List Of Bergen, New Netherland Placename Etymologies

Bergen was a part of the 17th-century Dutch colony of New Netherland, in what is now northeastern New Jersey. Placenames in most cases had their roots in Algonquian Lenape and Dutch.

At the time of European settlement, the area was largely the territory of the Acquackanonk Raritan, Tappan, and Hackensack Native American tribes. The Munsee lived in the colony's northwestern reaches, the Highlands, while the Wappinger lived to the northeast in the Hudson Valley. The definition of these groups as they are known today is often from the perception of the colonizing Dutch, who tended to call the existing people by the name of a location within their territory, thus creating an exonym. Both the Lenape and Dutch often named a place based on the geography or geology of the natural environment and described a shape, location, feature, quality, or phenomenon.

The Lenape were without a written language. The ''Swannekins'', or ''Salt Water People'' (as the Europeans were called),Ruttenber, E.M., Indian Tribes of Hudson's River, (Hope Farm Press, 3rd ed, 2001) used the Latin alphabet to write down the words they heard from the ''Wilden'' (as the Lenape were called). These approximations were no doubt greatly influenced by Dutch, which was the lingua franca of the multilingual province. Some names still exist in their altered form, their current spelling (and presumably pronunciation) having evolved over the last four centuries into American English.

In some cases it cannot be confirmed, or there is contention, as to whether the roots are in the Dutch or the Lenape language, as sources do not always concur. In others, the meaning of the Lenape can have several interpretations. Locative suffixes vary depending on the dialect (usually Munsee or Unami) of the Lenape that prevailed. Jersey Dutch was spoken in the region until the 20th century.

Acquackanonk

Name of an Unami group who lived along and between the banks of the Passaic River Neck. Meaning ''a place in a rapid stream where fishing is done with a net'', alternatively, ''at the lamprey stream,'' from contemporary ''axkwaakahnung''. Spellings include ''Achquakanonk'', ''Acquackanonk'', ''Auchaquackanock'', ''Ackquekenon.'' Acquackanonk Township was one of the state's first townships, established in 1683. Pieces of it were taken over the years to create the towns of Fairfield, Paterson, Little Falls, Passaic, and Montclair. It ceased to exist with the creation of Clifton in 1917. A bridge in the township was burned as General George Washington's army retreated from Fort Lee in 1776, during the American Revolution.

Achter Col

Described the area around Newark Bay and the rivers that flowed into it. Called ''Meghgectecock'' by the Lenape. ''Achter'', meaning behind, and ''kol'', meaning neck, can be translated as the ''back (of the) peninsula'', in this case Bergen Neck. Variations include ''Achter Kol'', ''Achter Kull'', ''Archer Col'', ''Achter Kull.'' The name is largely extinct, though it is likely to have evolved into Arthur Kill, the name of a different waterway in the area.

Arresick

A former tidal island, site of first ferry landing for the patroonship Pavonia.

Arresick can be translated as'' burial ground.''On July 12th, 1630, Mr. Michael Pauw, Burgomaster of Amsterdam and Lord of Achtienhover, near Utrecht, obtained through the Directors and Councillors of New Netherlands, a deed from the Indians to the land called Hopoghan Hackingh, this being the first deed recorded in New Netherlands. On November 22nd, of the same year, the same parties procured from the Indians a deed to Mr. Pauw of Ahasimus and Aresick (burying-ground), the peninsula later called Paulus Hook. It can also be spelled as ''Arressechhonk.''New Jersey Colonial Records, East Jersey Records: Part 1-Volume 21, Calendar of Records 1664-1702

The island has been absorbed by landfill and is now part of the Paulus Hook neighborhood of Jersey City

A tidal strait separating Staten Island from mainland New Jersey. From '' kille,'' meaning ''water channel'' such as ''riverbed'', ''rivulet'', or ''stream''. Likely to have evolved from ''Achter Col'', adapted by English-language speakers that immigrated to the region from the Elizabethtown Tract and Perth Amboy.

Bedloe's Island

Under Dutch sovereignty the island became the property of Isaack Bedloo, a merchant and "select burgher" of New Amsterdam, and one of 94 signers of the "Remonstrance of the People of New Netherlands to the Director-General and Council". It has been the home of the Statue of Liberty since 1886, and was renamed to Liberty Island in 1956.

Bergen

There are various opinions as to the naming of Bergen. Some say that it so called for Bergen op Zoom in the Netherlands, or for the city of Bergen in Norway. Others believe it comes from the word ''bergen'', which in the Germanic languages of northern Europe means ''hills'', and could have been used to describe a distinct geological feature of the region, The Palisades.Indigenous Population
". ''Bergencountyhistory.org''. Yet another interpretation is that it comes from the Dutch word ''bergen'', meaning ''to save'' or ''to recover'', or ''place of safety,'' inspired by the settlers returning after they had fled attacks by the native population in the Peach Tree War.

The name Bergen is widely used in northeastern New Jersey, not only for the Bergen County