Over the weekend a Redditor uploaded a map of Victoria. But it was no ordinary map. What made people take notice is the rather interesting way that suburbs had been labelled.
You see, places have names, and then they have names. There are the official names: sometimes they’re words taken from Indigenous languages, or the name of some long-dead person. And then there are the nicknames that become more common: they’re shortened, elongated, or even changed to something different all together.
Yesterday, Redditor u/topherette posted an image of what they called “Vicco” to the r/Melbourne subreddit.
“Colloquial map of Melbourne with suburb names,” the post’s title reads. “Seeking constructive feedback/more input because ‘under constrution [sic]’!”
Drawing from places like Reddit, Wikitionary and even the Herald Sun, the map has dozens of often hilarious nicknames for locations in Melbourne and around Victoria.
There are the normal ones like Melbs (Melbourne), Flemmo (Flemmington) and The Burg (Coburg). But some of them tell you what some people think of certain parts of the state.
Stink Kilda (St Kilda), Southwank (Southbank) and Depreston (Preston) are some of the more creative names given.
Who’s behind the nickname map of Victoria?
The cartographer behind the nickname map of Victoria is Topher Agar. According to an interview given to Stuff, Agar is a New Zealander who has a background in socio-linguistics and speaks six languages.
On their Linguic Mappingtons Facebook Page, He said he makes maps “presenting findings relating to language and linguistics.”
And, he’s been busy. Before Victoria, he’s made nickname maps for Sydney, England and Wales, Sweden and more. He’s also made other interesting interpretations of maps, including ones based on how many subscribers each country’s subreddit has and those using local dialects. They have joined a rich community of redditors who like making different versions of maps).
Moving forward, Agar is looking to keep improving his map.
“I’d love to hear any constructive feedback or more additions you might have,” he wrote.