No More Fucking: Austrian Village Renamed to Fugging

The title does not lie. An Austrian village currently named Fucking will officially be renamed to Fugging starting 1 Jan 2021. 

Fucking, Austria is a quaint 100-resident village in Tarsdorf, just north of Salzburg. As bad (or funny) as it sounds, the village is mostly popular for its four traffic signs with its name on them. So despite the small population and its seemingly off-the-beaten-path location, Fucking has attracted many foreign tourists who visit the village just to take photos beside each Fucking sign. 

Think that’s the end of it? Local entrepreneurs reportedly made the village’s reputation worse by producing different souvenirs with the village name on them, such as Fucking Christmas cards, postcards, and even Fucking beer. With this, the village of Fucking has made the rounds on social media in the past couple of years while often being presented in a lascivious manner, especially with how tourists have been posing beside the Fucking street signs. 

Naturally, the locals, known as Fuckingers, grew irate with the treatment of their village and it was only a matter of time until Fuckingers voted to change the name Fucking into Fugging. 

The Tarsdorf mayor, Andrea Holzner, confirmed this in an interview with a regional newspaper called Oberösterreichische Nachrichten. “I can confirm that the village is being renamed. I really don’t want to say anything more – we’ve had enough media frenzy about this in the past,” she said. 

Image credit: Benjamin Dauth

Trivia: It is said that the village was founded in the 6th century by a Bavarian nobleman named Focko. The “-ing” in “Fucking” is a German suffix indicating people that belong to the root word, in this case, Focko. “Fucking”, therefore, is a German name which translates to the “place of Focko’s people.” 

Also read: Several European Christmas Markets Are Officially Cancelled This Year

Well, what do you guys think about Fucking being renamed into Fugging? This surely sounds like a much-needed change for Fuckingers (or should we say Fuggingers?). In any case, it’s the end of a Fucking era. 

Featured image credit: Tobias “ToMar” Maier | Wikimedia