List of New Netherland placename etymologies

Both the Americans and the New Netherlanders often gave names inspired by the geography or geology of the natural environment and described a shape, location, feature, quality, or phenomenon.

The Lenape population, who had the most frequent contact with the New Netherlanders, were seasonally migrational groups around the New York Bay and along the Lower Hudson who became known collectively as the River Indians.

[1] Among them were the Wecquaesgeek and Siwanoy (to the north on the east side of the Hudson River); the Hackensack, Raritan, the Ramapough,[2] and Tappan (to the west); and the Canarsee and Rockaway (on western Long Island).

Likely to have evolved from Achter Col, the name given by the New Netherlanders for the area surrounding Newark Bay and the waters that flowed into it, as English-speakers immigrated to the region radiating from the Elizabethtown Tract and Perth Amboy.

Believed to come from the word bergen, which in Dutch and other Germanic languages of northern Europe means "mountains" or "hills",[19] and could describe a most distinct geological feature of the region, the Palisades.

[20] Another interpretation is that it comes from the Dutch verb bergen as meaning "to save or recover" or the noun "place of safety", inspired by the settlers' return[21] after they had fled attacks by the native population during the Peach War.

This was the primary trade route for furs from the Susquehannock people, and the Dutch named the trail Beversreede, "Beaver Road.

Similar to evolution of Gramercy, which is a corruption of the krom mesje, or little crooked knife, the name of a small brook that flowed along what is now 21st Street in Manhattan.

[66] From Thomas West, 3rd (or 12th) Baron of De La Warr, or Lord Delaware, who served as governor of the Jamestown Colony[67][68] Thunder Mountain Literally dark corner.

Popular lore has it that it comes from Moneyland, explained as referring to early Dutch settler's assumption that the large amount of sand in the area could generate a profitable glass industry.

[28] The town was first settled around 1644 following the establishment of a treaty between English colonists, John Carman and Robert Fordham, and the Indians in 1643.

Site of early English incurisons in New Netherland by New Englanders, in 1643[86] "Batavianization" of the Lenape tobacco pipe, from hoopookum or hupoken.

(Contemporary: Hopoakan meaning pipe for smoking) Alternatively from Hoebuck, old Dutch for high bluff and likely referring to Castle Point[88] Variations used during the colonial era included Hobock,[89] Hobocan,Hoboocken,[90] and Hobuck,[88] Although the spellingHoboken was used by the English as early as 1668,[14] it doesn't appear that until Col. John Steven purchased the land on which the city is situated that it became common.

[92] Established in 1135, the New Netherlanders were likely aware of its existence (and may have pronounced the Lenape to conform a more familiar sound), but it is doubtful that the city on the Hudson is named for it.

[100] From Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, an officer on Henry Hudson's yacht Halve Maen (Half Moon).

It wasn't until nine years later, in 1652, that settlers ventured back to the area, settling an area slightly inland from the previous Maspat[107] This is perhaps an approximation of masgichteu-cunk meaning where May-apples grow, from a moist-woodland perennial that bears edible yellow berries[20] and used to describe the lobe of land between and the confluence of the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers at Newark Bay.

Early 17th-century Dutch maps of the Hudson River Valley show an Indian village, whose inhabitants were part of the Mohegan Tribe, named "Sint Sinck."

The Manor comprised about 165,000 acres (668 km2) and extended from Spuyten Duyvil Creek at the tip of Manhattan on the south to the Croton River just north of the Village of Ossining.

[118] Spellings include Pimbrepow, Pembrepock, Pemmerepoch,[83] Pimlipo, Pemrepau,[52] Pemrapaugh, andPamrapough[9] From Parampseapus or Peremessing meaning, perhaps, where there is worthwhile (or fertile) land or place of wild turkeys.

[123] /pəˈkɪpsiː/ from (roughly) U-puku-ipi-sing), meaning the reed covered lodge by the little-water place, referring to a spring or stream feeding into the Hudson River Used as farmland by the Wappinger[125] to early traders it was known as the White Plains, either from the groves of white balsam which are said to have covered it,[126] or from the heavy mist that local tradition suggests hovered over the swamplands near the Bronx River.

In the Dutch records of Wildwyck, however, the spelling used to designate this same fort is invariably Ronduyt during the earliest period, with the present form rondout (often capitalized) appearing as early as 22 November 1666.

Eventually, this word entered the lexicon of the Dutch settlers, but the meaning was reversed, and the name referred to the bend in the Mohawk River where the city lies today.

"Spuyten Duyvil" (modern Dutch: Spuitende Duivel) means Devil's Spout,[34] a reference to the strong and wild currents.

Black Fertile River-Enhanced Earth, good for planting, as the land along the river valley that was site Fort Huys de Goede Hoop or Fort House of Good Hope, the 1623 settlement of what is now Hartford[72] Sutphin Boulevard, Queens, New York, named after the settlers family Van Sutphin or Van Sutphen, referring to their origins from the Dutch town and county of Zutphen, a hanseatic town, one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands.

Overpeck Creek, site of Hackensack semi-permanent village The region radiating from Palisades Interstate Park and its inhabitants as named by New Netherlanders, who spelled it as Tappaen.

However, more likely is that the name derives from the 'Walen' or Walloons, referring to the Huguenots who fled from their homelands in the western border area of France and present-day Belgium to the Pfalz and from there to New Netherlands.

[164] Spelling have included: Awiehawken, Wiehacken, Weehauk, Weehawk, Weehock, Wiceaken,Wihaken, Wyhaken, and Wiehachan Peter Minuit, first governor of New Netherland, sailed to the new world upon a ship called The Seagull or Het "Meeuwken,[12] which may have led to one interpretation of the Lenape.

[165] Short-lived fort on Zuyd Rivier in 1625, likely so called from Het Wilhelmus (Nl-Het Wilhelmus2.oggⓘ) (English translation: The William), a song which tells of Willem van Oranje, his life and why he is fighting for the Dutch people.

The Wykhof estate from where Pieter Claessen emigrated is located near the Ems River Bay, about 5 miles south of Norden, Lower Saxony, Germany.

[170] From Jonkheer or Jonker meaning young gentleman (and in effect, Esquire), the title borne by proprietor of homestead which included the land where the city is situated, Adriaen van der Donck.