10 ''Interesting'' Town Names in Denmark

Welcome to a new blog in my series where we look into funny or interesting city or town names around the world. Today we'll look into 10 Danish cities or towns.

Population: 8 474

So we start with a spicy name today, don't we?

It's name seems to actually come from the Old Norse Árr, which meant 'Earl', and so it has nothing to do with 'arse'.

The town exists since at least the 14th century and it boasts a church, a museum, two schools and a local newspaper.

Population: 12 454

Now we move on to this odder town...  and no, its name doesn't mean 'other' neither 'more odd', it actually means 'otter'. A very specific animal to name a town after, in my opinion.

It's name comes from the Odder River (not to be confused with the much larger Oder river that flows through Poland, Czechia and Germany)

Population: 181 (Thanks to WillemLAif for giving me this data, i couldn't find it before)

This word literally means 'semen' (or 'seed' aparently). It's also on the border with Germany, so it's an interesting way of welcoming Germans, or foreigners in general, I guess. It's a small town, so there isn't really that much to it (unless you like stealing funny town signs, I suppose).

Population: 61 074

To me it looks too similar to 'Horses', which actually is where the name evolved from (old Danish Hors). It seems like naming places after animals is a thing in Denmark.

This was also the birthplace of Vitus Bering, Danish cartographer and officer of the Russian navy, who has a famous strait that he discovered around 1728 named after him (the Bering strait that separates the US state of Alaska from the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in Russia).

As a weird fun fact, the town of Moss, Norway (which also has an "out of the box" name) is one of Horsens' twin towns (as well as Nokia, Finland, where a famous company originated).

Population: 444

Ironic how 'Urban Space' (yeah, that's really what this name means) only has about 400 people living on it, right? It's also on a relatively small island, so not that much space either.

Aside from having an original name, this town is the largest in the island of Læsø, about halfway between Aalborg and Gothenburg, Sweden.

Population: 16 277

Technically it means 'Middle way', but you can't help but think about another word when you see this name.

It's the hometown of well-known football player Christian Eriksen, and it's the first place you will go through when going from Jutland to Fyn and the rest of the Danish islands (at least until the Fehrmanbelt tunnel is completed in 2029).

Population: 1 422

This means 'High Town', but as you may guess, Denmark isn't famous precisely for mountains and elevations, and this place is no different.

It's in the island of Zealand (Sjælland ø), where Copenhagen lies, which is probably a recognizable name due to a certain country on the other side of the world...

Population: 627 inlcuing a few other settlements in the parish. (Thanks again to WillemLAif for giving me this data, i couldn't find it before)

Another small town, which makes it hard to find pictures and info about it, so I'll just roast its name too. In English, it refers to a rock with minerals (first heard this word through Mineacraft), and in Danish it's really close to an Øre, which is a subunit of the Danish krone.

It's also the name of another town located in the island of Lølland, which even after having been there feels like it's not actually a real name.

Population: 7 505

This town is called 'Barrels'. I don't know why, it simply is called that (I wonder if those barrels contain beer...).

It is located on the border with Germany and for a while it used to be an officially bilingual town.

Population: 14 039

This first cought my attention because it looked similar to the word 'verde'('green') in Spanish. Then I discovered that it litterally translates to 'cairn', which is, in my view, a questionable name for a town. Like, at this point, what else is left that you could use as a place name, Denmark?

The town itself is apparently popular among tourists due to the coasts located nearby.

- Tune, Sjælland Region

- Nordby, Nordjylland ('by' means 'town', and this is on the very north of mainland Denmark)

- Gram, Syddanmark

- Å, Syddanmark (shortest name in Denmark, tied for shortest in the world with a bunch of other one-letter place names)

- Hornbæk-Dronningmølle, Hovedstaden (longest town name in Denmark that appears on citypopulation.de, website commonly used as a source in Jetpunk quizzes)

- Tarm, Midtjylland ('Gut')

- Boller, Midtjylland ('Buns')

- Helved, Syddanmark ('helvede' means 'hell')

- Gudhjem, Hovedstaden ('God Home')

So, there you have it, those are some place names in Denmark that I found interesting.

I know you probably expected me to cover France after the other blog, but I decided to bring in some variety since France has some pretty famous funny place names. I will still cover it sometime in the future, though.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this one!