How Did The Neighbourhoods Of New York Get Their Names?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- HELP SUPPORT NAME EXPLAIN ON PATREON: / nameexplain
BUY MY BOOK: bit.ly/originofnames
TWITTER: / nameexplainyt
Thank you to all my Patrons for supporting the channel!
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Do You Know What These New York Neighbourhood Acronyms Stand For?: viewing.nyc/do-you-know-what-...
How The Neighbourhoods of Manhattan Got Their Names: mentalfloss.com/article/12705/...
How Did Soho Get Its Name?: londonist.com/2015/12/how-did...
Harlem on Etymonline: www.etymonline.com/word/harlem
Hell’s Kitchen: www.howitgotnamedthat.com/name...
A Brief History of Astoria, Queens: theculturetrip.com/north-amer...
Astoria History: www.astoria.org/astoria-histo...
The History Of Flushing: macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios...
Opportunity Walks Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensecreativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Support Name Explain on Patreon for the chance to become a Patreon Saint! www.patreon.com/nameexplain
Why do certain cities have a "boystown"?
Is your book available for order in India?
Brooklyn comes from the Dutch city of Breukelen
In Chinese China town 唐人街， or people of the Tang dynasty.
Houston street is pronounced How-ston.
Houston Street is pronounced (How-Ston) it's not the same pronunciation as the city in Texas
Darn, forgive me. With words like that I just presume.
M Bailey I remember that from the bus tour was checking anyone noticed and decided to point this out
@@NameExplain No worries, it's easy to confuse the two especially with the same spelling.
I was going to say the same thing
@@NameExplain There's interesting story about the different pronunciations: www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/nyregion/houston-street-pronounce.html
Patrick, you're in for a hell of a time for pronouncing Houston like the Texans. You've upset every one of the Five Boroughs. Prepare for the tide of corrections.
My ears died.
That's right Patrick. Now you have to make a video on Hewston and Howston.
I have a better idea. Rename it 0th street and give the streets further south that would fit into numbering negative numbers.
@@QuarioQuario54321 that would work if the streets followed a grid like all the streets north of Houston but they don't. I get completely lost when I go to lower Manhattan and have to use Google maps to navigate.
Yvonne The streets that wouldn’t fit would keep their names.
Jamaica in Queens is not named after the country of Jamaica. In fact its name comes from the Munsee word for beaver, Yameco because Jamaica Pond was a major trading site for beaver pelts. Tribes came from as far away as Wisconsin to trade there. The Dutch spelled it with a J because J makes a Y sound in English and that's how it ended up becoming Jamaica.
thanks some guy
Wow, interesting! Thanks for sharing that fact, I had always just presumed it was named after the country Jamaica.
Native American from NY here, you are correct about the Munsee. Have you read Native New Yorkers by Evan T. Pritchard? If not it’s a must read for those interested in Natives and how ancient trade routes became famous avenues, how jewelry and other districts came to be where they are today, and even the old springs that were once used but are now underground in the subway system. It is a great book!
what about ja merica?
The NYC ndn that sounds dope ! I’m going to look into that
Repping THE BRONX (give us our own episode pretty please): Norwood = WOods NOrth of Manhattan; Spuyten Duyvil, "in spite of the devil" named after the event where a Dutchman got drunk & swam to Manhattan from the BX despite there being sharks/"the devil" in the river; Kingsbridge named for a bridge made for a Brit royal named Fred; University Heights got its name when NYU built a campus in the BX but then left and now the building is Bronx Community College; Marble Hill technically belongs to Manhattan but is in the BX - so idk. Throgg's Neck is named after the landowner of the *peninsula* on the SE corner of the boro, "Throckenmorten's neck;" I GOT MORE!
Cool video, dude. Native NYC'er here. I was born and raised on the Lower East Side. When I was in my 20s I moved to Morningside, then after about 3 years of living in Philadelphia, I am currently commenting from Kingsbridge, a neighborhood in the Bronx. I'll check out the rest of your channel.
