Planet Earth is shrinking. Not physically or geographically, but in a virtual sense thanks to high speed broadband communications.
The once fabled ‘global village’ is now a reality for much of the developed world where email circles the globe at 3,000 miles per second and Voice over IP enables free voice and video phone calls. Speaking daily to someone on the other side of the world for business reasons is no longer a big deal. And sourcing goods and services online from suppliers anywhere in the world is now routine.
But this global village-isation cannot be without its own inherent difficulties, not least those of time zones and cultures, for instance. Nevertheless, what may catch out most people more often are place names.
For example, there are four Campbeltowns in the USA, two in Canada and yet another in Australia. Potentially, in this new cosmopolitan world view, there’s plenty scope for confusion. Just ask, for example, the master of the cargo ship that left the eastern seaboard of the United States bound for Aberdeen with a consignment of steel. When the ship subsequently docked to unload, no-one seemed to have a clue about his cargo. It soon emerged that the cargo was bound for Aberdeen…in Texas.
Obviously, the captain of this vessel hadn’t wondered why Americans always quaintly, to European ears, refer to the French capital as Paris, France to distinguish it from the other less widely known Paris, Texas.
Strangely, it is the Lone Star state that could feature in future mistaken identities involving Houston, just outside East Kilbride. The Texan oil capital could hardly be more removed from its small Scottish namesake. Quite what Capt. Jim Lovell of Apollo 13 fame would have made of the response from Houston, Renfrewshire is anyone’s guess…
“Houston, we have a problem.”
“Aye? And whit dae ye waa-nt us tae do aboot it?”
Of course, sharing a place name that’s spelt the same is one thing; there’s still capacity for consternation when it’s the pronunciation that’s the same. Americans, for example, pronounce Moscow as “Moss-cow”. All fine and dandy, the rest of the world knows what they mean. Or they would unless they come from North Ayrshire where “Moss-cow” refers to the small village of Moscow, near Kilmarnock.
Closer to home – and this is a true story – when the former Lewis Hospital, serving the Isle of Lewis, was being replaced by a larger modern facility an order was placed for new bed linen to cope with the extra beds. The linen subsequently arrived in pristine condition; unfortunately, it was all stamped with the legend, Lewes Prison. This made a pleasant change, it’s normally mail bound for the Isle of Lewis that ends up Lewes, East Sussex.
Another example of dodgy geography south of the border was the gentleman from the North of England who booked at his local travel agent a flight to visit his son who was working in Stornoway. When he touched down and entered the terminal building, he was disappointed to find no-one there to meet him.
This wasn’t entirely surprising since the travel agent had booked flights for Scalloway in Shetland. What should have been a three hour journey turned into a 24 hour marathon.
So what other geographic glitches should we be looking out for in future?
Check out this short list below:
Culloden – See also New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, Canada and the Cullodens in Georgia and West Virginia, USA
Dallas – Wee Dallas in Moray has bigger rivals in Manitoba, Canada, and at least 15 others in the States, stretching from Maine to Florida.
Elgin - You could lose your marbles with this one. There are 20 recorded instances of Elgin in the US, an Elgin and a Port Elgin in Canada, and yet another near Cape Town, South Africa
Glencoe – Ditto in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada, Australia, South Africa and in the American states of Illinois, Oklahoma and Minnesota.
Inverness – There are other Sneckies in Cape Breton and Quebec, Canada, a handful in the States and another in Queensland, Australia.
Oban - The Argyll port town can boast copycats on a truly international scale. There are Obans in the usual suspects of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA. But the place name also turns up rather more unexpectedly in Nigeria, Chad, Congo, Cameroon, South Africa and Japan. To be fair, though, the African and Japanese Obans owe more to the local language than any affinity with Oban in Argyll.
Orkney – Not just a chain of islands off the north of Scotland. There is an Orkney in Canada, South Africa and two in the US.
