Ever since Dutch explorer Adriaen Block mapped out Long Island - he was the first European to recognize it as an actual island - and called it Lang Eylant, place names here have undergone some drastic and interesting changes. The early settlers roamed around asking the First People what they called specific areas and those names stuck - kind of.
According to On This Site, a project to preserve and create awareness of culturally significant Native American locations on Long Island by Shinnecock artist Jeremy Dennis, Sewanhacky, Wamponomon and Paumanake are some of the original names for Long Island. In his history of New England, Rev. William Hubbard called Long Island, Mattanwake. And in other sources it is called Meitowax and Metoac, among other names.
Just like the island itself has gone by different names, so have the towns and regions within it. Geography is an evolutionary thing and place names change depending on who settles the area, politics and change of ownership. In some cases place names change simply because they fall out of favor.
Also, the post office had a lot to do with it as you will soon see.
Below in no particular order are a number of places on Long Island that you might recognize but had very different names in the past.
Hampton Bays - This hamlet used to be called Good Ground, making the old graveyard known as Good Ground Cemetery either very eerie or slightly ironic.
Port Jefferson - Once known as Drowned Meadow and for good reason. The salt marshes on the harbor at the northern end of the village would flood with the tides twice a day. Probably not a good advertisement for real estate agents, the name was changed in 1836 to Port Jefferson - and yes, it’s named after President Thomas Jefferson. Before all that, the village’s original name was Sowasset, a Native American term for either "place of small pines" or "where water opens.
Lindenhurst - When it was settled by Germans it was called Breslau. Official history says that the Native Americans called the area Neguntatogue, which means, “forsaken land.” (No wonder that name didn’t stick.) In 1891 the village’s name was changed to Lindenhurst for no apparent reason. Also, Pat Benatar is from Lindenhurst, which has nothing to with any of this but is a cool fact.
Brentwood - A Utopian movement was the inspiration for the town’s original name of Modern Times. According to the Brentwood Library, on March 21, 1851 the colony was established on 750 acres of land by pre-hippies Josiah Warren and Stephen Pearl Andrews. In 1864, it was renamed Brentwood after the town of Brentwood, Essex, in England.
Lloyd Neck - Europeans first called this place Horse Neck when they got here. Then in 1711, Henry and Rebecca Lloyd came to live on a 3,000-acre parcel of fallow land owned by Henry's family. One presumes that the Lloyds had something to do with changing the name. The Matinecock Native Americans called the land Caumsett meaning “place by sharp rock” and sold the acreage to early settlers in the 1600s. Those settlers called it Horse Neck because Huntington farmers would graze their horses there. That’s a thing you know now.
Holtsville - First called Waverly. In 1843, the Long Island Rail Road opened Waverly station, now Holtsville Station. Oddly, they renamed the place after Joseph Holt, the guy who became postmaster general under President James Buchanan in the 1800s. As with many places, when the post office came to town, another New York State town had the name already and they had to pick another one so they chose Holt; probably just because he was the postmaster general at the time and they were pressed for time - and not very creative. The avenue that cuts through the hamlet is still named Waverly Avenue.
Manorville - Once called Punk's Hole. Kind of a cool name. Why they change these things, we will never know.
Wantagh - Used to be named Jerusalem because of the Quakers. They settled and farmed the land at the time and liked what they liked. Here is where it gets interesting. According to official history, the railroad arrived in South Jerusalem in 1867 and named the community’s depot Ridgewood Station. If this next part sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The U.S. Post Office refused to recognize the area because a town named “Ridgewood” already existed in Western Queens County. So, in 1891, the members of the Congregational Church held a contest to rename the village and "Wantagh" was chosen. Wantagh was a Sachem of the Montauk Indians. What they did not know at the time is that many generations later, Wantagh would frequently top the list of place names you can only pronounce if you’re from Long Island, which is cool.
Barnum Island - This little island is where the village of Island Park is located, just north of Long Beach. The previous name for Barnum Island was Hog Island because according to a newspaper article from 1901, it was used as pasture land for swine, probably so people wouldn’t get it confused with Horse Neck (see Lloyd Neck above). The island was also once known as Jekyll Island with one or two L’s depending on the source. Contrary to popular belief, it is not named for P.T. Barnum. According to reports, Sara Ann Barnum, the widow of Peter C. Barnum, wealthy owner of a clothing company, bought the island and sold it to Nassau County where a poor farm and a smallpox hospital were established. The island was named in honor of Sara Ann.
