"Butlandings Head Woodhuel" vs. "Bilton-in-Ainsty"

August 8, 2017 7:35 AM

Can You Distinguish These Real British Places From Fake Ones an AI Made Up? Dan Hon dumped 50,000 real British place names into a neural network, and Gizmodo turned the results into a short but entertaining quiz.
posted by Copronymus (33 comments total)

He seems to be doing that a lot lately...
posted by Naberius at 7:36 AM on August 8, 2017

I double checked that "Barton in the Beans" was a real place, and after reading the Wikipedia page I still refuse to believe it.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 7:38 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I double checked that "Barton in the Beans" was a real place, and after reading the Wikipedia page I still refuse to believe it.

I got to that one and just started laughing.
posted by Copronymus at 7:41 AM on August 8, 2017

Gizmodo turned the results into a short but entertaining quiz.

Nice try, Gizmodo Adversarial Network
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 7:58 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

Aren't we posting scores? 83%
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:10 AM on August 8, 2017

I got 66% and don't think I would actually believe anyone who claims they got 100% on the first try.
posted by Copronymus at 8:12 AM on August 8, 2017

This is an AI how exactly?
posted by GallonOfAlan at 8:25 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

He also trained a neural network to make titles of Ask Metafilter questions; someone should make that quiz.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:38 AM on August 8, 2017 [3 favorites]

66% - and I'm British.

Bonus question: What is the only place name in the British Isles that cannot be spelt correctly without an exclamation mark?
posted by Paul Slade at 8:56 AM on August 8, 2017

Brit - 66%
posted by epo at 9:06 AM on August 8, 2017

I once knew a guy from Fuckley.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:06 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

What is the only place name in the British Isles that cannot be spelt correctly without an exclamation mark?

I had to Google that one. Again, I am still not convinced it's real.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:10 AM on August 8, 2017

I once knew a guy from Fuckley.

Is that twinned with a certain Austrian hamlet?
posted by acb at 9:21 AM on August 8, 2017

(Btw, I got 83% or so, but then again, being a naturalised citizen and having had to do the “Life In The UK” test, I may have an edge on practically useless demonstrations of Britishness.)
posted by acb at 9:24 AM on August 8, 2017

All I know is that Collapsed Pudding is real
posted by thelonius at 9:24 AM on August 8, 2017

Don't laugh; that's the British equivalent of the Alamo and/or Pearl Harbor, and the locals are very sensitive about it...
posted by acb at 9:28 AM on August 8, 2017

I had to Google that one. Again, I am still not convinced it's real.

Not only is it real: I grew up there!
posted by Paul Slade at 9:44 AM on August 8, 2017

50% (but I already knew a few from reading this thread (so...wrongheaded)).
posted by kingless at 9:44 AM on August 8, 2017

Born in England and would probably have done better by flipping a coin.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 9:46 AM on August 8, 2017

I may have an edge on practically useless demonstrations of Britishness.

83% correct here as well.
posted by Doktor Zed at 9:57 AM on August 8, 2017

I've been through Barton in the Beans a number of times and can confirm that there's not an awful lot there.
posted by pipeski at 10:08 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

The first time I visited the UK I was really impressed at all of the literal place names. Pottery Lane was once home to clay kilns and brick-makers. Spitalfields was home to a hospital (or 'spital). Whitechapel was named after an actual chapel. Brick Lane had more brick-makers. The Isle of Dogs had been the home of the huntings dogs of several kings. This was really different from my home town where everything was named after people who died in the civil war or overly florid imaginary landmarks like "Chase Woods" or "Rushing Waters".

SCENE: On a bus on the A36 heading from London to Bath, a sign appears by the side of the road.
SIGN: Dead Maids
Me: Wha? Oh no.
posted by Alison at 10:25 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

10/12

I'm British, and live near one of the real places. IMO it's not even on of the weirdest in it's area.
posted by Braeburn at 10:55 AM on August 8, 2017

I just got back from a few weeks in England. My friend drove, and I navigated, so I studied the map. Some of the places had names straight out of Monte Python. We cracked up at "Muggleswick," and wondered whether there was a civic rivalry between East Butfield and West Butfield.
posted by Repack Rider at 11:29 AM on August 8, 2017

Remember that bit in Star Trek V where McCoy got someone to redefine the "marshmallow" entry in the main computer to "marsh melon" just to prank Spock? I am concerned that something similar is happening here, because Google Maps saying that Barton in the Beans being in the town of Nuneaton is a bridge too far.
posted by turkeybrain at 11:34 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]

I can't run the quiz on this machine, but can confirm that Barton in the Beans is real and not far from me. I wouldn't describe it as being in Nuneaton, Market Bosworth and Bosworth fields is closer. I used to do a lot of pub crawling when I was a lot younger and know a lot of the local villages.
posted by Burn_IT at 11:50 AM on August 8, 2017

Dead Maids is a new one to me, Alison. Which is weird, because I know that junction pretty well. I've got good friends a mile from that junction, and once had a job interview 200 metres from there.

I didn't get offered the job, because the technical interview had someone asking me how I'd approach the problem they'd spent several weeks on, and I wrote down a regular expression that replaced pages of nested ifs in approximately 20 seconds. Now I had 2 problems.
posted by ambrosen at 12:00 PM on August 8, 2017

Also, 83%.

An old school friend lives in one of the places in the quiz, which made things easier. Marsh Gibbon wasn't in the list, but I have an old uni friend there. There's a signpost when I drive to work that says Frogwell Derriads, but I learnt that they're 2 separate places.
posted by ambrosen at 12:03 PM on August 8, 2017

I once knew a guy from Fuckley.

Your limerick-in-progress needs work.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:20 PM on August 8, 2017 [2 favorites]

That "Nether Wallop" is a real place and not an old-timey euphemism for a low-blow is truly spectacular.
posted by explosion at 3:23 PM on August 8, 2017

That "Nether Wallop" is a real place and not an old-timey euphemism for a low-blow is truly spectacular.

There is also an Upper Wallop and a Middle Wallop.
posted by jonnyploy at 2:10 AM on August 9, 2017

I think I must have listened to someone reading a list of "funny pommy names" because I got 91%.
I think the one I got wrong was overthought.
posted by arzakh at 5:36 AM on August 9, 2017

Scouring OS maps for place names is endless fun. This has reminded me to dig The Meaning of Liff out again.
posted by lucidium at 7:34 AM on August 11, 2017