Polish district drops historical name after rude meaning draws unwanted attention

Residents of a district in Poland have chosen to drop its historical name because its vulgar meaning had resulted in online mockery and drew tourists to the area hoping to get a picture with signs bearing its moniker.

The area in question was called Cipki, which in Polish is the plural form of a vulgar term referring to an intimate part of the female anatomy (roughly the same as “pussies” in English).

To make matters worse, it was located in the village of Suche, which itself is the feminine plural form of the adjective “dry”.

The name of the area in fact has nothing to do with its anatomical counterpart. Instead, it relates to an old term associated with the Gorals (or Highlanders), a group that live in the mountainous area on the borders between Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The word cipkarstwo was traditionally used there to refer to lacemaking, according to ethnographers cited by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily. The term is still sometimes used in that context in Slovak, claims the newspaper, pointing to the example of the cipkarskepalicky.sk website.

For a long time, the name of Cipki drew little attention, local mayor Anita Żegleń told the Polish Press Agency (PAP). However, with the growing popularity of online maps, “some internet users began to mock it and curious tourists came wanting to find a sign with the name and take a picture”.

“Tourists came here mainly for mockery,” 70-year-old resident Aniela, a farmer, told Gazeta Wyborcza. “Especially when these internet maps were created and our Cipki caught people’s eyes, we couldn’t avoid the nasty comments.”

Residents, unhappy with the unwanted attention, asked the local authorities to have the area’s name removed from Poland’s official national register. That process has now been completed and, as of 1 January 2023, Cipki is no more.

However, the area remains marked on Google Maps and local authorities have announced they will now apply to the American internet giant to remove the name.

Cipki is not Poland’s only municipality to suffer from a vulgar name. Others include Bąki (meaning farts), Cyców (tits), Moszna (scrotum), Pupki (butts) and Stolec (faeces).

Among other Polish placenames that have become famous online are Złe Mięso (meaning bad meat), Koniec Świata (end of the world), Piekło (hell) and Sucha Psina (dry doggy).

Main image credit: Targeo (screenshot)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.