Austrians considering renaming their village from Fucking to Fugging have been told to think again – because the name is already taken.
Villagers at Fucking in Upper Austria voted yesterday to change the name to Fugging. But then came the news that there used to be a second village with the name Fucking in Austria – and residents there had already bagged the name Fugging more than 100 years ago.
Fugging mayor Andreas Dockner - 200 miles away in Lower Austria - said: "Nobody alive now remembers why it was changed from Fucking to Fugging, but it was and that is now our name. We think one Fugging in Austria is enough.
"The first mention of our village as Fucking was was in 1195 where it was recorded in the records of the local monastery. By 1836 it was Fugging.
"I can't say whether the decision to change the name from Fucking to Fugging was anything to do with embarrassment at its meaning in English but the word Fucking has been around for a long while. We are certainly a lot closer to Vienna which was the centre of the Habsburg Empire at the time, and they probably would have been a lot more English visitors there that might have raised the matter."
Historians confirmed that the first known use of the verb in the context of having sexual intercourse was in 1475, and it has also been found in a dictionary from 1598 - it even turning up in one of Shakespeare's plays when it is mentioned in Henry V.
Fucking mayor Franz Meindl said that apart from the name their tiny village with just over 100 residents would be a rural paradise. He said: "It is beautiful countryside here, it's otherwise peaceful and we have a good community. It's only ever the name that causes us troubles."
After the decision to change the name to Fugging one resident in Fucking had already painted out a sign, and added the double G instead of the CK – but that was a move too soon according to the Mayor of Fugging.
He said: "We are very proud of our name. But it is our name now."
Fucking residents said the final straw was a growing number of calls by pranksters from abroad who ring up locals and ask in English "Is That Fucking" - before bursting into laughter and hanging up.
"The phone calls are really the final straw", said Fucking Mayor Meindl, who confirmed that the villages street signs were regularly stolen - even though they had been welded on steel posts set in concrete in the ground.
Drivers heading into the village often disturbed naked couples romping in front of the signs, and local entrepreneurs made the situation worse by flogging off Fucking postcards - Fucking Christmas cards and even more recently a Fucking beer.
Residents last voted on the subject in 1996 when it decided to keep the name despite problems caused by American servicemen from across the border in Germany that drove to the region just to be photographed in front of signs. They then sent the snaps back home to their girlfriends and wives.
Fugging mayor Dockner added: "If our village was called Fucking, I don't think it would be a problem – we are proud of it and I'm sure we wouldn't change the name – I'd advise Fucking not to change anything."
If the name change does go ahead there will still be plenty to amuse the pranksters when Fucking vanishes.
Also available on the online Austrian telephone book are the villages of "Oberfucking" "Windpassing", "Wankham" and "Rottenegg".
Origin of Katies Crotch Road’s name a mystery [ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3478744/Maine-votes-rename-Katie-Crotch-Road-spend-hundreds-replacing-repeatedly-stolen-street-sign.html ] Its sign has been stolen over and over, but one thing that can't be taken away from Katies Crotch Road is its mystery. [ http://www.11points.com/Travel/11_Most_Stolen_Road_Signs_In_the_US ] March 10, 2012 [...] Marilyn Gorman, 78, said the road has been known as Katies Crotch since long before there were street signs in town. Gorman has lived in adjacent New Portland all her life and has researched the area’s history as secretary and treasurer of the New Portland Historical Society. “I have never found anything written down about the Katies Crotch Road,” she said. [...] One story is that ... a woman named Katie used to live on the road and would sit on her porch while wearing no underwear. “Who knows if any of [the stories] are true?” she said. Gorman has looked for people with the last name Katie in the Embden town records but hasn’t found any, though records are incomplete. And with another generation disappearing, it’s likely the origin of the road’s name won’t become any clearer. “All the people I knew as a kid have passed on. All my relatives that were here for generations, everybody’s gone,” she said. Gorman thinks Embden residents made the right decision Saturday to keep the road name, even though it will probably mean they continue to pay to replace stolen road signs. Town officials said it cost $200 last year, not including labor, to replace the road’s one sign. “I don’t like messing with history, changing what has been, unless there’s a darn good reason for it,” she said. “That’s what it’s always been. That’s there, and that’s the way it is.” http://www.centralmaine.com/2012/03/10/embdenorigin-of-katie-crotch-roads-name-a-mystery_2012-03-09/ [no comments yet]
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New Shitterton village sign set in stone
The new Purbeck stone sign weighs in at a tonne-and-a-half
Villagers in the Dorset hamlet of Shitterton have got so fed-up with their sign being stolen they have put up a stone version.
They hope the £680 sign, which is set in concrete, will deter thieves.
Previous signs have frequently been stolen but had not been replaced since the last theft three years ago.
Villager Ian Ventham said: "Every two or three years somebody comes along and nicks our sign because, clearly, Shitterton is amusing."
He added: "Purbeck District Council, not being over-endowed with money at the moment, would merely have replaced it with yet another sign.
"That would have been stolen so we have got together as residents for a whip-round and bought this wonderful piece of Purbeck stone which, at a tonne-and-a-half, is going to be slightly more difficult to take away."
The 62-year-old, who has lived in the hamlet near Bere Regis for 20 years, said it was his wife's idea and said: "I think we have made our contribution to David Cameron's 'Big Society' now."
Shitterton is recorded in Norman French in the Domesday Book as Scatera or Scetra which, translated, means a little town that is on the stream of a midden or sewer.
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