There are many names around Sydney that leave visitors scratching their heads and asking "why?" Like why does Sydney call the only circular building in its central business district Australia Square? And why is Circular Quay rectangular? Why the now withdrawn red trains on Sydney's railway system were nicknamed Red Rattlers is obvious to anyone who has ridden them, but their correct name - Sputniks - isn't (they were thus named because they were brought into service in 1957, the same year the Soviet Union launched its Sputnik satellite).
Sydney has some very interesting suburb names too. There is one suburb with a name that literally means "Death Valley" - Mortdale; Greystanes isn't anywhere near as dirty as its name suggests, and what about Fiddletown? - no, the people who live there aren't all tax cheats - or violin players for that matter!
Contrary to what its name implies, the people of Galston don't all have gall stones; be assured the people who live in Grose Wold and Hassall Grove are glad their localities' names aren't descriptive; the name Lowlands would have been a nightmare to the real estate agent who first tried to sell land there; the people who named Hillsdale and Valley Heights appear to have been quite indecisive; there aren't too many ladies from the popular beachside suburb who'll admit to being Manly residents; not a single person lives at Tumbledown Dick, even though it has been allocated a postcode. And why would they, with a name like that!
If those suburb names are a bit too negative for you, there are a lot of other names that go to the opposite extreme. Life in Merrylands sounds like it would be fun, and Beauty Point, Green Valley, Riverview and Summer Hill all sound like names concocted by real estate developers eager for sales. As for Crows Nest, Curl Curl and Dee Why ...

So who named Sydney?

Like all cities and towns, Sydney as a city remains unfinished, in a constant state of change. There's nothing startling about that, except when you try to define just exactly what and where Sydney is, and then you come up with a lot of unanswered questions. Even the origin of its name is questionable. Sure, we know it honours Thomas Townshend (1733-1800) Viscount Sydney, a British parliamentarian and Secretary of State for the Home Affairs between 1783 and 1789, the man to whom the Governor of NSW was directly answerable during the colony's establishment and formative years. But the colony was originally named New South Wales. So who changed it to Sydney? Now that is a very good question. More ...