Unbeknownst to the majority of the people in this region, Western Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia is home to some of the best whitewater in the country. The Cheat, Tygart, and Youghiogheny watersheds provide enough variety that Pittsburgh-based paddlers that have paddled for twenty years still haven't gotten to paddle everything they've had their eye on. Whitewater enthusiasts regularly travel from as far away as New England and Michigan to reach the water in our backyard. There is always a drop in elevation from the top of a rapid to the bottom. Naming drops is an art, and like all art, sometimes it is practiced magnificently and sometimes it is not.
Names definitely play a psychological role as well.
Nothing demarcates one culture from another as consistently and completely as language. Those who understand it are inside, those that do not are outside. Missed the line at Bastard. I boofed right but got sucked into the hole. Missed my roll, got trashed and swam.