frank_cat@reddit
Not quite.
Penteli and Vrilissos were both used in antiquity for the same place.
Parnitha ans Himittos are Bothe pre-hellenic
On the other hand name places like Arcadia, Attica, Achaia etc sound splendid.
Dont they?
In fact most places do.
Thodor2s@reddit
Yeah, high profile Greek regional names (the first ones that come to mind) really do slap. But if you actually zoom at a map of Greece it's all over the place.
Happy-Hour88@reddit (OP)
Unpopular opinion but the nicest sounding ones aren't even Greek - Santorini and Corfú are both their Italian names. I think the original Greek names of those two aren't as well sounding. Yesh Corfú comes from the Medieval Greek name but still sounds nicer than that somehow.
Thodor2s@reddit
This is indeed an unpopular opinion especially for the examples used here.
First of all... Corfu isn't an Italian name. It comes from the Byzantine Greek "Κορυφού" and means... "2 Peaks" island, whereas Corfus original name, Κέρκυρα (Cerkyr) is a Nymph, Daugther of Poseidon, and the Greeks call it that probably because it literally sounds better... So...
(...also fuck Christian censorship, this happened A LOT)
And Santorini's... name? Also somewhat Christian censorship, but more acceptable and also latin in Origin. Little known fact: The original Greek names of the 2 Islands of the Santorini Archipelago are Thera and Therasia, a play of words. Sounds fun right? It's not meaningful at all. It just means "Hunting Island, and little Hunting Island".
So... It's no surprise to me that given a bunch of names to chose from, the Greeks historically chose the one with the most meaningful etymology/myth/history. But most Greek places are actually named after pretty mundane and uninteresting things. Turns out, even with 2 religions that have a whole bunch of minor deities, heroes and saints, you can still end up with places like "Flow Island" (Rhodes) "Empty Island" (Sifnos) and my personal favorite... "Island Island" (from 𐀐𐀩𐀳 -that's mycenian for island - which gives us the name Crete)
Happy-Hour88@reddit (OP)
It is unpopular among Greeks but popular with foreigners who prefer Santorini to Thera and Corfu to Kerkyra.
Frank_cat@reddit
It's not that Santorini & Corfu sound better than Thera & Kerkyra.
They are exonyms and are used by foreigners.
Like Greece is an exonym and is used more than Hellas
Happy-Hour88@reddit (OP)
Idk Italian, like French sounds more exquisite than Greek. Greek sounds a bit harsh. Ancient but harsh, not as sing-songy like names like Monfalcone, Brescia, Lecce or sophisticated like La Rochelle, Paris, Orleans, and compound names like La Roche-sur-Yon or Port-la-Nouvelle.
Even when it's just a tiny village it usually sounds like the most fashionable location in French or Italian.
Your language also lacks the ch, sh, zh, dzh sounds. Spanish lacks most of these as well but they have the ch as in chips. I bet you say something like "tsips" instead.
"I'm going to Ronchi dei Legionari or Port-la-Nouvelle" sounds kind of better for bragging than "I'm going to Parga or Kastrosikia". It's not like those places are better than the Greek ones in all cases, it's just the way their names sound kind of more marketable and nicer to me. Greek has beautiful female names so I hope there at least are towns or villages named Teodora or Daphne somewhere.
Rundas77@reddit
Do you know any other places outside of Athens? lol
Happy-Hour88@reddit (OP)
Is it Patras or Patra, I don't know why the S is dropped sometimes.
SE_prof@reddit
Actually in English Patras, like Athens is supposed to be plural, because the city is named after the inhabitants. For example Municipality of Athens is actually translated to Δήμος Αθηναίων (the city of the Atheneans). Same thing for Patras.
Thodor2s@reddit
It's both. Patra is the nominative case and Patras is the gentitive case. And sometimes it's not the nominative case that makes it into English (see Athens and not Athena)
Happy-Hour88@reddit (OP)
So Greek has cases, omg. I will never learn it.
