6 Longest Place Names On Earth!

Fancy a verbal workout?

Try wrapping your tongue around what is officially the longest place name ever recorded.

It's Bangkok's ceremonial title: Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit.

It stretches to an astonishing 168 characters and saying it in one breath is a challenge few attempt and even fewer complete.

Here are several other unique and extra lengthy place names:

longest name

Photograph: Kind courtesy Mattgrosso/Wikimedia Commons

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, New Zealand

It's 85 characters long and the name given to a solitary hill on New Zealand's North Island.

Rising to 1,001 feet above sea level, the hill's claim to fame lies not in its height but in its famously elongated Māori name. Given its epic length, locals and visitors alike usually trim it down to the far more manageable Taumata.

Its name describes the importance of this hill: The place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed, and swallowed mountains, known as the land-swallower, played his nose flute to his loved one.

longest name

Photograph: Kind courtesy Adriao/Wikimedia Commons

2. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Wales

At 58 characters, this famously elaborate name holds the title of Europe's lengthiest place name.

It belongs to a charming village set on the island of Anglesey, off the coast of Wales in the United Kingdom and explicitly refers to: St Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool.

longest name

Photograph: Kind courtesy Pi.1415926535/Wikimedia Commons

Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, United States

The Nipmuc people, who speak an Algonquian dialect, devised this remarkable 45-letter name, which claims the distinction of being the longest name in the United States.

It refers to a lake in the town of Webster, Massachusetts, and apparently says: The fishing place at the boundaries on neutral meeting grounds.

longest name

Photograph: Kind courtesy Ikiwaner/Wikimedia Commons

Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein, South Africa

Spanning 44 characters, this striking Afrikaans name ranks as the longest location name on the African continent.

It belongs to a rural farm in South Africa's North West province and translates to: The spring where two buffaloes were shot stone-dead with one shot.

longest name

Photograph: Kind courtesy Motopark/Wikimedia Commons

Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsijänkä, Finland

Running to 35 characters, it is Europe's second-longest place name.

It refers to a vast area inside Finnish Lapland, where the scale of the landscape matches the impressive length of its name.

Of Sami origin it seems to translate to: The bog on which the storage hut standing on a single pillar and belonging to Paul, the son of Peter, the son of Andrew, stands/stood on.

longest name