Travel back in time to the Great Land of the Tattooed

If you began a journey at the Isles of Sea Monsters, headed around the Cape by the Dark Warrior's Village, trekked through the Land of the Wanderers to Wild Boar Village and ended up in Bear Guard Home you might be forgiven for thinking you are lost in some far-flung corner of J R R Tolkein's Middle Earth.

What you will actually have done is set off from the Orkneys, sailed around Duncansby Head, come ashore on the Scottish mainland and then headed towards York and on to Birmingham. You would also be touring the Great Land of the Tattooed – Great Britain. That is according to a new world atlas that has renamed cities, rivers, countries and seas to reflect their etymological roots.

The Atlas of True Names is a somewhat unusual take on the world which attempts to illustrate how the places we live in came to be named. Those living in Cameroon, for instance, could claim to come from Land of Shrimps as their west African republic got its modern-day name from camaroes, Portuguese for shrimps. Citizens of Chicago might be a little less happy to learn that the original Native American word behind the Windy City, checagou, actually means stink onion. Liverpudlians, meanwhile, would surely contend that Choked Pool is a somewhat unfair description of their fair metropolis. Those behind the map say they mean no offence to those who live in places with less aesthetically pleasing names. Instead they hope their map will make us all think more about the idea that behind every name is another one.

"The map is not a definitive work on the etymological roots of geographical names," said Sean Quigley of Outstanding Map Distributors. "It's more of a stimulus and a very amusing one at that, to make us think about why places are called as they are. It is already causing a degree of heated discussion and I am sure that is just the beginning."

Muscovites and those living in Cambridge might be surprised to learn that both their cities share an etymological root and were named after the sodden marshlands they were built on. "Grantabridge", the Celtic name for Cambridge, meant boggy bridge whilst Moscow's name derives from mosk, the Slavic for bog.

Mr Quigley said: "We only began working on the English language maps in October so we've had to turn everything around quite quickly but the interest has been phenomenal."

Olde worlde guide: Where are we?

*Isles of Sea Monsters – Orkneys. Stems from the Celtic word orc which means whale or sea monster.

*Hillfort – technically the etymology of London is virtually unknown. One theory is that it comes from the Celtic words lon dun, which would mean fort on a hill.

*Great Land of the Tattooed – Great Britain. From both the Greek word prettanoi, which means"tattooed people" and from the Celtic word brit, meaning light coloured or speckled.