New Jersey town names reveal some strange origins

In the crowded confines of North Jersey it can be hard to drive five minutes without finding a curious name on a roadside sign.

Most, sadly, are relatively tame. Bergen County has nine town names that include the word "wood."

To continue the geographical-feature theme, northern New Jersey is full of town names designed to conjure images of their so-called dales, vales, glens, parks, cliffs, rocks, ridges, falls, brooks, rivers and lakes— with Riverdale, Park Ridge, and River Vale perhaps the most egregious offenders.

Others seem far too literal. Little Ferry was named for a rope-guided ferry between Bergen and Hackensack. Glen Rock owns its moniker to a glacial deposit, a reportedly 570-ton boulder with its own flagpole, plaque, and surrounding traffic island at the intersection of Doremus Avenue and the aptly-named Rock Road.

Here are 10 town names that may need some further explanation.

Bogota

The Borough of Bogota formed by referendum in 1894 as part of Bergen County’s boroughitis phase. Its name harkens visions of sunny Bogotá, Colombia but is just another reference to the area’s early English settlers.

The Bogert and Banta families are the inspiration behind the name, per borough records.

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Borough records document the original names of the area as the “Colony of Myndert Myndertsen van Karen” and the “Colony of the Lord of Nederhorst” after their Dutch owners. However, after several deadly skirmishes with natives over land rights, the English took over New Amsterdam and the land that became Bogota came under new supervision.

The Bogert and Banta families owned most of Bogota north and south of Fort Lee Road, respectively.

Ho-Ho-Kus

The official website for the borough with the hyphens claims the town's uniquely hyphenated name could mean hollow rock, spirit bark, or running water but locals have generally accepted the name to be a “contraction of Mehokhokus or Mah-Ho-Ho-Kus, a Delaware Indian term meaning ‘the Red Cedar.’”

The trademark hyphens were included on the 1908 referendum by which voters changed the town's name from the relatively-tame Orvil. The hyphens were perhaps included to allow Ho-Ho-Kusites to stand apart from the Hohokusites of Hohokus Township, which did not become Mahwah until November 1944.

The nearly 4,100 locals in community home to the famed Ho-Ho-Kus Racetrack that closed 80 years ago after a fatal race car accident would probably like to let you know it’s pronounced "-kiss," not "-cus."

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Moonachie

Legend has it that a Native American chief named Monaghie is to credit for the name of the 1.7-square-mile borough near the Hackensack River, per the town’s website.

It's pronounced “-key” not “-chi,” by the way.

Owned by fur trader Captain John Berry in the late 1660s, the 2,700-resident borough formed in 1910 following a referendum approved by local voters. The town was part of the Township of Bergen during the Revolutionary War. It later became part of Lodi Township. Some of Moonachie was also jettisoned to Teterboro, an airport town named for a New York City investment banker.

South Hackensack, which consists of what remains of Lodi Township, also contains a section called Moonachie — it's south of Hackensack. That Moonachie is essentially a business district, with no homes of which to speak.

Oradell

Once known as Delford, Oradell was renamed in 1920 by voter referendum.

Locals credit the name change to the second mayor, Hiram Blauvelt, though Oradell dates back much further. Delford, as named during the borough’s creation during Bergen County’s “boroughitis” phase in 1894, was a mash-up of New Milford and Oradell — two communities within the borough.

Oradell itself is a portmanteau with ora, the Latin word for edge, and dell — or small valley. The town that once boasted former New York Giants head coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer Bill Parcells among its roughly 8,000 residents was compiled from portions of Harrington, Midland, and Palisades township. None of those townships exist today.

Orange

Once known as Newark Mountains, the once-whole town of Orange adopted its name in June 1780. The reference is not to a color or a fruit but a house, specifically England's ruling house.

William III of Orange, once the stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, was the King of England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1689 to 1712. The first white settlers of The Oranges hailed from the New Haven Colony and settled in land that was purportedly, but not actually, bought from indigenous peoples in Hackensack.

About 160 years ago, Orange — nearly named Orange Dale — began to split, rind and all, over tax disputes. Today, the four communities exist as The Oranges on highway exit signs; East Orange, West Orange, South Orange Village, and the City of Orange to taxpayers.

Nutley

Previously known as Franklin and once a part of northeast Newark, Nutley is named after a house. Unlike Orange's royal house of inspiration, Nutley’s house was an actual house — specifically a manor house on the Satterthwaite estate.

Established in 1844, the estate along the Passaic River once served as the home of the Yanticaw Gun Club and was known for its level trap-shooting fields. Local history ties the name Nutley to those fields and the property’s nut trees.

Known for its nearby parks, Nutley contains about 27,000 residents in a town that once boasted a bustling brownstone quarry, mills, and the Nutley Velodrome. Opened 85 years ago, the famed bicycle track was also home to midget auto racing before it closed in 1939. At one-sixth of a mile, the race cars lapped the wooden-board track in about nine seconds.

Totowa

Incorporated in 1898 after locals convened on Totowa Avenue to discuss a split from Manchester Township, Totowa’s name was evidently derived from a term used by the local Native Americans.

Various records show that the Dutch believed the term meant “where you begin” while others believe the term meant “between mountains and waters,” “to sink beneath the waters” or “falling waters” in reference to the Great Falls in Paterson.

Today, the suburb contains nearly 11,000 residents in 4 square miles. The town once served as an encampment site for American troops during the Revolutionary War and now is known for its four cemeteries.

Wayne

Wayne is named for a Pennsylvania man better known as American Revolution General “Mad” Anthony Wayne. The same Wayne of Fort Wayne, Indiana, the general served as the commanding officer of the U.S. Army from 1792 until his gout-related death in 1796.

The town of nearly 55,000 is also home to the site where Wayne’s compatriot, Gen. George Washington, learned of Benedict Arnold's betrayal. The Dey Mansion on Preakness Valley Golf Course is among the town’s more famous structures. Others include the Willowbrook Mall, the Toys R Us headquarters, and General (Marques de) LaFayette’s headquarters, the Van Saun House.

Formerly part of the defunct Saddle River and Manchester townships, the former farming community developed by the advent of the Morris Canal and railroads was incorporated in 1847.

Kinnelon

Formerly named for an English queen, Kinnelon is now named for a cigarette manufacturer who purchased roughly 5,000 acres in North Jersey in 1883.

Francis Kinney, who built the famed St. Hubert's Chapel in 1886 on an island in Lake Kinnelon in 1886, and his family kept the area relatively undeveloped into the 1920s. Kinnelon was known as Charlotteburg, a name retained in a Newark-owned reservoir near the town’s northwest corner.

The town of roughly 9,000 people was incorporated as a borough in 1922 from portions of Pequannock Township by an act of the state legislature. It currently features two main neighborhoods — in the gated Smoke Rise and former summer community of Fayson Lakes — and little in the way of business or industry.

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Victory Gardens

One of North Jersey’s smallest towns, Victory Gardens was formed in 1951 from portions of Randolph Township.

The 1,520-resident community comprises about 93 acres that were acquired by the federal government in 1941 for war-industry housing. Its name originates from World War II’s victory gardens, essentially backyard and community gardens designed to help the war effort by taking pressure off bulk suppliers.

The town was built with federally funded infrastructure said to be out of compliance with township laws. That opposition with Republican Randolph Township officials coupled with claims of inadequate compensation for the impact of a Democratic Victory Gardens on area schools led township voters to approve the separation of Victory Gardens by referendum 67 years ago.

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