While the rest of us peons struggle to pronounce names like “Goethe” or “Voldemort,” a weatherman with the U.K.’s Channel 4 News just casually said “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch” on air. For those too lazy to count, that’s the 58-letter name of a town in Wales.
How did the place get such a mouthful of a moniker, the longest name of any place within the U.K.? According to Atlas Obscura, we can thank one 19th-century man who knew how to mount a good publicity stunt:
The island community was originally known simply as “Llanfairpwll” but thanks to an enterprising local tailor with an ear for the absurd, the name was extended to its current length in order to make the village an attraction.
The name, which is printed on the village’s absurdly long train station sign translates from the Welsh as, “St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave.”
It’s not surprising, then, that weatherman and pronouncer extraordinaire Liam Dutton announced the amazing feat beforehand on Twitter—or that droves of people, including his compatriot Catherine Zeta-Jones, congratulated him on his triumph. Congratulations, Liam Dutton. Or, perhaps we should say, llongyfarchiadau, Liam Dutton.