Designer-Touch9263@reddit
I dont want to other get me wrong dont attack me please, but all this Kosovan place names are just modified Serbian names, for example Obiliq is actually Obilić (serbian knight Miloš Obilić who killed sultan Murat in Kosovo battle back in 1389...), Gjilane is Gnjilane etc... Not original at all
Krasniqi857@reddit
Serbs on their way to modify albanian names like Gjilan or Ferizaj into their versions only to cry when the albanians revert them back
Rotfrajver@reddit
To be fair, Ferizaj is older name of the city than Uroševac. However even the official Wikipedia of the city's demographics shows:
As was the case throughout entire Kosovo. Albanian population only began to rise during the Ottoman occupation and cleansing of Serbs during the 2 "Great Serbian migrations" during that period.
Ujemegaz@reddit
No one is denying that Slavs were present in Kosovo. When Skanderbeg was halted by Brankovic to join Hunyad, he carried out reprisals in Kosovo field out of spite after learning that Turks had won so it logical to assume that Serbs lived there. But Kosovo then was known as Kosovo field, which was just place where skirmishes happened, not a province, which comprised a much smaller territory than Kosovo now which includes Dukagjin. Kosovo as a province was formed by Ottomans for administrative purposes and Skopje was the center, go figure, and included regions which had nothing to do with the famous Kosovo field. Regarding ethnic composition, speaking frankly, the scale changed back to Albanians' favour after the cleansing of Albanians around Nish region in 1876-84 period. A city which bears an Albanian toponym, go figure. Our government in 1912 asked to include the western half of Kosovo as part of newly established Albanian state, along with Diber and some parts of Macedonia. In middle ages Albanians mostly occupied the mountains and we were oftenly confused with Vlachs. Slavs are more agricultural society, but of course, this is generalizing and not 100% true. We should all admit that masses lived next to each other then, and that newly formed kingdom of Serbia started a modern feud with Albanians by expelling after annexing territories. I am aware of Bushatllinjs sending armies to crush Serbian revolutions, but the scale of the events is different, plus it is not like Bushatllinjs represented Albanians in those regions, our pashaliks fought against each other most of the time. Serbia embraced nationalism much sooner than us and had the chance to influence us, but the kingdom chose to anathemize us.
Krasniqi857@reddit
this is the best comment here. Sad that serbs will completely ignore this and regurgitate the state mandated propaganda of us being ottoman sent settlers
Krasniqi857@reddit
Nah, they existed even before that in Kosovo, they existed there even before the slavic migration. Tvere is even enough mentions of that literally on the internet to google.
those old outdated infos you people got shoved into your throats by your gov wont work anymore
Ok-Alternative-6248@reddit
Tell us the demographics before the slavs came to balkans, i want to see something.
Designer-Touch9263@reddit
Lol youre delusional
uhm_akshually@reddit
You have no argument so you just throw insults instead.
Everybody knows that "Ferizaj" is the older placename, and that the Serbian kingdom changed the name to Uroševac
Designer-Touch9263@reddit
I dont have arguments? Im not the one who started provocating and insulting...
Ujemegaz@reddit
Nish is my favourite place name.
lelebato@reddit
Niš comes from Roman Naissus which comes from older Celtic names. And its meaning was always centered around water/rivers. It means absolutely nothing in Albanian and has 0 connections
drminjak@reddit
Slavic version of the name naissus, lol
Designer-Touch9263@reddit
Old good albanian provocatkr continuing with his non sense comments...
Ujemegaz@reddit
What is provocatkr 😂
Designer-Touch9263@reddit
Its called provocator and its my misstyping, Ik albanian brain is small but how you didnt understand at least one letter mistake?
Ujemegaz@reddit
🤣
Hyllius1@reddit
All of them? Really?
There are some, yes. Just like in every other neighbouring country. Is that so unusual?
Designer-Touch9263@reddit
They our neighbouring country since 2008. What Serbs does centuries before indepedence of Kosovo? Did they give albanian names to their villages and cities??
ChemicalBrilliant905@reddit
You can see how the name of every place in "kosovo" is on the Serbian language ;)
BiscottiExcellent195@reddit
Big bathroom, big village, the german rock, Cum city, heynut, you smell, screaming.
indeed, beautiful names.
