A place name is tautological if two differently sounding parts of it are synonymous. This often occurs when a name from one language is imported into another and a standard descriptor is added on from the second language. Thus, for example, New Zealand's Mount Maunganui is tautological since "maunganui" is Māori for "great mountain". The following is a list of place names often used tautologically, plus the languages from which the non-English name elements have come.
Tautological place names are systematically generated in languages such as English and Russian, where the type of the feature is systematically added to a name regardless of whether it contains it already. For example, in Russian, the format "Ozero X-ozero" (i.e. "Lake X-lake") is used. In English, it is usual to do the same for foreign names, even if they already describe the feature, for example Lake Kemijärvi (Lake Kemi-lake), "Faroe Islands" (Literally Sheep-Island Islands, as øy is Modern Faroese for "Island"), or Saaremaa island (Island land island). On rare occasions, they may be named after a specific individual who shares their name with the feature. Examples include the Outerbridge Crossing across Arthur Kill, named after Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge and the Hall Building on the campus of Concordia University, named after Henry Foss Hall.
Asterisks (*) indicate examples that are also commonly referred to without the inclusion of one of the tautological elements.
River Avon, various in England and Scotland, and Avon River, in various parts of the world (River River – Brythonic (spelled Afon in modern Welsh), or Goidelic abhainn)[1]
Guadalaviar River, Spain (White River River – from Arabic al-wādi al-'abyaḍ, 'White River')
Guadalentín River, Spain (Muddy River River – from Arabic al-wādi aṭ-ṭīn, 'Muddy River')
Guadalhorce River, Spain (Scissor-shaped River River – from Arabic al-wādi al and Latin forfex, 'scissors')
Guadalquivir River, Spain (Great River River – from Arabic wādi al-kabīr, 'Great Valley (or River)')
Guadiana River, Spain and Portugal (River River River – from Arabic wādi and iberianana, 'river')
Guadix River, Spain (River of Acci River – Guad comes from Arabicwādi 'valley' or 'river', and ix is a corruption of Acci, the name of the town nearest the river during Roman times.[2]
Mekong River - A triple tautonym. 'Mae' in Thai is an abbreviation for "river", while 'khong' is an old Austronesian word for river, also. Mekong River can be translated as "river river river"
River Ouse, various in England and Scotland (River River – from Brythonicusa meaning water, river or stream).
Ouseburn River in Newcastle upon Tyne, England (River River River – from Brythonicusa meaning water, river or stream and bourne also meaning stream in Anglo-Saxon).
Walla Walla River, Washington, US (Little River River; Walla means "river" in Sahaptin, repeated to express the diminutive ("little river"))
River Waveney (the "ey" part of the name means "river")
Winterbourne Stream, East Sussex, UK — bourne meaning a stream that only flows in winter.
River Wissey (the "ey" part of the name means "river")
Withlacoochee River, Withlacoochee probably comes from the Muskogean word meaning "little river."
Bakkárholtsá in the Ölfus region of Iceland. The river was originally named Bakká, "Bank River", and then a farm nearby was named Bakkárholt, "Bank River Hill". The river was then later renamed after the farm as Bakkárholtsá, which translates to "Bank River Hill River"[4]
Most river names in the Sundanese portion of Java, Indonesia start with the prefix ci-, which is Sundanese for "river". Many people refer the names redundantly using both the Indonesian word sungai and prefix ci-, for example, Sungai Ciliwung ("Ciliwung River") translates to Sungai Sungai Liwung ("Liwung River River").
Multiple rivers and streams in New Zealand have the prefix wai-, the Māori term for river. Notable examples include the Waikato River (river strong flowing river) and Waimakariri River (river cold river).[10]
Lac d'Oô, France — The name Oô is derived from Aragoneseibon 'mountain lake' or from Gasconiu or eu 'mountain lake', so that Lac d'Oô is 'Lake of the Lake'.
Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria – lagos is Portuguese for 'lakes', and "lagoon" derives from Latin lacus 'lake, pond'
Laguna Lake, Philippines – laguna is Spanish for 'lake'. It is also known as Laguna de Bay; it is not a bay but rather refers to the town of Bay, Laguna, and was in fact known as Laguna de Ba'i ('Ba'i Lake') in Spanish times.
Østensjøvann is a Norwegian lake name that concatenates sjø ('lake that is not as narrow as a fjord') and vann ('lake'). Similarly Møsvann in Telemark, Norway combines mjøsa meaning 'lake' with vann meaning 'lake'.
Semerwater, sometimes Lake Semerwater, North Yorkshire, England. Semer is from Old English sæ 'lake' and mere 'lake', thus Lake Semerwater means 'lake lake lake water'
Bukit Timah Hill, The highest point in Singapore (Tin Hill Hill)
Brda Hills, Slovenia – "brda" means small hills in Slovene (thus, the area is sometimes referred to as "Goriška Brda" or "Gorizia Hills" to distinguish it from others)
Morro Rock, a volcanic plug rising out of the ocean on the Central Coast of California, from Spanish "Morro" meaning "rock" (Rock Rock).
Mount Afadja, Ghana's highest peak, is often referred to as 'Mount Afadjato', which means 'Mount Afadja Mountain', 'To' being the Ewe language word for 'Mountain'. Ewe is the main language spoken in the area surrounding the peak.
Mount Katahdin, Maine (Mount The Greatest Mountain – English/Penobscot)
Mount Kenya, Kenya (Mount White Mountain – "Kenya" is from Kikuyu "Kirinyaga", 'white mountain')
Pendleton, near Pendle Hill, Lancashire, England. (Hill Hill Town) or, possibly (Hill Hill Hill), taking the -ton as deriving from Old English dun as opposed to Old English tun.
