Peep through the opposite end of the looking glass, however, and we find that examples of foreign place names here in Scotland are thin on the ground.
But that’s not to say there are no examples to be found. In fact, there are more than half a dozen Scottish town and village names that boast an exotic cousin.
Setting off by car from California at 11am and arriving in Moscow by noon, we take a tour around 7 Scottish place names derived from foreign shores.
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California village, Falkirk. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
1. Moscow
Responsible for many a double take over the decades, the name of this little East Ayrshire hamlet is thought to have been amended from its original "Moss-hall" in 1812 to mark Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. In a further nod to its infinitely larger Russian brother, the burn that runs through the settlement has been dubbed the Volga. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
2. California
California knows how to party, though whether the famous lyric can be readily applied to this quiet village near Falkirk is up for debate. The true origins of the name are unclear, though some have suggested it dates from the 1840s when the region experienced a coal boom at the same time as the Californian gold rush in the US. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
3. Waterloo
If Abba did sleepy Perthshire hamlets.. Waterloo was named in the wake of the famous battle fought south of Brussels in 1815, some say in tribute to the fallen local soldiers who never came home. Photo: Creative Commons
4. Portobello
Nicknamed Porty by the locals, the exotic sounding beach district in Edinburgh, formerly an independent burgh, was named after a cottage owned by seaman George Hamilton. It's recorded that Hamilton served under Admiral Edward Vernon during the capture of Porto Bello, Panama, in 1739. Photo: Creative Commons