Happy-Hour88@reddit (OP)
Who cares about the meaning, Latin languages sound the best to me. Alba Iulia, Valencia, Viana do Castelo, Santander, La Rochelle...
RogerSimonsson@reddit
The competition with Slavic isn't really a tough one... yesterday I drove by Trastenik, Dve Mogili, and Cherven
blue_pencil@reddit
Baia Mare, Satu Mare, Piatra Neamt, ???
BiscottiExcellent195@reddit
slobozia, băicoi, miroși, urlați
Standard-Pepper-6510@reddit
Orașul de Floci
Happy-Hour88@reddit (OP)
Slobozia sounds like it comes from Serbian.
Less-Voice@reddit
Slobozia comes from the word slobod, which has Bulgarian origins.
Responsible_Low3349@reddit
Thank you. You know more than majority of Romanians.
MeaninglessSeikatsu@reddit
Big bathroom is lore like Nagy Baja which would be translated from Hungarian to big mine
IamMefisto-theDevil@reddit
Heynut = Hey Testicle!
Other funny ones:
Big Barn, Small Barn (Sura Mare, Sura Mica) Little Fountains (Fântânele) Clit Upper Courtyard Birds, Lower Courtyard Birds (Porumbacu de Sus, Porumbacu de Jos) White Fountain (Fântâna Alba) Little Tower (Turnisor) Red Tower (Turnu Roșu) The ones that Scream = Screamers (Urlați) Lizard Town (Gusterita) Copper Bathroom = Copper Bath (Baia de Arama) Horse Riders (Călărași)
wadaphunk@reddit
Obligatory add: Flămânzi - Hungry people
Reatrd@reddit
There's a grind around arad/deva
BarbaraHoward43@reddit
I just went through Porumbacu de Jos, lol.
IamMefisto-theDevil@reddit
:))
Nasethz@reddit
Cum city?????
Guy_WithThe_Glasses@reddit
What about cum God? (Spermezeu)
OsarmaBeanLatin@reddit
Slobozia. It technically means "Freedom city" but in modern Romanian "sloboz" is a vulgar slang for sperm (derived from the same Slavic root)
morphick@reddit
Don't forget Marrylings (Însurăței), Girlish (Fetești), Deafing (Surdila), Lippy (Buzău), Smoked (Afumați), Drooly (Băleni), Beerings (Berești), Hilly Longfield (Câmpulung Muscel), Mountain Tomato (Roșia Montană), Severin Tower Drobeta, YoBallz (Băicoi), Pouty (Botoșani) and Caracal (no comment).
betacarotentoo@reddit
Baia=mina. Baia Mare = Mina Mare, pentru că pari a avea lipsuri.
AibofobicRacecar6996@reddit
You must be fun at parties.
morphick@reddit
r/woosh
BiscottiExcellent195@reddit
esti foarte inteligent, ce pot spune
robba9@reddit
SCREAM
morphick@reddit
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=btst0VEojP4
TheSamuil@reddit
I still remember many years ago when I was watching Castlevania for the first time, the events taking place in Turgovishte / Tirgovishte. At first I thought something like "Those stupid westerners don't know Turgovishte is in Bulgaria, not Romania", but I was actually the ignorant one. I suppose that naming a town "marketplace" is quite common
SoulEkko@reddit
Banat = Banned
Ploiesti = The rained ones
Bucuresti = The happy ones
Pitesti = The hidden ones
Focsani = The fiery ones
Bucovina = The buttcheek's fault
Spermezeu = Cum god
And many more.
shqiptarski1444@reddit
Alba lulia sounds beautiful, like white flower
Valuable-Layer-7798@reddit
Looks like Romania could Moldova to change their name to East Moldova 🤣🤣🤣
Moldorancea@reddit
Especially since some of them claim they are heir of the old Principality of Moldavia when the real heir is the Romanian Moldova.
Fun fact, they do call our Moldova “Western Moldova.”
Valuable-Layer-7798@reddit
They have territorial aspirations! Do they call Romania ‘Big Moldova’?
