To: Mr.Smorch
Yes, Harlem stems from Haarlem. Brooklyn stems from Breukelen, a village outside Amsterdam with many 17th and 18th centuries mansions built by the rich merchants of Amsterdam. My family comes from there.
Staten-Island is named after the Estates-General which in present form we call parliament. Nassau street in NYC is named after our royal family. There is some debate over Wall street which some claim derives from the river Waal in Holland, but more likely it refers to a wall that once stood at that site. Same with Yankees: some claim it comes from Jan-Kees, two Dutch names which can be joined together. I do not know whether this is true.
Travelling up-state last September I noticed many placenames on the way to and around Albany which derive directly from Holland. Initially that area was settled by Dutch immigrants but quite soon it was taken over by Germans, if I remember correctly.
To: NewAmsterdam
Same with Yankees: some claim it comes from Jan-Kees, two Dutch names which can be
joined together. I do not know whether this is true.
Slightly off-topic (but still about Holland/The Netherlands)...
Does this fight in with radio commentator Paul Harvey's comment that that "Yankees" came
from the Dutch stereotyping their English neighbors as "John Cheese", due to the
large number of them with the first name of "John" and their large consumption
of cheese...then translating it into their language?
Just curious...
51 posted on
12/25/2001 9:39:58 AM PST by
VOA
To: NewAmsterdam
As I understand it the English named the American colonists Yankees, after Jan Kee a Dutch pirate.
64 posted on
12/25/2001 7:15:26 PM PST by
Mensch
To: NewAmsterdam
Same with Yankees: some claim it comes from Jan-Kees, two Dutch names which can be joined together. I do not know whether this is true. The term Yankee is Dutch in origin. It translates as "John Cheese" and was the nickname the New World Dutch gave to the New World English. The English were/are notorious for skipping a bath now and then, and the Dutch thought that they smelled like ripe cheese.
Source Collins and Oxford Dictionaries
88 posted on
12/27/2001 5:27:14 AM PST by
peabers
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