Also I see you were already corrected about Houston Street. New Yorkers are very particular about that.
How did the U.S states get their names
@@gabrieltheobsessive You make a valid point
only Alaska, Massachusetts, Mississippi and Hawaii are named after the natives.
@@billrobertjoe like half of US states come from Amerindian Native Names:
Alabama- Alibamu(Choctaw for Farmer)
Alaska- Alaxsxaq(Aleut for Mainland)
Arizona- O'ordham for "Little Spring"
Arkansas- from French corruption of Arkansa, the Illinoia word for the Quapaw people of the region.
Connecticut- Quinnehtukqut (Algonquian for beside the long tidal river)
Illinois- Illinoia, French corruption of said word for the tribe of the region.
Iowa- Iowa River, from the Ioway Tribe(Baxoje)
Kansas- Kansa (Dakota, Kaw and Omaha word for the tribe, "people of the south wind")
Kentucky- Kentah-ten, Iroquois(Haudenosaunee) for "land of tomorrow"
Massachusetts- Massachusett people, "people of the great hills"
Michigan- Ojibwe word, Mishigamaa, for "great lake"
Minnesota- Dakota word for "sky-tinted water"
Mississippi- French corruption of Anishinaabe, "Misi-Ziibi" or Great River
Missouri- Missouri people, meaning, "town of large canoes"
Nebraska- Oto word for "flat water"
New Mexico- Named after Mexico, coming from Mexica, Spanish corruption of the Mexica/Aztec people. Named after the god Mexitli.
North and South Dakota- Dakota people
Ohio- Seneca(one of five Haudenosaunee nations) word meaning "Great River" (Ohio river)
Oklahoma- Choctaw for "red people" (Amerindian/Natives) after Trail of Tears
Tennessee- Cherokee corruption of Yuchi word
Texas- Tejas, from Caddo, meaning "ally" (The Spanish)
Utah- *Allegedly* from the Ute people, meaning, "people of the moutnains"
Wisconsin- French corruption of Miami People word, "it lies red", the river bed of the Wisconsin River
Wyoming- Either Delaware, Munsee, or Algonquian in origin. In Delware language, it means "mountains and valleys alternating" like the similarly named "Wyoming Valley" in Pennsylvania.
yeah i was tryna name ones named after the tribes, i was still wrong.
@Matthew Chenault Elisabeth I, the Virgin Queen, I believe.
"New Dorp" in Staten Island is from the Dutch "Nieuw Dorp," which means New Village I think
Newthorp. XD
@ Justin H, I don't think that I know that. Your right Nieuw Dorp means New Village
Fresh Kills Staten Island.
Kills is dutch for "stream."
@@Novusod almost it's Kil (just 1 L) which means something like kreek / creek. Some rivers have names with Kil in it. The word kil is not used that often. nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kil_(water)
Why can't people from NY can't speak English??
The neighborhood of New Utrecht in Brooklyn is named after the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands
Brooklyn -> Breukelen
Dude what the hell?
@Mohawk Indians Blood Indians Never Lie Even though they defeated the Spanish Empire and controlled the global spice trade?
Here in São Paulo, we have a nighborhood named Brooklin, named like that in other to sound American. Even the streets are named after American states (Rua Flórida, Rua Pensilvânia, etc).
@Mohawk Indians Blood Indians Never Lie Did you also know that the Irish got absolutely steamrolled by the British? Or that both actual Indians and Native Americans got wiped by Europeans, and the Dravidians got killed by Indo-Iranians?
Funny how you talk shit about the Dutch being cowards, when the countries from whence your bloodline came from have never won major wars.
(before you ask, I'm a Finn, and we've been defeated by Swedes and Russians)
The reason why they called it hell's kitchen is such a line! 😂😂😂 That guy was probably the greatest pick-up artist of all time!
Watching from Co-Op City, The Bronx! 🤗
Van Cortlandt Village
Because of the *Drumroll*
THE DUTCH.
