Year: Throughout New York History
Some of them are Native American names like Yaphank. A few are old Dutch names like Yonkers. A few are combination names like Yaphank Yonkers and Otter Kill ("kill" is a Dutch word for a creek, stream or small river, and "kill" appears quite frequently on the New York State map).
A few are names of States like Florida and Alabama, or foreign cities like Bath, Bagdad, Athol and Limerick. Several countries are represented, like Mexico, Cuba, Denmark, Russia, China and Belgium.
Biblical names are very common. You can find Egypt in New York, as well as Bethany, Goshen, Land o' Goshen, Canaan, Jericho, Jerusalem, Moriah, Hebron, and Ephrath.
Several reflect local history, like Dix Hills (once the land grant of a man named Richard), The Bronx (owned by Jonas Bronck and family), Burnt Hills (where there was a memorable fire), Horseheads (a town dedicated to the military horse), and Sheepshead Bay (a "Sheepshead" is a species of fish).
A handful are surveyor's mistakes. When Westchester County was being surveyed, much of the land along the the Connecticut border was owned by a man named Harrison, and his property was called "Harrison's Purchase." When drawing in the village lines, someone divided "Harrison" and "Purchase," which are now two adjoining places.
But then there are others, whimsical, bizarre, or having some personal, now mostly unremembered meanings for the founders of the towns. Places like:
Basket
Breakabeen
Bullet Hole
Bulls Head
Busti
Butts Corner
Cat Elbow Corner
Cattown
Chili Center
Climax
Conquest
Crafts
Dibbletown
Dogtail Corners
Dogtown
Doodletown
Fickles Corner
Fink Basin
Fireplace
Lava
Lonelyville
Mile of Woods
Mud Mills
North Pole Noseville
Oot Park
Owls Head
Owls Nest
Pail Shop Corners
Painted Post
Paradox
Peas Eddy
Peekamoose
Place Corners
Podunk
Protection
Pudding Hollow
Pumpkin Hook
Result
Rough and Ready
Scuttlehole
Shin Hollow
Shinhopple
Silvernails
Skunks Corner
Skytop
Sleepy Hollow
Surprise
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