12OfTheWorld'sLongestTongueTwistingNamesOfPlaces(NoKidding)

It may seem like a long jumble of random letters to you and me, but Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukakapiki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­kitanatahu is actually the Māori name for a hill in North Island, New Zealand.

At 85 letters, it has been listed in the Guiness World Records as the longest official place name in the world.

The name translates loosely to "The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one".

If you're wondering how the name is pronounced, listen here.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (a.k.a. Llanfair PG) is a village situated on the island of Anglesey in Wales, Britain. The name earned its place in the Guiness Book of Records for being the place with the longest place name in Europe.

Invented in the 1860s by a local tailor as a publicity stunt to develop the village as a commercial and tourist centre, the name means "St Mary's church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the fierce whirlpool and the church of St Tysilio of the red cave" in Welsh.

The sign above provides an approximate guide of pronunciation for English speakers. Sounds simple enough, but due to the nature of Welsh phonetics and pronunciations, the proper way to say the name might sound completely different from what you think it is.

Containing 45 letters, Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg is often cited as the longest place name in the United States. It also known as a slightly shorter version, Lake Chaubunagungamaug.

The name is so bizarre that even the authorities couldn’t spell it. Many road signs pointing to Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg have spelling mistakes in them, like the one above.

Today, the lake is more commonly known as Webster Lake, but some (including many residents of Webster), take pride in reeling off the longer versions.

The lake's name comes from Nipmuc, an Algonquian language from a subfamily of the Native Americans, and is believed to mean, "Fishing Place at the Boundaries - Neutral Meeting Grounds".

With a whooping 176 letters (!!!), Bangkok's full ceremonial name came into use during the reign of King Mongkut Its full ceremonial name, which came into use during the reign of King Mongkut in the mid-19th century.

In Thai, the name is written as "กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทรายุธยา มหาดิลกภพ นพรัตนราชธานีบูรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์มหาสถาน อมรพิมานอวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยวิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์". Listen to the full pronunciation here.

The name, composed of Pali and Sanskrit root words, translates as "City of angels, great city of immortals, magnificent city of the nine gems, seat of the king, city of royal palaces, home of gods incarnate, erected by Visvakarman at Indra's behest."

Thai school children are taught the full name, although few can explain its meaning as many of the words are archaic, and known to few.

The name Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein follows a format typical of Afrikaans place names in South Africa, meaning "The spring where two buffaloes were killed with a single shot" in Afrikaans.

The literal translation is "Twee buffels" = "Two buffaloes", "met een skoot" = "with one shot"; "morsdood" = "stone dead"; "geskiet" = "shot"; "fontein" = "spring (river source)" or "fountain".

At 44 letters, is it the longest one-word place name in Africa.

35 letters long, Äteritsiputeritsipuolilautatsijänkä is the longest place name in Finland and the 2nd longest in Europe.

Although the name has been confirmed as genuine, no one seems to know what the it means apart from the word "jänkä" ("bog" in Finnish). It is possible that the name was probably never intended to be anything else other than alliterative gibberish.

Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta, also known as its longer version Venkatanarasimha Rajuvaripet, has the distinction of having the longest name among all train stations on the Indian Railway system.

In Telugu, the name simply translates to "Venkatanarasimharaju's city". It is sometimes referred to with the prefix "Sri", or by its actual longer name "Venkata Narasimha Raju vari Bahadur vari Peta".

Believed to be the longest official one-word placename in Australia with 26 letters, Mamungkukumpurangkuntjunya means "where the devil urinates" in the regional Pitjantjatjara language.

With 25 characters, Gasselterboerveenschemond is the longest place name of the Netherlands that is written as one word. It is also a mere one character longer than Gasselternijveenschemond, which is only a few kilometres away.

Listen here for pronunciation.

Random fact: On 18 July 2011 there was a huge fire in the only chickenfarm of Gasselterboerveenschemond, in which 170.000 chickens died.