942: knickerbocker Jul 8, 2017

Places in New York, all over the state and especially in New York City, gained a lot of names the Dutch. Sometimes this was from originally Dutch words like 'Staten (Island)' coming from the word for 'States', while others came from people's names, such as the origin of the Bronx. The word 'knickerbockers' is quite prominent, and has been applied to all New Yorkers, exclusively Dutch settlers of New York and their descendants, the underwear more commonly called 'knickers', a New York sports team, and is the name of several buildings and streets. You might think that this was from some Dutch family perhaps, but actually it was from the pen name, Diedrich Knickerbocker, (actually W. Irving) who wrote "A History of New York". The only connection to the Dutch is that 'knickers' is thought to have originated from an association with the Dutchmen's breeches in the illustration in the book.