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), or Saaremaa island (Island land island).
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 (Ducks River River – from Arabic wādi and Latinana, 'duck')
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]
River Gweebarra, Ireland – from Irish gaoth Bheara, "Beara's river"
Walla Walla River, Washington, US (Little River River; Walla means "river" in Sahaptin, repeated to express the diminutive ("little river"))
Withlacoochee River, Withlacoochee probably comes from the Muskogean word meaning "crooked river."
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").
Some river names in Hokkaido and Tohoku end with -betsu or -nai. (Borrowing from -pet-nay "River" - Ainu)
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).[9]
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, Laguna, Philippines – laguna is Spanish for 'lake'. It is also known as Laguna de Bay, although it is not a bay and was in fact known as Laguna de Ba'i ('Ba'i Lake') in Spanish times.
Lake Ellesmere, New Zealand ('Ella's lake lake' – Old Norse. Several English lakes, such as Windermere, are often incorrectly referred to using the incorrect "Lake -mere" form, but New Zealand's has this form as its official name)
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'
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)
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;[13] 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".[14]
Tuc de la Pale, Ariège, France: Tuk Pal 'mount mount'
Gili Islands, North-west of Lombok, Indonesia (Small Island Islands – Sasak)
Grand Manan Island, NB, Canada (Grand Island Island – Maliseet-Passamaquoddy-Penobscot Indian)
Inch is a common Scottish island prefix deriving from Gaelic innis. Many such places such as Inchkeith are often referred to as Inchkeith Island etc. in colloquial usage.
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 Welsh name derived from Latin Moridunum, which itself derived from Brythonic "môr" (sea) and "din"/"dun" (fort))[15]
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.
Gaza Museum of Archaeology, known as "the al-Mat'haf Museum."[18] 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")
Street Road refers to two different highways in Pennsylvania – Two nearly synonymous English words. There is also a Street Road in Glastonbury, Somerset, England which leads towards the nearby town called Street. There is also a High Street Rd in Glen Waverley, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, which is a continuation of a street called High St.
Fore Street is a common street name in the South West of England, where "Fore" derives from the Cornish forth 'street'.
Aran Valley, Catalonia, Spain – "Aran" comes from the proto-Basque word "haran" meaning "valley"; in the local Gascon dialect, "aran" also means valley
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).
East Timor, (East East): From the Indonesian and Malaysian 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 thusly 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.)
Gilsárgil, Iceland – (Canyon River Canyon: The canyon of the river which in turn flows through that same canyon.) The river was named first, as is pretty common, and then the canyon was named after the river much later, also common.
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.
Metsalaane, village in Estonia (both metsa and laane mean forest in Estonian)
Milky WayGalaxy (Milky Way Milky Way — 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.)
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.
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.