Lawrence Tider those silly ocean-germans... spending so much time at sea they forgot how to speak.
@@saber1epee0 as a Dutchman, I'm mildly offended
@Mohawk Indians Blood Indians Never Lie This troll comment didn't offend me in anyway
@Mohawk Indians Blood Indians Never Lie Lol, I bet you're an amerimutt...
@Mohawk Indians Blood Indians Never Lie The Dutch are pussies? News to me. The Dutch East India Company wasn't just some guys in nice suits. It was a collection of hardened sailors _and_ guys in nice suits that established trade to some of the most remote locations in the world. Once that business was doing well, some of the those Dutch created the stock market. Then perfected land reclamation. Then a few years later, purely for shits and grins, the Dutch funded the American Revolution, because fuck Great Britain. (Yes, I'm grossly oversimplifying Dutch history. Sue me.)
"Ever heard of the fighting irish?" Yes, yes I have. Is that all the Irish are known for? If so, what's there to be proud of? Oh you're also "Indian"? We golly gee, that just makes you the best thing ever! Just a side note: you're not an Indian if you're not from India. If all you have going for yourself, if how you identify is solely based on the blood flowing through your veins, you have got to be an incredibly boring person.
Anyway, I digress. Continue behaving as a stereotypical Irishman, I'm sure your ancestors back on the Emerald Isle appreciate it. And by God, could you be anymore obnoxious with your name and avatar? It'd be like if my avatar was a cartoon of King Willem wearing clogs and smoking a joint.
I’m from crown heights Brooklyn and the real little Italy is in the Bronx
yes_msg yeah Arthur Ave in the Bronx is the real little Italy
exactly
Please say HOUSE TON for Houston St. Some info about The Bronx: the borough was named after Jonas Bronck (early Dutch settler) who had fancy parties. You had a high stature if you went to The Bronck's for parties. The name stuck and morphed over years. Spuyten Duyvil (neighb in The Bronx) was named Spuyten Duyvil Kill (creek) from the Dutch.
Also IIRC Spuyten Duyvil roughly translates to "Devil's Spout" and refers to a rough patch of the Hudson.
Why can't New York count????
1st Avenue -> 2nd Avenue -> 3rd Avenue [so far so good] -> Lexington -> Park -> Madison -> 5th Avenue????
Why not 4th? or 7th? Either would make sense, but why 5th?
4th avenue exists below Park Avenue South and runs alongside Union Square from 8th to 18th. 7th ave crosses over diagonally to the west across Broadway
I do hope you are joking though, and not serious to where you didn't research
Because Manhattan gets wider as you go north, and also streets were created after the numbering system was already in place, so streets had to be added in between the numbered ones.
It's fascinating why it goes 123, then 3 named, then 5-12 (excepting Broadway, which completely rebels)! Originally, it was simply 1-12, but when the railroad from Grand Central was built in the middle of the avenue, they covered over it with a grassy 'park' verge, being renamed Park Avenue and Park Avenue South to reflect this. A short section of 4th still exists, acting as a link between ungrided Bowery and the Grid starting properly at 14th street. Can't fully remember the stories with Lexington and Madison, but neither were part of original plan...but added at the request (and probably cost) of certain developers or businessmen, hence the strange numbering and why those avenues are far closer to each other than the rest.
Also, another name for 6th Avenue is Avenue of the Americas.
You should do a series on this to be fair. Theres a lot of places that are interisting and deserve mention:
Gravesend, Mott Haven, Tottenville, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Manhattan Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Bushwick, Canarsie, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Flatbush, Pelham Parkway, Corona, Dyker Park, Jamaica, Maspeth, College Point, Ditmars, Soundview, Allenwood, Tremont, Fordham, Bullshead, Great Kills, Bulls Head... Etc.... I hate when people think of NY or visit NY and only think of the touristy areas rather than the better down to earth other parts
i think gravesend, bushwick and flatbush all have a dutch heritage
The comedian George Carlin talked about growing up in an Irish neighborhood called Morningside Heights or as he recollected “White Harlem”. Anyone heard of this?
