List of Hudson County, New Jersey placename etymologies
This is a list of locales in Hudson County, New Jersey categorized by origin of their name.
Municipalities
- Bayonne (Bynne)
- Jersey City (JC)
- Hoboken (Hbkn)
- Union City (UC)
- West New York (WNY)
- Guttenberg (Gtbg)
- Secaucus (Sec)
- Kearny (Kearny)
- Harrison (Har'sn)
- East Newark (EN)
- North Bergen (NB)
- Weehawken (Whkn)
Lenape
The Lenape people who lived in the region spoke an Algonquian language from which the current names are derivative through Dutch and English.
Name | Municipality | Origin | Comments | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Caven Point | JC | peninsula[1] | through Dutch kewan (see:cay) | Road |
Communipaw | JC | gamunk, on the other side of the river, and pe-auke, water-land, meaning big landing-place from the other side of the river.[2] | Upper New York Bay before land reclamation at turn of the 20th century current: gamuck meaning other side of the water or otherside of the river[3] or landing place at the side of a river [4] |
Terminal Station Junction Cove Avenue |
Hackensack | JC, Sec Whkn |
place of stony ground[5] or place of sharp ground [6] | exonym for Hackensack (Native Americans) and the terrain around main village at Overpeck Creek near a ridgefield | River Plank Road |
Harsimus | JC | sea marsh or sea grass, possibly crow's marsh | salt marsh cove along the North River before landfilling in the 19th century current: ahas meaning crow [7] |
Cove |
Hoboken | Hob | hoopookum or hupoken meaning smoking pipe,[6]
from Hopoghan Hackingh [8] or place of stone for pipes |
serpentinite rock found at the outcropping of Castle Point current: Hopoakan meaning pipe for smoking |
Terminal Cemetery |
Lackawanna | stream that forks | Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad , originally the Lackawanna and Western Railroad, consolidated with the Erie Railroad to become the Erie Lackawanna Railway, travelled through the region of the Lackawanna River and across NJ to the waterfront | Hoboken Terminal | |
Manhattan | UC | island of many hills[9] | From the word Manna-hata, as written in the 1609 logbook of Robert Juet, a first mate on Henry Hudson's yacht Halve Maen, while anchored at Weehawken Cove.[10] A 1610 map depicts the name Manahata twice, on both the west and east sides of what became the Hudson River | |
Pamrapo | JC Bay |
rock | Natural break in Bergen Hill where the east-west crossing of Morris Canal was later built and city line established. | Station Avenue Court |
Passaic | pahsaayeek,[6] pasayak or pahsayèk meaning valley or water that flows through the valley |
Current: Pachsa'jeek[6] | ||
Secaucus | Sec | sukit meaning black and achgook meaning snake,[12] hence black snakes.[4] | Snake Hill | Road |
Weehawken | Whkn | at the end of[13] | emergence of Hudson Palisades at King's Bluff | Cove Cemetery |
Dutch
New Netherlanders established a factorij in 1617 at Communipaw, a patroonship in 1630 at Pavonia, and New Jersey's first independent gemeente, or municipality, in 1661 as Bergen.
Name | Municipality | Origin | Comments | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bergen | county-wide | bergen meaning hills or mountain ridge,
alternatively from the verb to save, recover, keep safe [14] |
speaks to the terrain of Bergen Hill or the establishment of a stockaded village to which settlers could withdraw if needed | Square Point Bergenline, etc |
Constable Hook | Bynne | Konstapel's Hoeck | land grant to Jacob Jacobsen Roy, chief gunner or constable in at Fort Amsterdam in New Amsterdam in 1646 | |
Cromakill Creek | Sec, NB | kromme kill meaning crooked creek | border between Secaucus and North Bergen in Hackensack Meadowlands | |
Paulus Hook | JC | variously Paulus Hoeck, Powles Hoek, Powles Hook hoek or hoeck[16] |
originally a tidal island, site of ferry and factorij operated by Micheal Paulus on behalf of the patroon[15] | |
Pavonia | JC, Bynne | latinized pauw meaning peacock | from surname of absentee patroon Michael Reyniersz Pauw, as was common for educated men in Dutch Golden Age to take a Latin name | |
Kill van Kull | Bynne | channel from the ridge from kille meaning water channel and col meaning mountain pass or ridge |
Achter Kol described the terrain behind, or west, of the Hudson Palisades. Arthur Kill is an anglicisation of achter kill meaning back channel, which would speak to its location behind Staten Island. | |
North River | In maritime usage, the Hudson River between Hudson County and Manhattan In relation to another of the great rivers in New Netherland, the Delaware or South River.[17] Alternatively, the "North" River and "East" River were so named for the direction of travel they permitted once having entered the harbor.[18] |
Tunnels | ||
Robbins Reef | Bynne | rob or robyn meaning seal | collections of seals would sometimes lay on the reef at low tide[19] | |
Suydam | JC | south dam | once part of the village of Communipaw | Street |
Odonyms
Places bearing eponymous names.
