The City’s Original Name Was New Amsterdam

A tribe of Lenape people lived on a little island before it was named New York. Manna-hata was an early English translation of the local name, which is thought to have meant "the location where we collect wood to make bows" and therefore the borough of Manhattan.

Early in the 1600s, Henry Hudson, an Englishman, was sent on a Northwest Passage expedition by the Dutch East India Company. Hudson discovered an island and a river in what is now Manhattan, which were used to trap beavers and trade their furs. The Hudson became his namesake. The southern tip of the island was where the Dutch established their trade post, which they named New Amsterdam after the capital of the Netherlands.

In 1625, New Amsterdam was founded. The town, which stretched from Manhattan's southern point to what is now Wall Street, is usually said to have gotten its name from the wooden fence the Dutch erected to keep off the Native Americans they had expropriated the land from.

The British, who competed with the Dutch in early trade and colonization of the United States, were also kept out by the wall. England deployed four vessels to New Amsterdam in 1664 to defend the territory. Peter Stuyvesant, the director general of the Dutch possessions in the area, gave up his position without a fight. James Stuart, Duke of York, received the land as a gift from King Charles II (and later king himself). A noble title named after York, a significant ancient city in northern England, is the Duke of York. He was also the inspiration for naming New York State, which was established on Native American lands acquired by the British for colonial purposes. Since then, this land has been called New York