Morningside Heights is near Harlem
TheTwick yes! I lived in morning side heights for 2 years! so you can spot it on Google Maps Columbia University is in morningside heights and it starts above w110 St and below w125th from the Hudson River to Amsterdam or Manhattan ave(its been debated forever!) as a native newyorker I love answering these questions
My partner lives in Morningside. It is the section between Harlem and the Upper Westside.
Drop me off in Harlem,
Any place in Harlem...
Anyone?
@@tec-jones5445 I wanna say that it comes from rhe Jazz song; "If You Take A Train." Am I right? 🎵😳🚆
watching from Cambria Heights queens, talk about Flatbush, crown heights and Brownsville all in Brooklyn
I'm a native New Yorker and I'm watching from Chelsea.
From Ozone Park, from what I learned, the area was originally farmland and large parks. The founders wanted more people to move in and so they advertised how this area is the place to get the freshest of air.
Thanks for mentioning Flushing, where I grew up! I hope you got to Flushing to explore (and eat well) on your NYC trip. In NYC, I also lived next door in College Point, Queens (named after a college that was there until the 1860's and the name just stuck) and over the East River in Pelham Parkway area of the Bronx (named after the Pell family who owned land there). I'll say no more about Houston Street, you already know. Anyways, now watching not from NYC, but from Berlin, Germany (not named after a bear, but for a Slavic word meaning bog/swamp).
Love the channel man. My mother’s side of the family is from Hell’s Kitchen and it was a great surprise to see her neighborhood as the logo for this video. For a brief time I lived in Florida and as a boy got in trouble at school for wearing a Hell’s Kitchen T-shirt.
A minor, and common pronunciation mistake is Houston Street. Many people think it is named after the Texas Revolutionary Sam Houston or the Texas City. But is actually pronounced How-Sten. I am not too sure why it is pronounced that way or whom it’s exactly named for. I believe it may be of Dutch origin. But I’ve been in many a friendly argument over this. Im a truck driver in the city and it makes me quite proud (I know so vain) to know a lot about all the history of NYC and it’s streets and neighborhoods. I wish I could of bought you beer while you were over this way. Cheers man! And thanks for all the entertaining and informative vids!
PS I was over in the UK a few years ago. Loved London.
Watching from Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn! Fascinating video, as always :)
Great video, Name Explain. Former NYC-er here, now living in Milan. I spend several years living in the West Village before moving out to Bed-Stuy, which would’ve been a great neighborhood to name explain. :)
Rego Park, which I live in, was named for the construction company that built the neighborhood. It is also the combination of the words “Real Good Park”
I'm from Houston Texas but lived in Brooklyn for a time and was SHOOK when my pronunciation of Houston Street was corrected. I guess I was disappointed because it felt like a piece of home in a big, often overwhelming new city. Oh well, really amazing place to experience!
Currently watching from Hamilton Heights, just above Harlem
Do the words "again" and "against" have a conection?
[insert name here] Idk if I’ve ever thought about this before
Yes! they do. They both originate from a language in europe called english. Both of these words are made up of letters from the english alphabet! isnt that fasinating.
Jacob Schweiger I guess the concept of prefixes goes over your head. And you misspelled fascinating
matt M r/woooosh
"Again" used to mean in opposition. This was used in the meaning for "against", but "again" no longer means this.
And yes, there is a connection.
I live in Flushing haha. So glad you put it in the video!
this was so cool! im from chelsea, nyc and only recently learned about the london neighborhood by the same name. interesting stuff!
Hello I'm from the Upper East Side. Love your channel!!
I'm a New Yorker and an watching in Pelham
I've been to Pelham Park once, it was so huge.
Watching from Washington Heights in Manhattan, which I’m guessing has an obvious etymology since it’s near the bridge named after George Washington but I could be wrong lol. Hope you enjoyed your time in nyc! Another great video!
