names

In the interests of full disclosure, I must tell you that I am not a boat guy. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against boats. As a matter of fact, I've never been out on the Rock River boating without having a great time. It's just that I don't want one, I want friends who have one.

I was just watching something on YouTube that had people from anywhere other than the Midwest trying to pronounce Midwestern place names. As you might imagine, it was pretty humorous to watch folks take on names that we're fairly familiar with, but they had never heard of.

Before you guess, some explanation of the question is in order. By "distinctive" last name, I mean those that occur most often compared to the nation as a whole. Got it? Okay, make your guess--but think "Swedish" while you're doing it.

If you have one of these 50 names, you could become a super star.

Because no one asked for it, a social media dating app decided to do a study in attempt to find the hottest names for guys and girls.

Ever heard of a town called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch? It's a real place in Wales. According to Wikipedia: The long form of the name was invented for promotional purposes in the 1860s; with 58 characters it is the longest place name in Europe and the second longest official one-word place name in the world...

We've had a rather Illinois-centric week in this space. We've learned how much we didn't know about our state, in addition to taking a look at Illinois' unusually-named mascots. Today, let's wrap up the week with the state itself, in particular the counties that make up Illinois...