Top 40 Funny Place Names in Switzerland

Rotzloch - a town in Switzerland

Funny Place Names all Over the World

All over the world, there are cities and villages with names that strike us as funny. Places such as Sexi (Peru), Middlefart (Denmark) or Hooker (USA) make us smile or even giggle a bit. Especially, when you actually get to visit one of them. I once actually drove through
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu (New Zealand) which is one of the longest names any populated place on earth has.

Sometimes, it is the sound of the place name that sounds funny to foreign ears but most of the time it's the either the literal meaning (as in Climax (USA)) or the similarity to a word in another language (as in Bitsch (Switzerland)) that tickles our sense of humor.

Funny Place Names in Switzerland

There are plenty of collections of weird and unusual place names from all over the world but there aren't that many lists of places with funny names in Switzerland - at least none in English that I could find. After some research I compiled my own Top 40 of Switzerland's Funniest Place Names (in brackets the abbreviation of the canton where the city, town or village is located).

Top 40 Funny Place Names in Switzerland

1. Agasul (ZH)
2. Arschwald (GL) - forest of asses
3. Ast (TG) - branch
4. Baden (AG) - bathing
5. Bethlehem (BE)
6. Betten (VS) - beds
7. Bitsch (VS) - sounds like bitch
8. Chäs und Brot (BE) - cheese and bread
9. Dicken (SG) - fat, plump
10. Dorf (ZH) - village
11. Ecce Homo (SZ) - lat. behold the man; words used by Pontius Pilate to present Christ
12. Enge (ZH) - constriction, narrowness
13. Finsterhennen (BE) - dark hens
14. Gabi (VS) - is a common first name
15. Galgenen (SZ) - gallows
16. Geiss (LU) - goat
17. Gockhausen (ZH) - rooster dwelling
18. Haltestelle (BE) - stop, station (for public transportation)
19. Hosenruck (TG) - pants jerk
20. Jammertal (LU) - vale of tears
21. Libanon (LU) 
22. Lohn (GR) - salary
23. Moskau (SH)
24. Muhen (AG) - mooing, to moo
25. Paradies (TG  - paradise
26. Paradiso (TI) - paradise
27. Petersburg (SH)
28. Romanshorn (TG) - horn of Roman
29. Rotzloch (LU) - snot hole
30. Rotzenwil (SG) - snot village
31. Sack (ZH) - bag
32. Scherz (AG) - joke
33. Tinizong (GR)
34. Turin (VS)
35. Unterwasser (SG) - under water
36. Wienacht (AR) - christmas
37. Wintersingen (BL) - winter singing
38. Witzwil (BE) - joke village
39. Wolfenschiessen (NW) - shooting of wolves
40. Wunderklingen (SH) - wonderful sound, wonderful blades

© 2014 IRENE WYRSCH "A HUMOROUS GUIDE TO SWITZERLAND" ALL RIGHTS RESERVED