Island Park - Kind of like the sequel to Barnum Island. When new owners came in to develop Barnum Island they gave it a new name. It’s also known for being a party place in the summer.
Mineola - Mineola sounds like the name of a tiny cereal bar but unfortunately it’s not. Back in 1858, the land was called Miniolagamika, which means "a pleasant village." Since the people had foresight and did not want to make the list of places you can only pronounce if you're from Long Island (see: Wantagh) the name was shortened to Mineola. They just chopped off the gamika.
Selden - Once called Westfield, a very nice name that sounds like it was in the novel The Great Gatsby. And, here we go again. In 1853, the town of Westfield was forced to change because they wanted their own post office and (yeah, you guessed it!) the name Westfield was already taken and apparently the post office just gets to make these decisions for a whole town. So they named it after a famous New York judge and lieutenant governor Henry Selden - who you never heard of until just now. We are just going to link to his Wikipedia page so you can read more about Judge Selden (we’ve given up at this point.)
Centereach - According to this dental office in the area (go figure, a dentist has the most comprehensive historical account of the history of the hamlet of Centereach), it was once named West Middle Island and then it was called New Village. So, are you sitting down? The reason why Centereach changed its name from New Village is because they wanted their own post office and - surprise surprise - the name New Village was already taken. Of course, the post office said “no!”
So, because they were located in the center of Long Island, they called it Centereach, which is kind of a stroke of creative genius, really. The dentist says that the name Centereach is believed to have been derived from the phrase “center reached”- a reference to the hamlet’s central location on Long Island. To be totally honest, it’s one of the few times this really worked out for the better because New Village is a boring name anyway (no offense to the people of the old New Village.)
Sayville - Named thus because of a clerical error. They wanted to be called Seaville but there was a typo on the original application. Officials said, “what the hey!” and just kept calling it Sayville, which at this point just sounds normal to us. Editor’s note: Seaville sounds like the place where Popeye was born.
Malverne - Okay, strap in because this story has a little bit of everything!
The official village website says that “the true history of Malverne goes back further than anyone knows. Located on the south shore of Long Island, our village has quite possibly existed for millions of years. More than 10,000 years ago, much of Long Island was covered by glaciers. When the ice began to melt, it formed lakes, brooks, ponds, and streams. The glaciers also transported millions of tons of sand and gravel towards the oceans, building up what is now our south shore. Malverne rests upon this bed of sand and gravel.”
In the interest of time, we are going to fast forward from the ice age to the turn of the 20th century when some guys came out from the city and built houses there around 1911. It used to be called Norwood but because the post office is the most ornery department in all of the United States Government they confused it with other towns in New York State, “leading to frequent misdelivery of mail.” So, of course they had to change the name.
They wanted to name it Lynmouth but Lynbrook already existed at the time and let’s face it, from what we have already learned, the post office would have probably just given all their mail to Lynbrook out of pure spite.
They settled on Malvern, named after this hip spot in England that was known for its green spaces and annual George Bernard Shaw festival. Village history goes on to tell us that “there were several other Malverns in the world. The largest is a suburb of Melbourne, Australia… Only our Malverne, however, is spelled with the final ‘e’ – and how we got that ‘e’ is a mystery which has never been solved.” Are you thinking what we’re thinking? Yeah, they probably added the extra e because all their mail was getting delivered to Australia.
So ends the epic tale of how Malverne got its name.
Carle Place - Named after some dude Carle who had a pretty big house there. Used to be referred to as Carle’s place. They dropped the apostrophe s because he moved - probably.
Half Hollow Hills - Used to be called Half Way Hollow Valley because it was halfway between the ocean and the Long Island Sound. Half Way Hollow Valley is a mouthful and we suspect the post office was somehow involved when they dropped the Way and changed Valley to Hills. (Our lawyers made us add this: The post office part is just a guess so don’t quote us in your research paper kids. We’re just making it up as we go along here.)
Dix Hills - There is a historical marker that reads “Here was located the wigwam of Dick Pechegan and the fields that he planted.” Named after Mr. Pechegan, they eventually shortened it to Dick’s Hills. And then changed Dick’s to Dix and no one knows why but we can all just take our best guess and leave it at that.
Bohemia - Used to be called Lakeland but in a move that surprisingly has zero to do with the post office, it was renamed Bohemia after a region in the Czech Republic when Czech immigrants came to town to establish a life in the countryside. There is still a Lakeland Avenue.