Moldorancea@reddit
Some pro-Russians in the Republic dream about the Big Moldova that will encompass Romanian Moldova.
Ok-Goal-3696@reddit
Not the heir guy again 😭
Moldorancea@reddit
Am râs 😂
eyes_on_everything_@reddit
România in my opinion but I might be biased ☺️
Expensive-Cat-4455@reddit
As a Romanian I believe that the best names are in Greece by far. Zakynthos, Naxos, Mykonos. Not to mention of course Sparta, Athens, and so on. What names are cooler than that?
Happy-Hour88@reddit (OP)
We all have different tastes. I usually prefer the Italian versions of Greek places like Santorini and Corfu. There's a reason they stuck with foreigners, they're better-sounding than the Greek originals.
I like some Greek people's names like Daphne and Theodora but I don't know if they have places names like that. The Greek names I like are those that remind me of Latin languages like Florina or Slavic-sounding ones like Metsovo or Preveza.
I'm more into Romance and Basque place names like La Rochelle, Amarante, Las Palmas, Marbella, Santander, Biarritz, Ferrara, both Donostia and San Sebastian, Alba Iulia, Bordeaux, Lacanau.
Syrmin@reddit
Rascia and Syrmia
betacarotentoo@reddit
Oltenia is part of Wallachia (Tara Romaneasca in Romanian), together with Muntenia. Bucovina is part of Moldova, even though it was part of the KK empire for more than 100 years.
Usernamenotta@reddit
KK?
NothingSubstantial17@reddit
K und K Kaiserlich und Königlich. Austro-Hungary
spezigotten@reddit
Banat
floare_salbatica@reddit
I'm travelling by train rn and just passed by a small station called Boboc (=bud).
Hefty_Jaguar4305@reddit
I would choose Romania-Dobrogea because I find the Tatar language there beautiful. I also find the Kosovar Albanian language beautiful.
Response_Low@reddit
Slavonia
RArchdukeGrFenwick@reddit
Transilvania - Siebenbürgen - Erdély - Ardeal has some of the most epic names in Europe: Hammersdorf/Gușteriță, Schäßburg/Sighișoara/Szegesvár, Eisenstadt/Alba Iulia/Gyulafehérvár, Neumarkt/Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely, Großwardein/Oradea/Nagyvárad, Hermannstadt/Sibiu/Nagyszeben, Mühlbach/Sebes/Szászsebes, Mediasch/Mediaș/Megyes, Salzburg/Ocna Sibiului, Kleinkopisch/Copșa Mică, and so on.
Due_Atmosphere_5315@reddit
Kosovo and Metohija is a province not a country
Krasniqi857@reddit
go on then, find me one serbian inforcer in this "province,"
im sure the parliamemt there is full of serbs who say we are nothing but a province. Delulu serbs lol
Due_Atmosphere_5315@reddit
Bro you are just an Albanian
Krasniqi857@reddit
the 95% of the "province" with its own state
Due_Atmosphere_5315@reddit
It's temporary, there used to be 3.5 million Germans in Czechia and 6 million east of the Oder and Nissa, today there's none
Krasniqi857@reddit
least delusional serb. Actual genocide advocate. The most favourite pasttime activity for a serb.
we arent dissapearing shit bro, we are here forever
Due_Atmosphere_5315@reddit
Who said genocide? Enjoy your little day little Shqip
Krasniqi857@reddit
shkav thinking he actually matters and not his lithium. Go protest till you turn 80 little shkav, I enjoy the protests
Due_Atmosphere_5315@reddit
Shqiptard I don't support the protests and don't take part, they completely died down. It doesn't matter which government sits in Belgrade, you guys will always get the short end of the stick
80 IQ Shqiptard. You know your last name is Serb?
spallettioutista@reddit
In Italy we say like figure of speech "la Cina è vicina" (China is near). Now, this phrase be come true, Peqin (ALB) is VERY NEAR...
d2mensions@reddit
I love how Oradea and Alba Iulia sounds.
Romania, Albania and Greece have better place names imo.
shqiptarski1444@reddit
I would choose the same