If you're at all familiar with Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," then you probably remember this line, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." And, even if Shakespeare hasn't yet made your radar, you're bound to have heard that line -- or part of it -- somewhere, sometime. Anyhow, so – what is in a name? A few road trips caused us to ponder this over the summer.

Take a tour around North Carolina and you'll see what we mean. There's Bear Wallow Hollow in Transylvania County. Then there's Jugtown, Lizard Lick, Loafers Glory, Nags Head and Possumtrot in Moore, Wake, Mitchell, Dare and Yancey counties respectively. And why not visit Why Not while you're at it? OK, you caught us – the last one isn't an official town, it's just a little local community. But it was worth a mention, right?

How did these towns and cities get their names? Jugtown's origin is actually pretty straightforward -- it's named for a local product -- hand-turned pottery jugs. And would you believe Nags Head's name involves pirates?

As the story goes, a land-bound pirate would hang a lantern around the head of an old, gentle horse (a "nag") and take it for an evening stroll along the coast. Ship crews at sea would see the light and think it was another ship anchored in a harbor. When the crew would try to bring their ship into the harbor, it would run ashore, leaving both ship and crew vulnerable to pirates waiting nearby. As for Bear Wallow Hollow, Lizard Lick and Possumtrot -- rest assured their origins all have something to do with the creatures for which they're named. We can just imagine those wallowing bears now.

To be sure, North Carolina isn't the only state with uniquely named towns and cities within its borders. On further investigation, we discovered many other curiously christened locales in and outside North Carolina. While it's obvious some people had a muse for the moniker, others were nonplussed. For example, perhaps those in charge of naming duties for the following sites had breakfast on their minds: Hot Coffee, Miss., Coffee, Ga., Cream, Wis., Cocoa, Fla., Buttermilk, Kan., Biscuit, Neb., Two Egg, Fla., Toast, N.C., Pancake, Texas, and Frying Pan, N.C. However, some folks in Tennessee and Texas simply tagged their towns Nameless. And we wonder if the residents of Nowhere, Okla., have difficulty explaining where they live.

For this Web quest, we're pointing out many of these puzzling places and we've investigated the origins of a few of the names along the way (check out the signs above).

Bugscuffle, TN Bug Tussle, AL Lizard Lick, NC Possumtrot, NC Ticktown, VA

Bumpass, VA Lazbuddie, TX Mutt and Jeff, TX Peculiar, MO Hygiene, CO

Accident, MD Boring, MD Cut-throat Gulch, CA Difficult, TN Double Trouble, NJ Drab, PA Dull,TX Hell's Half Acre, WY Frugality, PA Poor Town, NC Tightwad, MO Troublesome, CO

Try this:
Use a mapping Web site like MapQuest (www.mapquest.com/) or Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/) to find your location. Zoom out to find uniquely named towns and cities in the surrounding area. How many can you find? Next, try to locate these other food-related towns: Bread Loaf, Cakey Butte, Cereal, Cornbread, Johnnycake, Strawberry and Pie Town. In what states are they located?