Living in East Harlem. Our local post office is Hellgate, which actually came from the original Dutch name for the East River: Hellegat. According to Wikipedia, that means "clear opening" or "bright strait"?
My wife's favorite neighborhood name by far is Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx.
I’m obsessed with the way you say, “Hell’s Kitchen”
To Dutch people the Harlem/Haarlem or Brooklyn/Breukelen connection is very obvious, but I'd have never guessed flushing would be named after Vlissingen
I see you've already addressed the Houston error in a subsequent video, so I'll spare you...
I grew up in Chelsea, but I live now in the Queens neighborhood of Sunnyside, named for an 18th-century Huguenot settlement called Sunnyside Hill. I actually didn't know that until right now, so thanks for encouraging me to look that up!
I'm from Washington Heights but I'm watching this from Stamford The Westside.
Great video! I'd love to see a small series about loanwords, their origins and perhaps how the meanings have been changed over time! I'm jewish and the NYC accent has got so many yiddish loanwords it got me thinking!
I’m watching from Old Mill Basin, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that in the old times (1600s- 1800s) was near an island called Mill Island that had a lot of mills.
Watching from the neighborhood of Flatbush in Brooklyn, NY! Would love to see a video on the origins of that name.
The "Daily Bugle HQ" is the Flatiron building. It has its' own interesting etymology of sorts ( it's named after its' resemblance to a cast-iron clothes iron). Also I live in New York and I watched this in Midtown. I would also like to mention that I bought and enjoyed your etymology book, Patrick.
I have an idea for a next video: "What does the -drecht part in some Dutch city names (like Dordrecht, Papendrecht and Holendrecht) mean?"
omg I've never thought about that even though I've lived in the Netherlands all my life. Apparantly it means: a place that is wadable or a place where ships are pulled out of the water onto dry land.
@@yomomma912, bedankt! Interessant weetje!
Everyone knows about the neighborhood of Red Hook in Brooklyn. There also once was a Yellow Hook, which is now called Bay Ridge. Yellow Hook was renamed Bay Ridge following major outbreaks of yellow fever in the 19th century. Bay Ridge is named for it's ridge, running north to south, offering sweeping views of New York Harbor.
A gentrifier here watching this from his Harlem apartment right now. Specifically, the sub-neighborhood of Hamilton Heights, located between 135 and 155 st and between riverside drive and edgecombe ave. It was named because it's where Alexander Hamilton lived the last two years of his life. Rent is really really cheap here and the vast majority of people here speak spanish and barely speak english with each other at all. I think it's really neat.
I grew up in a neighborhood in Staten Island called Bulls Head. It was named after an 18th century pub located near the main intersection of the neighborhood (Richmond Ave and Victory Blvd) called the Bull’s Head, popular with British loyalists leading up to and during the American Revolutionary War.
I'm currently watching your video from Coney Island, Brooklyn NY😃
Watching from Murray Hill, NYC!
Got a challenge for you. Do a show on Haiti or a few cities in Haiti.
Port au Prince is almost too easy.
in Canarsie Brooklyn. It comes from what the the native Lenape people use to call it. Oh and Houston st. is pronounced "House-ton"
i was hoping to see neighbourhoods that i’ve been to and the one i’m living in and you actually mentioned them !! (i live in flushing haha :))
Just came across this now. Watching from Concourse, the Bronx, named after the Grand Concourse that runs from here up to Van Cortlandt Park.
I live in Morningside Heights (Manhattan), but a neighborhood just south of here, Bloomingdale, was named after Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, which was where Columbia University now is
Watching from Flushing NYC!!
Im a new york native from the bronx my neigborhood is refered to as little italy aka arthur ave
There's the Alphabets, or Alphabet City, in the East Village, named because it has A, B, C, and D Streets in it.
Also, there's an area of Los Angeles referred to as NoHo, which is short for North Hollywood, and which was probably named in reference to SoHo. The central part of it is called the NoHo Arts District, and is home to a lot of theaters, galleries, and restaurants, and is also the location of the northern-most Metro Red Line Subway Station and eastern-most Orange Line Bus Station.
