Nie kann man sein Leben so umfassend leben wie die Regierung von Kiribati, als sie ihre Städte benannte

All this on an island called Christmas (Kiritimati is pronounces Christmas)

They had their priorities right

The government of Kiribati didn’t come up with the names of any of the 5 villages on this map. Kiribati didn’t gain its independence from Britain until the 1970s.

Tabwakea is a name in the Gilbertese language (a Micronesian language native to the islands), but it translates as „turtle“, which comes from the fact that James Cook named the island Turtles Island when he landed there in 1777, before it became Christmas (Kiritmati) Island.

London and Paris were names given by a French priest named Emmanuel Rougier circa 1917, when he leased the whole island of Kiritimati from Britain and used it for a coconut plantation. He chose London (originally the French „Londres“) in recognition of the Brits‘ history there, and Paris supposedly because he was „homesick“.

The most likely origin of the name of Poland is a Polish mechanic named Stanisław Pełczyński, who designed a new irrigation system allowing the coconut palms to be watered during the dry season.

And the name of Banana is thought to be given by American soldiers who were on the island for nuclear tests in 1962, though its exact origin is unclear.