Ronkonkoma - As if Ronkonkoma wasn’t hard enough to pronounce, it used to go by the names Rockconcomuck and Raconkamucik.
Melville - Changed from Sweet Hollow. Not to take anything away from current Melville residents but, really? I mean Sweet Hollow is a totally rad name. It sounds like the name of a field where they make butter or where Hobbits live with bunny rabbits.
Lynbrook - This is cool. So it used to be called Pearsall's Corners after some guy who owned property in the village back in the 1800s. But, in 1894 people came from Brooklyn to live there and said, “you know what? We miss the old neighborhood. Let’s switch it up and call it Lyn-brook.” Get it? Before that Lynbrook has the distinction of having gone through 10 name changes. Ten! Pearsallville and Pearsalls are on the list. So the Pearsall family at one time had a really good lobbying organization but then lost in a rumble with the Brooklynites.
Deer Park - Used to be called Huntington South. Boring! So they searched and searched for a new name and found that some dude called the place a “deer park” in his diary because there were deer there - as opposed to literally everywhere else on Long Island.
Shirley - Although it never happened, at one time, according to a report from 1987 in the New York Times, the folks in Shirley wanted to change the name to Floyd Harbor. According to historical accounts, the town's namesake Walter T. Shirley was a real estate developer who bought and divided 10,000 acres of undeveloped land into homes and sold them off. The development was originally known as Mastic Acres.
East Rockaway - Used to be called Clinktown, which is just so much fun to say and makes everyone LOL. There are two stories on why it was called Clinktown. One history says that the name came from a boat construction technique known as clink-building. Another says it’s from a Native American man by the name of Clink who lived there. Who cares why! This is my official petition to change it back.
Glen Cove - Used to be called Musketa Cove but since Musketa sounded too much like mosquito they changed it to Glen Cove because the village is located in a glen and they wanted to attract the tourists from the city. There is also a local legend that the name came from a suggestion to name it after a pretty Scottish spot called Glen Coe.
Lawrence - Once called Rockaway Neck, it was renamed for three bros who arrived there in the 1850s and had this idea to turn what was pretty much farmland into high-end housing for the rich city folk. When you are the guys who build up a place on Long Island you get to name the town after yourself (see: Levittown).
Cedarhurst - Née Ocean Point. The village took its name from the grove or “hurst” of cedar trees near the village post office when it incorporated. Its first mayor in 1910 was Horatio P. Vandewater.
Mount Sinai - So, we really can’t end this list unless we have one final tale of how the post office made people change the name of their town.
Way back in 1644, when the land now known as Mount Sinai was purchased from the Native Americans living there for the bargain price of “foure cotes, foure payre of stockeing. too chestes of powder, tenn bares of led. sixe howse. tenn hatchetts and tenn knives, mens size cotes, foure sherts, 3 pekle kettles,” they called it Old Mans. (Just try buying a house in the area now for less than five sherts!)
The people decided in 1840 that they needed one of those new post office thingys they had been hearing so much about from their neighbors in New Village. To their absolute shock, the postal folks said Old Mans was not a proper name for a town. No the problem wasn’t that there was another town named Old Mans, confusing the nascent postal carriers, it was the name was NOT PROPER. Taking it all in stride that the post office would just demand a name be changed after 200 years, the Old Mans people obliged because they didn’t want to be the only Long Island town without a post office. So they changed the name to Mt. Vernon. Problem solved.
“Hold your horses, Old Mans,” the post office said. “Seems there’s this other town in New York also called Mt. Vernon.”
The people of New Mt. Vernon said, “So? Who cares? They’re like a six days walk from here. Maybe two days on a fast horse. All the way upstate.”
But, the post office said, “Hard no.”
They used Old Mans again while they thought of a new name. Since Selden was already taken by the New Villagers, they had to find yet another name. This next bit comes straight from the Mount Sinai School District’s history page. The name Mount Sinai was chosen by its first postmaster, Charles Phillips. Legend has it that Phillips took the bible and a knitting needle, closed his eyes, opened up the bible and pointed the needle. The name closest to the needle would become the name of the area served by the first post office.
This, dear reader, is how the post office did things back in the 1800s and how Mount Sinai got its name.
Think of all the ways this could have gone wrong because the people living in Jericho would have been pissed.
Jericho - Speaking of, in 1692 the name was changed from Lusum to Jericho.