And, speaking of which, a video on the origin of the many various neighborhoods in Los Angeles would be very interesting.
Watching from Forrest Hills in Queens!!
I'm in the Greenwood Heights area of Brooklyn. Most people don't really call it that, but it was changed to that about a decade ago, named after the Greenwood Park Cemetery in the area, the biggest in the city. Parts of it used to fall under Park Slope (the north of the neighborhood is still sometimes called South Slope because of that), named because of the upward slopes of the avenues heading towards Prospect Park, the biggest in Brooklyn. It also encompasses parts of what used to be Sunset Park, named after the park that goes by the same name, which is one of the tallest hills in the whole city, thus offering an excellent view all around and being particularly popular for seeing the skyline at sunset.
Sunset Park used to be known as the "red light district" of Brooklyn, echos of which could still be seen on 3rd Ave with a number of strip clubs and sex shops, although they used to be even more common throughout the neighborhood. That's actually why my particular area was re-zoned and re-named, because, as it began to gentrify, property owners didn't want it to be associated with the seedy reputation of Sunset Park anymore. The neighborhood is from Prospect Ave to the north, 39th St to the south, encompassing the entire cemetery to the east, with the waterfront on the west finishing things off.
My dad used to work in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn and I'm not sure where the Bedford part is from but I know the Stuyvesant part (from Stuyvesant Heights) is named after the last Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant.
i grew up in the neighborhood of allerton named for allerton ave, It is named in honor of Daniel Allerton, an early Bronx settler who purchased and farmed this area with his wife Hustace. and gunhill is named for gun hill rd, During the American Revolution, the road was an important artery over which the British and the colonists fought. In January 1777, the colonists brought a cannon to the top of a hill and fired at the British. The hill, now inside Woodlawn Cemetery, was locally called Gun Hill afterwards.
3:01 Nice, subtle Stan Lee tribute.
Who was this Stan Lee guy? I'm seeing several tributes to him on social media yesterday and today, but I've never heard of him before. 66-year-old female, not a fan of superhero action films, could this be why?
@@rslitman probably
rslitman He made cameos in all the Marvel movies
@@rslitman As others have pointed out, Stan Lee (birth name Stanley Martin Lieber) co-founded Marvel Comics and created some its most famous characters like Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Panther, and Daredevil (whom the narrator is also referencing in that same segment).
Hi from Mariners Harbor, Staten Island. Used to be a fishing village as its name may suggest and still home of some large maritime companies though more suburbanized now. It was called Erastina in the 19th Century after B&O Railroad magnate Erastus Wiman.
I was born in Astoria. Great video!
I know that elmhurst used to be called Newtown but it was changed because it was associated with the Newtown creek which was considered dirty
Yup that's why the school is named Newtown High School
Tottenville, Staten Isl. here. Houston pronounced like house btw. Great vid.
Bedford Park, Bronx: My area used to be owned by Leonard Jerome, a 19th century American financier (and the maternal grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill; Leonard's daughter was Jennie Jerome). Jerome named the neighborhood after one of his rich friends, Edward Thomas Bedford, who ran Standard Oil at the time and was president of a bank. Mrs. Jerome insisted to the city that one of the streets be named Jerome Avenue, and so it is today. Let's just say it's not as rich of an area now as it was in the 1870s-it's still the Bronx!-but "Law and Order SVU" uses Lehman College here as the location for all their outdoor "Hudson University" scenes.
And, yeah, it's "HOW-ston" Street. FYI, David Bowie and Iman's apartment was/is just south of Houston, on Lafayette Street.
The metaphysical standup comic Swami Beyondanda (Steve Behrman) was asked during an audience Q&A session, “What about Flushing, New York?” He replied, “It sounds like a good idea!”
Rego Park in Queens is named after the construction company that developed it, the Real Good Construction Co.
