Living on Long Island once known as Paumanok, by the way we're used to hearing odd-sounding Algonquian place names such as Cutchogue (Corchaug, the greatest or principle place), or Shinnecock (Shinecock: at the level land or level country) but there are plenty of names that make us ask:

How did it get their names? Well, read on.

Huntington

Well, this is an easy one. Apparently, the founding fathers named it after the chief Puritan of all time, Oliver Cromwell. Old Ollie, it seems, was born in Huntingdon, in England; ergo, Huntington. The town dates from April 2, 1653 when Robert Williams, Daniel Whitehead and Richard Holbrook of Oyster Bay purchased the land from Raseokan, Sachem of the Matinecock tribe.

Glen Cove

On May 24, 1668, Joseph Carpenter of Warwick, Rhode Island purchased about 2,000 acres from the Matinecocks, then hooked up with four partners: Nathaniel, Daniel and Robert Coles and Nicholas Simkins to found a settlement they named Musketa (which, in Matinecock means this place of rushes) Cove.

There's no trace of any Glen Cove until a Dr. Thomas Garvie (aha! Garvies Point!) discovered clay on his property in 1810, and he and Cornelius Vanderbilt started a steamboat operation. They realized the area had potential as a resort, but New York City residents kept confusing the name with the biting insect, rather than Musketa, the lovely town. As legend has it, a meeting was called, names were discussed, and someone suggested calling it Glen Coe after a scenic area in Scotland (Garvie's home). This was misheard and thus: Glen Cove.

An aside: Musketa was once (1699) considered one of the top four ports for smuggling on all Long Island, by the colonial Governor, Lord Bellomont.

Northport

Again, Matinecocks sold this land (their main camp was where the LIPA stacks now reside) for seven quarts of liquor, two coats, four shirts and 11 ounces of powder, around 1656. The Matinecocks called the area Opcatkontycke, which meant wading place creek, but the three Englishmen who purchased it named the area Great Cow Harbor; Centerport was known as Little Cow Harbor. Around the Revolutionary War, at about where Main Street and Rt. 25A intersect, a settlement sprang up called Red Hook, which became Vernon Valley around 1820. The name Northport shows up who knows how around 1837, and becomes official on incorporation in 1894.

Cold Spring Harbor

The locals called the place Wauwepex (good water place), and colonists caught on immediately. Artesian wells were easy to tap, but regardless the area always produced fresh, clean cool water, and thus ...

Port Jefferson

One of the finest harbors around today, Port Jefferson was originally called Drowned Meadow because the head of the present day harbor flooded on every high tide. Today's East Main Street was the original Main Street, but eventually the tidal marsh was filled and Drowned Meadow no longer drowned. The citizens opted to rename the town after the third President of the US in 1836.

Mount Sinai

Purchased from two Native Americans named Massatewse and the Sunke Squaw, the 1664 deed notes they were paid, "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," for the land called Ould Mans. No definite origin of the name is extant, but one of many legends seems logical, and concerns a 1600s version of an I've got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell ya type character named John Scott. Ostensibly working for an elderly Englishman, Old Major Gotherson, Scott neglected to actually purchase land he said he did, and when the local tribe refused to turn over the land to representatives of Gotherson having never been paid, local colonists started referring to the area as the Old Man's land, when news of the swindle broke.

Regardless, the name was changed to Mount Vernon in 1840 when the locals applied to have a post office built ... unfortunately there already was a Mount Vernon in New York, and the name reverted to Old Man's. Legend has it that the area's first postmaster took a Bible and a knitting needle, closed his eyes and it's been Mount Sinai ever since (1841-42).

Montauk

Many of today's towns took names from the original inhabitants. Montauk's was for the Montauket Indians. Montauk Point was originally called Turtle Hill, because it reminded the early settlers of a turtle, and legend has it the tribe lit signal fires there, and the whiteman followed suit, opting to put up the lighthouse in 1792. The actual meaning of the word is somewhat debatable, but William Tooker (author of The Indian Place Names on Long Island, from whom nearly all of the translations in this piece come) notes the deed to Governor Eaton of Connecticut calls the tribe Meuntacut. On a 1770 English map, the Point is spelled Montuk. The area was primarily used by the colonists for grazing livestock (from around 1665), and thus it can rightfully be considered the first cattle ranch in the US.

Take that, Texas.

Hampton Bays

A John Ogden first purchased the land from Canoe Place (site of what is thought to be the America's oldest inn, and a name derived from the area where the native inhabitants portaged their canoes between Shinnecock and Peconic Bays) to present day Quogue in 1659. John Scott (whether the same John Scott from Mount Sinai is unknown), purchased it from Ogden and, in turn, sold it to a John Topping, who later sold it to Southampton Town. The area was composed of 11 small hamlets, Good Ground, the main one at the site of roughly where Main Street in Hampton Bays is today. In 1922, deciding to cash in on the New York City tourist boom to the Hamptons, the name was changed to Hampton Bays.

Trivia alert: With the exception of East Hampton and Hampton Bays, the rest of the Hamptons are spelled as single words.

Sayville

Moving west along the South Shore, we come to Sayville, which probably should have been called First Shot, since it was the site of the first American action of World War I.

