Twelve Placenames of Christmas: Four Calling Birds

This is my attempt to find towns and cities across the world with the words from the song The Twelve Days of Christmas in the names. We’re on Day Four and my True Love buys me Four Calling Birds.

Well, I was most surprised to learn that there actually aren’t any places at all just called Calling. About the closest I got was a couple of places called Callington (one in Cornwall, England, and one in South Australia) and a Calling Lake in Alberta, Canada.

There are two places called Bird (both in the USA, one in New York and one in Louisiana) and seven called Birds in Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, Illinois and New Jersey in the USA, one in Jordan, and one in - hilariously - the Canary Islands. Fun fact about the Canary Islands - not named for the bird, but actually named for dogs! The birds are named after the islands, not the other way round. The Latin name for the islands is Canariae Insulae, meaning Islands of the Dogs.

I also learned today that a “calling bird” is actually a blackbird; calling in the song is a variant of “colly”, meaning black and having the same origin as coal. So looking up Blackbird gives me another two American placenames, this time in Idaho and Delaware. I wonder if I can rack up a placename for every American state by the time I’ve done the twelve days? Someone count them for me and see if there are any missing!

Know another place called Blackbird? Or know of a place called Calling? Let us know in the comments!

Day Five tomorrow, and - spoiler alert - it’s a good one!

 

Karen Bailey

Marketing Manager