A list of tautological place names, including Mississippi Ri...

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posted Feb 22 @ 09:52 AM by Jason Kottke · gift link · via nytimes.com

A list of tautological place names, including Mississippi River (Big River River), Lake Tahoe (Lake Lake), Gobi Desert (Desert Desert), The La Brea Tar Pits (The The Tar Tar Pits), and Milky Way Galaxy (Milky Way Milky).

List of tautological place names · en.wikipedia.org

A place name is tautological if two differently sounding parts of it are synonymous. This often occurs when a name from one language is imported into another and a standard descriptor is added on from the second language. Thus, for example, New Zealand's Mount Maunganui is tautological since "maunganui" is Māori for "great mountain". The following is a list of place names often used tautologically, plus the languages from which the non-English name elements have come.