(Streets with names of US presidents, more than half of whom are honored, are not included.)[20]
See also
References
- ↑ Ferretti, Fred (June 10, 1979), "Jersey City Hopes to Save Caven Point", New York Times
- ↑ https://archive.org/stream/fourchaptersofpa00shri/fourchaptersofpa00shri_djvu.txt
- ↑ The Lenape/English Dictionary http://www.gilwell.com/lenape
- 1 2 http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~njmorris/general_info/indian.htm
- ↑ http://www.bergencountyhistory.org/Pages/indians.html
- 1 2 3 4 http://www.woodlandindians.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=3749
- ↑ http://www.talk-lenape.org/spelling.php
- ↑ HM-hist "The Abridged History of Hoboken", Hoboken Museum Archived 2009-02-26 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Holloway, Marguerite. "Urban tactics; I'll Take Mannahatta", The New York Times, May 16, 2004, accessed June 30, 2009. "He could envision what Henry Hudson saw in 1609 as he sailed along Mannahatta, which in the Lenape dialect most likely meant island of many hills."
- ↑ Full Text of Robert Juet's Journal: From the collections of the New York Historical Society, Second Series, 1841 log book Archived 2009-05-18 at the Wayback Machine., Newsday. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
- ↑ Lenape Language / Pronunciation Archived 2007-02-27 at the Wayback Machine..
- ↑ Anthony, Rev A.S and Binton D.G. (editors) Lenape-English Dictionary, 1888, (Historical Society of Penn)
- ↑ Weehawken, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, accessed June 13, 2007. "A township in Hudson County, N.J., seven miles northeast of Jersy [sic] City. The name was originally an Algonquin Indian term and later changed by folk-usage to a pseudo-Dutch form. Its exact meaning is unclear, but variously translated ... at the end (of the Palisades)..."
- ↑ Grundy, J. Owen (1976). "A Dutch Legacy". The History of Jersey City (1609–1976). Jersey City, New Jersey: Walter E. Knight, Progress Printing Co. p. 5.
- 1 2 Joan F. Doherty, Hudson County The Left Bank, ISBN 0-89781-172-0 (Windsor Publications, Inc., 1986)
- 1 2 NJCU: Jersey City A to Z/Paulus Hook
- ↑ Steinhauer, Jennifer."F.Y.I",The New York Times, May 15, 1994.
- ↑ Dougherty, Steve. "MY MANHATTAN; Away From the Uproar, Before a Strong Wind", The New York Times, May 31, 2002. Accessed January 17, 2008. "'Because it's the river you sail to go north,' Captain Freitas explained. 'To sail east, to Long Island Sound, you would take the East River.'"
- ↑ Roberts, Bruce and Jones, Ray, Lighthouses of New York, Globe Pequot Press, Guilford CT, 2008
- ↑ Hudson County New Jersey Street Map. Hagstrom Map Company, Inc. 2008. ISBN 0-88097-763-9.
- ↑ NJCU JC A to Z: Black Tom
- 1 2 Sherman, Lauren; Gaulkin, Ellen Robb (February 2009). Weehawken (paper). Images of America (1st ed.). Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-6268-1.
- ↑ JC Past and Present Archived 2009-01-10 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Moreno, Barry (2001) "Ellis Island Chronology Timeline (1674–2001)". National Park Service, Ellis Island Library. Retrieved 2013-04-24.
- ↑ History of Peter Family and Brewery Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ NJCU JC A to Z:Prior's Mill
- ↑ Arent Schulyer family
- ↑ http://www.njcu.edu/programs/jchistory/Pages/T_Pages/Tuers_Jane.htm
- ↑ NJCU: Associates of Jersey