Newfoundland and Labrador has plenty of unusual place names, but one small town’s moniker raises more eyebrows than most: Dildo.

The strikingly picturesque community in Trinity Bay is probably one of the best known towns in the province. It’s the kind of name that makes its way in trivia, listicles and late night TV the world over.  If you doubt me Google it; but brace yourself for a whole new world of targeted ads coming your way.

The attention-grabbing name begs a question — why did this tiny town get such an unusual name?

Spoiler alert! The truth is no one really knows. The name has been in use since, at least, the early 1700s and the origin has been lost but there are lots of theories.

Here are few.

Blame Oar Pegs?

One of the most persistent stories for Dildo’s name is that it was named after the wooden oar pegs of boats. The pegs were called dildos.

The theory is that early English explorers thought that land formation in the area resembled oar pegs and referred to the coast by that name… and it stuck.

Stuck in the Doldrums?

Dildo, Trinity Bay is not the only place in Newfoundland to use ‘Dildo’ in its name.

Just off New World Island is a narrow channel called Dildo Run. It’s a winding passage with many islands. It is said that it is nearly impossible to get fair winds while navigating it.

For some mariners it was reminiscent of the doldrums — an area near the equator with famously poor wind. Ships could get stuck in the doldrums for days waiting for enough wind to move their boats.

While waiting, sailors complained they were in ‘the dilly dollies."  It’s been suggested the same phrase was applied to the area off New World Island and, overtime, evolved to become Dildo.

Some have suggested that, maybe, the same sort of evolution happened in Dildo, Trinity Bay too.

A Corruption of De l'île de l'eau?

It’s been suggested that Dildo may take its name from nearby Dildo Island. As the story goes, the French name of the island was De l'île de l'eau. Overtime the French was corrupted and became Dildo.

I have no idea if that is true but if it were Dildo would hardly be alone in finding its current name that way — Twillingate, Bay Roberts and Codroy are all Newfoundland towns with corrupted/anglicized French names.

Dildo means what, you say?

In his 1971 book Place Names of the Avalon Peninsula of the Island of Newfoundland, E.R. Seary offers a sort of counter-intuitive theory.

He suggests the term dildo, as used in parts of the north of England, was “a name not of the penis or phallus but of the vagina, applied here as a descriptive to a deep, narrow bay.” 

He goes on to offer examples of other Newfoundland places named similarly but I’ll leave that for a future post, perhaps.

…Or Maybe It’s Obvious

As evidenced, there’s been a lot of conjecture about where the name Dildo came from. There’s a sort of assumption that the name couldn’t possibly mean what the 21st century thinks it means but the truth is, it could.

According to Merriam-Webster the word ‘dildo’ has been used with the contemporary meaning since at least 1598. That’s early enough that it could have been an inspiration for the name. If the landscape looked enough like an oar peg to inspire a name… perhaps a similar logic can apply.

It’s not as if European explorers and settlers shied away from humour when naming the coast.

Still a Mystery

Any one of these stories could be the origin of Dildo’s name or, maybe, none of them are. The truth is we will probably never know and maybe that’s okay; a straightforward story for such an unusual name would be almost disappointing.

In the mystery there’s scope for imagination. It invites speculation and stories and, at the end of the day, that may be the best thing about it — the conversation it generates.

Nothing spoils a good yarn like the truth.