11 totally redundant place names

Lake Tahoe means Lake Lake. La Brea Tar Pits means The Tar Tar Pits. And more!

Tahoe is loosely based on a Native American words meaning lake.
(Image credit: Mick Roessler/Corbis)

East of Lancashire, England, lies Pendle Hill, known for its historical association with witch trials, scientific discoveries about air pressure, and religious visions that led to the founding of the Quaker movement. It is also known for having a tautological name.

A tautological name has two parts that are redundant, or synonymous. Tautological place names usually come about when more than one language goes into the name. Some California examples that mix Spanish and English are Laguna Lake (Lake Lake) and Lake Lagunita (Lake Little Lake). The Pendle in Pendle Hill is derived from Pen-hyll, a combination of the Cumbric word for hill and the Old English word for hill. So Pendle Hill is really Hill Hill Hill. Here are 11 other redundant place names:

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Arika Okrent

Arika Okrent is editor-at-large at TheWeek.com and a frequent contributor to Mental Floss. She is the author of In the Land of Invented Languages, a history of the attempt to build a better language. She holds a doctorate in linguistics and a first-level certification in Klingon. Follow her on Twitter.