Do Lake Names Reflect Their Properties? (opens in new tab)

The color of a lake in satellite view depends on the satellite's viewing angle (which depends on the satellite's trajectory and the lake's location), the angle of the sun (which depends on the same things plus the time and date the image was taken), the weather, the satellite's sensors (false color is a thing), and how the images are processed before publishing. Overall I think it's almost impossible to estimate the "true" color of a lake from public satellite images, even if you used all pixels instead of just one.

What, no brown lakes? In Finland there are 121 lakes called "Paskalampi", lit. "Shit Lake".

https://www.openstreetmap.org/search?query=paskalampi#map=18...

Then again, at least this is more descriptive than the 13 called Vesijärvi, or "Water Lake".

I live next to Suolijärvi, "bowel lake". I guess the name reflects its shape: https://maps.app.goo.gl/w6wUmBF6m5r6U3eJ9

There's also Särkijärvi, "roach lake" (as in the fish) nearby; presumably there is (or once was) a healthy roach population there.

The most common lake name in Finland is Pyhäjärvi, literally "holy lake" or "sacred lake", but apparently the original meaning of the word pyhä was something like "demarcated" or "dedicated" (in modern Finnish the verb pyhittää means "to sanctify" but also "to devote" or "to dedicate"). So many of these waterbodies may have been named after ancient border or boundary agreements of some sort, pertaining to fishing or hunting rights for example. Rather mundane stuff despite the word's contemporary meaning!

Obviously this is just for fun, but I am a bit disturbed about similar projects that try to gain some meaningful insights out of vast public data sets without the slightest attention paid to the quality of the data used. It doesn’t matter how much processing you do or how clever your algorithms are if the underlaying data is inaccurate, out of date, inconsistent, non-normalized, incomplete, etc. No dataset is perfect, but at least take some time to address it.

How else would you name a lake?

Well, here in Massachusetts we have Lake Char­gogg­a­gogg­man­chaugg­a­gogg­chau­bun­a­gung­a­maugg, which doesn't describe its color but does mean "lake divided by islands" and is a pretty accurate, if long winded, description of it.

I was surprised to learn that, while the suburb of Silver Lake in LA is in fact named after the water reservoir at its centre, the reservoir itself is actually named after former water commissioner Herman Silver. The way its serene surface reflects the city and the mountains beyond? Just a coincidence.

Some lakes undergo drastic changes through the seasons. I know of a few that go from dark blue(late fall, early spring) to brown(spring runoff sediment) to dark green(algae in summer) in a single year.

There is Nuclear lake on the Appalachian trail in Dutchess county, NY. Its name is or is not accidental, depending on how you look at it.

https://www.scenichudson.org/explore-the-valley/outdoor-adve...

I can assure you that "Jack The Horse Lake" in Northern MN absolutely reflects whatever you think that name implies.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jack+the+Horse+Lake/@47.61...

During a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in my youth, we portaged through Party Lake. I am sad to report no revelry occurred.

However, Mud Lake definitely lived up to its name.

Minnesota has several lakes named "Mud Lake," one of which I have spent considerable time around. The surrounding area is on top of a huge water table. It's normal for a house with a ~900 sq ft basement to have two(!) sump pumps, and for both of them to run daily(!). Before there was a housing development there, I imagine it would have been very, very muddy. The lake itself isn't particularly muddy, though.

We have a 'red lake' in Romania that is fairly recent (river dammed by an earthquake in 1838). It looks just muddy to me. It may have been red when it formed due to water with iron oxides or something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Lake_(Romania)

Lake Superior got its name “on account of its being superior in magnitude to any of the lakes on that vast continent”.

Good read. Most lakes around southern India seem to derive their name from small kingdoms that once occupied the land.

Many of them don’t have meanings and I’m not sure what they mean to further analyse like you did.

In the west of Ireland there are two lakes: Lough Yganavan and Lough Nambrackdarrig.

The spellings come from the anglicisation of

1. Sandy Lake and

2. Red Trout Lake

so the namers kept things simple in their native tongue but now the names are almost indecipherable.

That seems common enough.

In the Grand Teton mountains, at 9,500 ft. (2,895 meters) elevation, there is a "Surprise Lake" at the top of the hiking trail, which is kind of surprising when you get there.

When I was learning SCUBA, one of our sessions happened in Tea Lake (learning how to do an emergency swim ascent). I can vouch for its name accurately representing its properties.

I went to Lake Superior and it was soooo cold to me.

John Prine’s song “Lake Marie” is a great song and story of a lake and its name.

Bob Dylan ranks it as his favorite Prine song.

I'm sorry, but I can't help myself with this one... https://youtu.be/dalNQF8NmIs?si=lHyKeTiCLDFczZk6

If there's one thing I hate, it's stuck up bodies of water. It's like, get over yourself, Lake Superior.

(a Norm Macdonald joke, RIP.)

On the Pacific Crest Trail, there is a lake called Gillette Lake presumably because it's the best a man can get. I, for one, quite liked it, as it's bright turquoise due to rock flour.