Hudson Yards is, get this, named after the Hudson Yards railyards. Also, fun fact: there is one Manhattan neighborhood on continental USA. Marble hill was cut off from Manhattan when they redid the Harlem River for ease of shipping. The neighborhood is geographically part of the Bronx but politically paet of Manhattan county. It is very creatively named after the large marble deposits beneath it
I’m currently in Brooklyn Heights! FYI, Hell’s Kitchen is now named Chelsea according to the Mayor’s office. Everyone still refers to it as Hell’s Kitchen.
There is a furniture store in my hometown we call "SOHO", it's full name is Southern Hospitality and whenever I hear that word I think of that store.
I live in Corona Queens.
Originally known as West Flushing, Thomas Waite Howard, a real estate developer and later postmaster petitioned to have the post office name changed to Corona in 1870, suggesting that it was the crown of Queens County (Corona is the Italian and Spanish for crown).
Watching from the EHS college dorms in the New Yorker Hotel, Midtown Manhattan. Right across from MSG.
There are two neighbourhoods named Little Italy in NYC: one in Manhattan and one in The Bronx. There is also a compound/acronym associated with the former. Nolita which is NOrth of Little ITAly.
Watching from Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
Watching from East Flatbush/ Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn
Two names that I think are interesting are vinegar hill and sugar hill. I don’t know the entomology of vinegar hill but I live in sugar hill! It’s supposedly called that because it’s where affluent African Americans lived during the Harlem Renaissance, hence sugar cause they were living the sweet life.
Watching from Brooklyn’s neighborhood of Bath Beach named after the city of Bath in the West Country of England where there was an actual beach that was later removed for the construction of the Belt Parkway, a sort of motorway as you English called it.
Two things the fourth street in the TriBeCa triangle is Vesey Street (pronounce Veh-Sey) and I can tell you were not on a sightseeing tour bus in NYC because you said Houston as the city in Texas and not as HOUSE-TON like its pronounce in the city.
I live in Bath Beach too.
Yvonne I’ll see you around Cropsey Avenue then.
Yay we are talking about the city I live in.
I read a lot of novels set in New York and often come across neighborhood/neighbourhood names that make me wonder both where they are and where their names come from. Most recent is the Flat Iron District, which I learned from Wikipedia was named after a building called the Flat Iron Building. For the past few years, I've noticed a restaurant menu item Flat Iron Steak. I wonder if there's a connection.
A neighborhood/neighbourhood in New York City I've been curious about is Chelsea - name origination and where it is in the city. Is there a Chelsea neighborhood/neighbourhood in London, too?
My neighbourhood's name has a wonderful origin: snobbery.
There is a part of my city that was once known as Chapeltown, but as one part of it got more gentrified and the other remained more working class, the gentrified part made up the name 'Chapel Allerton' to differentiate themselves from it.
I live in crotona park east in the south bronx. crotona park got its name from the greek colony of croton which is famous for its athletes.
If you want a case study for gentrification then Redfern in Sydney would be a good topic to research, it was once Sydney's "No-go zone" As recently as the year 2000 but now it's one of the most expensive areas to live with a relatively low crime rate.
Famous building? Big Ben!
Famous park? Hyde park!
Famous bridge? London bridge!
London Bridge no longer exists. You're thinking of Tower Bridge
@@Tailikku1 London bridge is falling down falling down falling down
London bridge is falling down,
Tailikku1 except that there have been many bridges simply named the London Bridge. The current one still standing in London dates back to 1971. Though many think of the one sold to Arizona in 1967 due to various Internet trivia sites.
'Big Ben' is the name of the bell.
@@Tailikku1 Yes it does, it's now located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. London Bridge was purchased and moved to Lake Havasu in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Google it.
Very interesting ! Greeting from Germany!
Watching from Canarsie, Brooklyn • 3•
Good luck with the L train shut down :/
@@matthewhernandez8342 Don't remind me ._.
@@matthewhernandez8342 crying about the L train from the east village here myself..... :( my commute is about to get really tedious
@@masonreed6845 Damn you're gonna have to take a shuttle bus to get to Brooklyn.