Pendleton Hill, North Stonington, Connecticut. (Hill Hill Town Hill) or, possibly, (Hill Hill Hill Hill).
Torpenhow, Cumbria, England, supposedly meaning "hill hill hill", exaggerated into an (unsubstantiated) "Torpenhow Hill = hill-hill-hill hill" for effect;[19] it may only be a single tautology, torpen expressing "the top or breast of a hill" (rather than "hill-hill"), with the tautological addition of Old Norse howe (haugr) "hill".[20]
Tuc de la Pale, Ariège, France: Tuk Pal 'mount mount'
Calatrava la Vieja Castle and Calatrava la Nueva Castle, Spain (The Old Rabah's Castle Castle and The New Rabah's Castle Castle – from Arabic Qal'at Rabah, Rabah being the first Muslim owner of the first ("old") castle in the 8th century)
Carmarthen, Wales (Welsh: Caerfyrddin) – (Fort fort by the sea – "Caer"/"Car" = Welsh for fort (from Latin castra), "marthen"/"m(f)yrddin" is a Welsh name derived from Latin Moridunum, which itself derived from Brythonic "môr" (sea) and "din"/"dun" (fort))[22]
El Pont de Suert, Catalonia, Spain – literally 'the bridge of bridge'; "Pont" is the Catalan word for 'bridge' derived from Latin pons, pontis 'bridge' and "Suert" comes from the Basque Zubiarte, meaning 'between bridges'.
El Puente de Alcántara, Toledo, Spain (The Bridge of the Bridge – Puente from Spanish, Alcántara from Arabic اقنطرةal-qanṭarah 'the bridge')
Forumtorget in Uppsala, Sweden - literally "the square square" - forum being the Latin word for square and torget meaning "the square" in Swedish.
Fshati Sellcë near Tetovo, North Macedonia, from Albanian fshati and Macedonian селоselo, both meaning "village".
Gaza Museum of Archaeology, known as "the al-Mat'haf Museum."[25] In Arabic, المتحفal-Matḥaf means 'the Museum'; thus, it is being called "the the Museum Museum."
Laugardalslaug (a swimming pool in Reykjavík, literally 'the pool of the valley of the pool'; the valley was originally named after pools used for washing clothes, but a swimming pool was subsequently built there)
Rökstenen, Sweden, (Rök is an older name for stone, so "the stone stone"), a runestone.
Staðarstaður, Iceland (Staður means "a pastor's farm" and is a common suffix to the names of such farms—this means "Pastor's farm which is a pastor's farm")
Ardtornish Point, Scotland (High/Heights or Point Point) – Aird from Gaelic, nish from the NorseNess and point from English – all referring to some form of cape, point or headland).
Avenue Road in Toronto, Ontario.;[3] also in Lavadia and Mosman, New South Wales, Australia.
East Timor, (East East): From the Indonesian and Malay word "timur", meaning "east"; "Timor Leste" has the same meaning, leste meaning "east" in Portuguese. (This is strictly not a tautology, as the country East Timor indeed takes up the eastern half of the islandTimor; the island was named thus by peoples living west of it. The western half is part of Indonesia and informally named West Timor. See also South Australia and South Vietnam below.)[3]
Gilsárgil, Iceland – (Canyon River Canyon: The canyon of the river which in turn flows through that same canyon.) The river was named first, and then the canyon was named after the river much later.[citation needed]
Glendale – Anglicisation of the Gaelic Gleann Dail. Gleann simply means "valley", and dail is a borrowing from the Norse for "valley", which in Gaelic specifically means a valley containing fertile arable land, or any low-lying farmland. The anglicised form appears more tautological as the word dale in English is used to describe any valley.
Glen of Aherlow – a glen is a long, deep valley, while Aherlow is from the Irisheatharlach, meaning "lowland between two mountains", i.e. a valley.
Hvilftarhvilft, Iceland – (Cirque Cirque) The farm “Hvilft”, in Önundarfjörður, which means cirque, was named after the cirque in the mountain above it, and the cirque itself was then named after the farm.
Inverarish (both Gaelic and Norse, doubly the mouth of a stream)
Metsalaane, village in Estonia (both metsa and laane mean "forest" in Estonian)
Milky WayGalaxy* (Milky Way Milky — Greek; for this reason some scientists, such as the late Isaac Asimov, have argued that the Milky Way should be renamed the "Home Galaxy" or some such.)[3]
Nyanza Lac, Burundi – Nyanza and lac are the Bantu and French words for "lake" respectively. This is a city, not a lake, though on the shore of Lake Tanganyika.
Sharm Old Harbour (a common English name for the old harbour at Sharm el Sheikh) (harbour old harbour – Arabic)
Skarðsskarð, Iceland (Pass's Pass: A mountain pass named after a farm which in turn is named after the pass to begin with.)
South Australia (Australia being Latin for "southern land". Strictly, this is not a tautology for the same reason as for East Timor.)
South Vietnam (Nam being Vietnamese for "south", although the official name was the Republic of Vietnam. Strictly, this is not a tautology for the same reason as for East Timor.)
Swahili Coast, "Swahili" is an Arabic adjective meaning "coastal [dweller]".
Tahunanui Beach, New Zealand (the Māori-language word tahuna can mean beach, shoal, or sandbank. Tahunanui Beach is thus 'Beach Big Beach').[28]
Wookey Hole Caves - the name Wookey is derived from the Celtic (Welsh) for 'cave', "Ogo" or "Ogof" which gave the early names for this cave of "Ochie""Ochy". Hole is Anglo-Saxon for cave, which is itself of Latin/Norman derivation. Therefore, the name Wookey Hole Cave basically means cave cave cave.
