Let me tell you another interesting story about some very unusual names of montains in Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro.

"Baba"mountain (pronounced "babba", meaning "grandmother"),
"Babička gora" mountain (pronounced "babitchka gora", meaning "grandmother's hill) with its peak "Kriva buka" (pronounced "Kriva bukka", literally meaning "Curved noise", "kriva" also meaning "guilty" when referring to female),
"Besna kobila" mountain (pronounced "bessna kobbila", meaning "Angry mare"), with its highest peak "Šuplja padina" (pronounced "Shuplya padina", meaning "Hollow sloping ground"),
"Prokletije" (pronounced "prokletiye", roughly translated "Cursed")
"Ovčar" mountain (pronounced "Ovtchar", meaning "sheep keeper"), etc.

What comes to your mind when you hear these incredibly unusual names? Especially of mountains, peaks, towns, cities or rivers. When first heard, these names probably sound stupid...BUT! I have what I believe to be a very simple and possible explanation for most of these names! Especially with knowing the weird humour we here in Serbia are known for. We're funny (in a good way!) people, what can I tell you.
Ok, the explanation goes like this:
When the kingdom of Serbia fell under the Ottoman (Turkish) empire sometime in the 15th and 16th century, the Ottomans sent cartographers from Constantinople (today's Istanbul) to make maps of the new provinces of the empire. Since the cartographers are not the ones to decide and name anything they make maps of, they were, of course, forced to talk and ask the local people for the names of the mountains, ridges, plains, etc. But, as being unpopular as they (the Turks) were (they were foreigners, occupiers after all; and as we here don't really like taking orders from strangers ), the local people faked, improvised the names of the objects put in the maps, and did so in a very, very Serbian manner, making fun of everything you can. Not mocking, but trying to make things as interesting as possible. If you know what I mean. So the people wanted to make the Turk cartographers stupid when they return to Constantinople with a very unfaithfully represented Serbia in their maps. But, I guess the Turks never really realized they were the main characters in a game, so the names remained to this day. I wouldn't go as far as saying we double crossed ourselves with being stuck with the names now, simply because it's just one version of many about the origin of the names. And it's the most interesting one! So I chose to share it here.
What kind of story would it be if I told you the "Baba" mountain ("grandmother") actually has a peak resembling a grandmother?!

"Belgrade" is called "Beograd" in Serbian, which actually came from "Beo grad" which means "White city".

Now it's your turn to share some unusual stories if you got 'em! I believe our UK friends have some pretty good ones about their countries! England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales... I read about it some time ago.

Cheers!

Goran

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