@@Ichinijuu Move to Queens bro, it's beautiful over here.
Coney Island: There is a cognate in Dutch for the English word "coney", a very old and lesser used word for "rabbit". Long before there was ever an amusement park there, it really was a favorite spot of cottontail rabbits. When the English took over, it made a lot of sense to just keep the name and substitute Dutch for English.
Bensonhurst: Named for a man called Egbert Benson, who owned most of the land in the area until his sons sold it to a developer.
Bushwick: Corruption of the 17th century Dutch "Boswijck", meaning "little town in the woods". The neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint were once part of it, and split off after the Revolutionary War.
Red Hook: Corruption of the Dutch "Roode Hoek". In Dutch, a hoek is a point.The point was on an island that stuck out into Upper New York Bay near today's Dikeman Street.
Kew Gardens, Queens: Self explanatory. Planned communities did not become a thing until after the Civil War. Named for the more famous place to attract investors and settlement.
Bonus: there is a feature in the harbor called Robin's reef. This is a corruption of the Dutch word for "seal." Next time wait for the spring to come and get in a boat. The seals have returned and live in the harbor from December-April, plus as the water warms up WHALES PAY A VISIT. YOU READ THAT RIGHT-WHALES!!!!
I'd be interested to hear the etymologies of different areas within British / Irish cities.
Soho and Fitzrovia in London have always made me curious.
Dublin has Redcow, Rialto, Dolphins Barn, Temple Bar and many other interesting names that hint at a history without ever giving too much away.
I've just moved from Aberdeen having spent some 6 years there and it has some very obvious names like Woodside, Bridge of Don and Footdee but also some more tantalising ones like Cults, Craigiebuckler, Rubislaw, Mastrick, Torry, Tillydrone, Kittybrewster & Dyce.
Watching from East Flatbush!!!
Even I'm from Houston, Texas and I always pronounced Houston St. as "How-stin" that street was named after the Dutch explorer William Houstoun whereas Houston, TX was named after Sam Houston (American)
You forgot Battery as I saw the umpteenth rerun of "On The Town" in which the first lines are:
New York, New York it's a wonderful town,
The Bronx is up and the Battery is down
Disregarding the double meaning of the second line, the Battery which used to be known as Battery Park was named after munition batteries placed there in the late 17th Century (in the days of New Amsterdam) to protect Manhattan.
Watching from Midwood, Brooklyn! The name Midwood actually comes from the Dutch word Midwout, meaning middle woods. The original Dutch settlers gave the area this name because of the dense woodland they found between two other neighborhoods.
Source: Wikipedia page titled Midwood, Brooklyn
It's How-ston in NYC. 😉
Hello from Forest Hills, Queens!
Some more acronym based neighborhoods -
Nolita (Manhattan): North Of Little ITAly
Bococa (Brooklyn): BOerum hill, CObble hill, CAroll gardens
And a bonus fictional one -
Dowisetrepla (Brooklyn): DOwnWInd of the SEwage TREatment PLAnt
Port Richmond, Staten Island. I’m not entirely sure if this how my neighborhood got it’s name but. Staten Island use to be called Richmond and port Richmond once use to be home large and busy ports, so it just happened to be named Port Richmond. I know New Dorp got names because it was a Dutch settlement here. Meaning “new village” in Dutch apparently. I find the history of Staten Island to be incredibly interesting
I know I'm not a patron, but have you ever discussed the origin of popular band names? If not you should, because I'm sure there are plenty of bands with interesting name origins
Just a few of the Bronx neighborhoods, Morrisania, Riverdale, Marble Hill, Kingsbridge, Castle Hill, Little Yemen, Norwood, Mott Haven, The Hub, Hunts Point...
Watching from Bedford Park in THE Bronx!
Since in the old days the kitchen was the hottest place in the house, hell's kitchen would be the hottest place in hell.
Watching from Flatbush, Brooklyn, NYC