Longest place name in the world?

Recreation Sports
1

The following is based on a question during last weekend’s pub-quiz that was organized by AnimalsTaiwan:

What is the longest place name in the world?

The question during the quiz stated Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, the name of a hill in New Zealand (where the what and where were the answer sought).

However I always thought Bangkok, or rather it’s Thai name (romanized as: Krungthepmahanakonbowornratanakosinmahintarayudyayamahadiloponoparatanarajthaniburiromudomrajniwesmahasatarnamornpimarnavatarsatitsakattiyavisanukamphrasit) is the longest place name in the world.

So who should get the title - New Zealand or Thailand?

2

The Guiness book or records only counts place names that are in common use. Bangkok is called “Krungthep Mahanakhon” in daily life.

3

I believe the question mentioned that it was the longest place name in current use. This from the BBC:

[i]"Krungthep Mahanakhon Bovorn Ratanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokpop Noparatratchathani Burirom Udomratchanivet Mahasathan Amornpiman Avatarnsathit Sakkathattiyavisnukarmprasit, meaning the ‘City of Angels’, is known to the locals as Krungthep Mahanakhon. The rest of the world knows it as Bangkok, Thailand. However, it is not recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the longest place name as it is not used on a daily basis by the locals.

“The city with the longest name in common usage is in New Zealand. Taumatawhakatangihangakoauotamateturipukakapikimaungahoro-Nukupokaiwhenua kitanatahu translates as the ‘place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as land-eater, played his flute to his loved one’. This is the place name recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.”[/i]

We will do our best to make sure that there aren’t so many antipodean questions at the next quiz. :blush:

4

The New Zealand place name’s shortened form, similarly to the Thai for Bangkok, is usually used. So even for the antipodean’s it wouldn’t be common knowledge. What’s the city’s actual name? I don’t think it is a city. A town in Wales was recognised as being the longest placename according to my google search.

5

No worries, after all you didn’t ask for the name itself. :smiley:

(And our team got the correct answer, too)

6

It’s a hill, not a city, and of course it has an abbreviated form - Taumata.

The name is still in use. It’s what appears on the roadsign.

We will? Why?

7

There are actually four forms of the name, three in common use, one a disputed full form.

  1. Taumata - shortened form in most common everyday use, in the same way Waipukurau is generally shortened in everyday speech to Waipuk.
  2. Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitenatahu - the “shortened” full name, mostly known from a Peter Cape song of the same name.
  3. Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitenatahu - Official full name
  4. Te Taumatawhakatangihangakoauaotamateaurehaeaturipukapihimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuaakitanarahu - longer, debated, slightly pedantic, and possibly dialectal version.

The Welsh one has long been a point of debate on the issue, too.

On another note - I actually liked having a lot of antepodean questions in the quiz - makes a bloody great change from the Ameri-centric stuff we have to put up with 99% of the time.

8

Thanks for the comments. :slight_smile:

We try very hard to make the questions as international as possible, and we will keep doing that.

9

Bangkok means “City of Angels”?

That confirms this theory I’ve had.

Los Angeles, CA
Angeles, PI
Bangkok “City of Angels”, Thailand

Coincidence? Or a sick joke of God? If you want your city to be world known as a center of sleaze and decadence and hookers, name it “City of Angels”.

10

Strictly speaking no, ‘Krungthep’ means ‘City of Angels’. Krungthep was the name given by King Rama I and replaced/superseded Bangkok.

There is some dispute over the origins of the name ‘Bangkok’ (on early Western maps called ‘Bancok’): it may mean ‘village of the wild plum’ (ban = village, kok / makok = species of a wild plum tree), ‘village of island’ (ban = village, koh = island) while others think it was given by Malay settlers, using the Malay term for ‘river bend’.