Kan iemand mij uitleggen wat er zo vreemd is aan Erps-Kwerps? Ken het al heel mijn leven, geen seconde raar gevonden.
Huizingen is a partial community of Beersel.
Buizingen is a partial community of Halle.
There is no town ‘Huizingen-Buizingen’.
fake news!
I’ve been to Belgiek, which is a village of Deerlijk. But not that far located from Nazareth, the city not far from Gent.
But then you have Lendelede (near Kortrijk) en Ledegem (near Roeselare). Remaining in the same area: Moorsele (near Kortrijk) is not the same as Moorslede (near Roeselare). With Moorsele being pronounced “Moorsièle” and Moorslede being pronounced as “Moorslé”.
You have Oostende (which translates to east-end) which is located all the way in the west of Belgium. But is still east of Westende (west-end). Which is a village of Middelkerke.
Going across the border to France: Wattrelos (pronounced Waterloo). Not to confuse with the city not far from Brussels: Waterloo, where Napoleon died (was mistaken: where they stopped his army, didn’t die there)
I think Limburg was pretty good in the ‘let’s join villages and just add the names’ 😀
Hechtel-Eksel, Houthalen-Helchteren and Heusden-Zolder are even neighbours. They could go for the mother of all joined city names!
Their most recent neighbour went with Oudsbergen instead of Opglabeek-Meeuwen-Guitrode though 🙁
Zichem-Zussen-Bolder is the best. Can’t believe nobody mentioned it yet.
I love Kuttekoven. Ignoring the etymology you could loosely translate this to Cuntville or Cunt’s Cove.
You also have peer and buitenland
As a teen I wanted to live in Schoonaarde, because it sounded so idyllic.
I like Pelt
Steenhuize-wijnhuize
Broekzele best Flemish town. (Just kidding boys, girls and enbies)
I have a big two parter book somewhere about the history of belgian villages before the fusions of 1961…
but where has it gone… :p
Ow, we are forgetting about Moerbeke/Moerzeke!
A successful merger was achieved with Zingem and Kruishoutem, which is now just called Kruisem. And there’s Ename and Nederename, which still stubbornly refuse to just merge, even though they’re basically one continuous village
Not that hard but some coworkers of mine can’t pronounce Wachtebeke or Lendelede 😅
26 comments
Kontich – Aartselaar – Reet
Because Erps and Kwerps used to be separate villages but then had to merge.
Belgium did go through several rounds of “merge” of municipalities – bringing those fun “composite” names as the name of the merged municipalities. More info here: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_de_communes_en_Belgique
Huizingen-buizingen is not a single town.
One is a part of Beersel and the other a part of Halle.
Schelle is an old name for Schelde.
So, more or less, town at the Schelde.
Smeerebbe-Vloerzegem
Velzeke-Ruddershove
There is also a “Tielt”, not to far from “Wingene”. And then there is a “Tielt-Winge”, which is in the other side of the country.
Schellebelle is my favorite town name. Sounds idyllic.
Because we can
The UK would like to have a word: https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-english-place-names-signs
Balegem – Bavegem
Kan iemand mij uitleggen wat er zo vreemd is aan Erps-Kwerps? Ken het al heel mijn leven, geen seconde raar gevonden.
Huizingen is a partial community of Beersel.
Buizingen is a partial community of Halle.
There is no town ‘Huizingen-Buizingen’.
fake news!
I’ve been to Belgiek, which is a village of Deerlijk. But not that far located from Nazareth, the city not far from Gent.
But then you have Lendelede (near Kortrijk) en Ledegem (near Roeselare). Remaining in the same area: Moorsele (near Kortrijk) is not the same as Moorslede (near Roeselare). With Moorsele being pronounced “Moorsièle” and Moorslede being pronounced as “Moorslé”.
You have Oostende (which translates to east-end) which is located all the way in the west of Belgium. But is still east of Westende (west-end). Which is a village of Middelkerke.
Going across the border to France: Wattrelos (pronounced Waterloo). Not to confuse with the city not far from Brussels: Waterloo, where Napoleon died (was mistaken: where they stopped his army, didn’t die there)
I think Limburg was pretty good in the ‘let’s join villages and just add the names’ 😀
Hechtel-Eksel, Houthalen-Helchteren and Heusden-Zolder are even neighbours. They could go for the mother of all joined city names!
Their most recent neighbour went with Oudsbergen instead of Opglabeek-Meeuwen-Guitrode though 🙁
Zichem-Zussen-Bolder is the best. Can’t believe nobody mentioned it yet.
I love Kuttekoven. Ignoring the etymology you could loosely translate this to Cuntville or Cunt’s Cove.
You also have peer and buitenland
As a teen I wanted to live in Schoonaarde, because it sounded so idyllic.
I like Pelt
Steenhuize-wijnhuize
Broekzele best Flemish town. (Just kidding boys, girls and enbies)
I have a big two parter book somewhere about the history of belgian villages before the fusions of 1961…
but where has it gone… :p
Ow, we are forgetting about Moerbeke/Moerzeke!
A successful merger was achieved with Zingem and Kruishoutem, which is now just called Kruisem. And there’s Ename and Nederename, which still stubbornly refuse to just merge, even though they’re basically one continuous village
Not that hard but some coworkers of mine can’t pronounce Wachtebeke or Lendelede 😅