It seems that a German wireless operation was located in the area and legend has it relayed a message from the German Embassy saying Get Lucy, referring to the RMS Lusitania which was promptly sunk by Atlantic-roving U-boats. Marines were dispatched by President Woodrow Wilson to seize the station, which they did.

Name-wise, the community had no name until 1838, before which it was informally known as over south. A meeting was called and Ñ there are various legends here - either the name was misspelled (it was supposed to be Seaville), or it was a contraction for Salem (as in witches) Village, or it was to be named after the Spanish city of Seville, and a clerk wrote it as Sayville.

The Three Bs - Bellport, Bayport and Blue Point

Captains Thomas and John Bell, whalers, gave their name to Bellport when they came up with the idea of establishing the area as a whaling seaport in the early 19th century when an inlet to the south existed, allowing access to the Atlantic. The village of Bellport lies on a neck of land called Acombamack (over or against the fishing place). It was incorporated in 1910.

Bayport was called Middle Road Village for a while, then Southport, which was rejected when the post office was to be set up and there already was a Southport upstate. It became Bayport in 1858.

Bluepoint is supposed to have gotten its name from a bluish haze that always appeared over the area extending into the bay. It was a major shipping point for the British during the Revolutionary War.

Fire Island

How it came to be called Fire is open to as many debates as one wishes. What is known is that the first settlement of sorts was in 1653 when an Issac Stratford of Babylon set up a shore whaling station at a place he named Whalehouse Point; it was located 5.5 miles east of Davis Park and 3.5 miles west of Smith's Point.

An 1851 navigation chart of Fire Island shows some interesting navigational features (and names) that have gone by the wayside. Head & Horns (a series of sand hills of various lengths and steep faces), four miles west of Watch Hill, and Ruland Hills (a stretch about a mile long between two and three miles westward of Head and Horns).

No other settlement is shown on the 1851 chart, with the island ending just west of Fire Island Light at Fire Island Inlet (which then ended east of a north/south line drawn off Captree's eastern point). Captree Beach is called Short Beach; today's Sexton Islands are un-named, as are the two islands west of Fire Island (the small island behind Fire Island proper), which, today, is one island called West Fire Island.

Oak Inlet runs northwest from Fire Island Inlet around what is today's Captree towards Oak Island, which is still named that today. Oak Island Beach (today's Jones Beach Island) ends at Gilgo Inlet on the west (a chart notation notes Heavy Breakers here; Gilgo Beach is famous as a surfing spot). West of Gilgo Inlet is Jones Beach, ending at New Inlet on the west, across from which is Long Beach.

By the way: according to legend, Gilgo got its name from a topline fisherman named Gill Burch. If you wanted to catch fish like Mr. Burch, you went where Gill goes. Captree ostensibly got its name from a fisherman's cap atop a tall dead tree used as an inlet-running marker.

Freeport

We can't end this little tale without talking about Freeport, which - one would think - is an easy one, right? Free-port. Nope.

Originally the area was called the great south woods. According to an article in the Hempstead Inquirer of 1853 a bunch of meetings - inspiring a lot of yelling - discussed whether today's Freeport should be Raynortown, Bayside Village or Freeport. Finally, on August 22, 1853 the name Freeport was designated as the permanent name for the village by a public meeting at the home of Benjamin Smith.

Freeport was also known as Washburne's Neck in the early 17th century; in the mid 17th century the area was called Raynor South after Edward Raynor who herded livestock in the area and had moved there in 1659, and eventually became Raynortown in the early 1800s. The town lies 5 miles southeast from Hempstead village, near South bay; here are 2 taverns, 2 stores, and about 20 dwellings. This neighborhood is much resorted to by sportsmen, in pursuit of fish and fowl.

The Village's name may date to its growth as a duty free port between the ports of New York and Sag Harbor, where import tariffs were collected. As a result, the moniker Freeport was born.

And - Briefly Yet Some More From the Area

Canarsie - First appearing in a deed of 1647; probably means the fenced place.

Commack - Originally Winnecomac. Sold to John Skidmore and John Whitman by the Secatogues in 1689. Eventually shortened to Commack (Comac).

Dix Hills - The earliest form is Dickepechegans, which appeared 50 years after the settlement of the town. Probably Dick and Englishman's name, with Pechegan an Indian name, and probably the name of where his wigwam was located.

Staten Island - A 1660 deed calls it Aquehonga Manacknong, which may have various meanings of palisades, or high banks, etc.

Gowanus - It appears in early Dutch records of 1638, and may be a man's name meaning the sleeper or he rests.

Jamaica - Possibly named for a family of Indians who resided in the area who were known as Jameco Indians. Early records call the area Yemacah. Regardless most references remark on a beaver pond, so the name probably means beaver.

Ellis Island - Was called Kioshk which means Gull Island taken from the Chippewa and given to the island in 1845 by Henry Schoolcraft. Samuel Ellis was the last private owner of the island.

Kissena - Another Chippewa name meaning it is cold, and the name of a pond in Flushing.

Gravesend - Makeopaca; a great clearing or open field.

Manhattan - The earliest appearance is on a map in the archives of Simanacas, Spain made in 1607, where it is given as

Manahatin, possibly meaning the hill island.