It may help people learning the Cambodian language if they know the meaning of place names.

Phnom Penh - Pnom Pen(y). Pnom means mountain or hill. Pen(y) means full. So Pnom Pen(y) means full hill or full mountain. I dont know where this originated, but: Wat Pnom is very close to the center of ancient PP. Land in some parts of all of the cities along the rivers has been filled. Before filling some of it was flood plains. Maybe, a long before they built the temple, a lot of people built houses on Wat Pnom to be above the flood level. This would make it a full hill.

Kandal - Gondaal means center or middle. For people living in PP, Kandal seems to be the center of Cambodia.

Ta Khmau - Ta Kmou. Ta means grandfather, kmou means black, so Ta Kmou means black grandfather. If you go there you will see him in the middle of the roundabout.

Kampong Cham - Gompoong Jaam. Jaam means wait, and gompoong means ing, so Gompoong Jaam means waiting. In ancient times, there was trade along the rivers by boat. People used to wait for the boats in Gompoong Jaam.

Kratie - Kro Je. Kro means poor, and je means to know how to, so Kro Je means the poor know how to. It has been said that there used to be a lot of poor people in Kro Je, but they were smart. One of the first things people may ask you is - Je Kmae - Do you know how to speak Khmer?

Prey Veng - Prai Veng. Prai means forrest, veng means long, so Prai Veng means long forrest.

Kep - Kaep, means seat (of a bicycle). In the Cambodian language, north is kaang jerng, or leg side, which is always down. Which leads to the conclusion they used to draw the map upside down, with Kep at the top. With the map upside down, Kep is like a seat (of a bicycle).

If anyone has any different explanations, please share.

If anyone wants to share the meaning of of other place names, please do.

I believe that the Penh in Phnom Penh is a mythical woman's name and the Cham in Kampong Cham refers to the Cham people.

I found one of the most entertaining Khmer words , although not a place name, was the word for '' holiday ''

t'ngai chOOp som raak . day stop rest

Dont blame me if it's wrong, cause I copied it from a book.

Kompong and Kampong are both from the Malaysian kampong, a landing place for boats. There is a strong Indo-Maly influence, such as Phsar and kangkong (water spinach). Jayavarman means protector from Java, which, at the time, was a generic term for Sumatra, Java and other adjoining islands.
Speu in Kompong Speu means honey.

If your post was intended to provide entertainment you succeeded. I showed it to my Khmer wife a few minutes ago and she is still laughing. If you are serious you need a new teacher as previous corrections to this post indicate.

Gilmore wrote: ↑Sun Aug 19, 2018 7:26 am Kompong and Kampong are both from the Malaysian kampong, a landing place for boats.

I think you are right.

Gompoong has two meanings, a landing place for boats, and ing. A landing place for boats also works with all of the other places with Kampong in their names.

Gilmore wrote: ↑Sun Aug 19, 2018 7:26 am Kompong and Kampong are both from the Malaysian kampong, a landing place for boats. There is a strong Indo-Maly influence, such as Phsar and kangkong (water spinach). Jayavarman means protector from Java, which, at the time, was a generic term for Sumatra, Java and other adjoining islands.
Speu in Kompong Speu means honey.

I think that the word pasar in Malay came from the Persian word for market: bazaar.

"if anyone has any different explanations please share" seems to me he was comfortable enough to risk people shooting him in the head by offering up what he thought might be good explanations, while at the same time being open to correction.

Why not just offer informed corrections without knocking his head off?