A world of names close to home
From Athens to Troy
Hudson Valley places with names from around the world
A selected guide • Cities, towns, villages, and hamlets
You can visit Athens, pass through Cairo, and head north toward Troy without ever leaving the Hudson Valley. Our road signs offer a surprisingly good starting point for a journey around the world.
Some names recall places settlers knew; others point to the ancient world, royal titles, or biblical landscapes. A few suggest a connection that surviving evidence has yet to prove. Each raises a question worth asking: why did this particular name find a home here?
This guide traces a selection of these connections through the Hudson Valley. It covers regions and historical places as well as modern cities. When an origin is uncertain, that uncertainty is part of the story.
These borrowed names also reflect a much older geography. Indigenous communities already called the valley home when Europeans arrived. This article explores one layer of its place names, not the land’s full history.
Albany County
A Scottish title and a remembered homeland
Albany
Overseas connection: Scotland, through the title Duke of Albany
Royal connection
Albany’s overseas connection comes through a title, not a direct borrowing from a modern city. When the English took control in 1664, they renamed the settlement for James, Duke of York and Albany. New York State identifies Albany as his Scottish title. The state capital belongs in this story too, though its path into the name book differs from Athens or Ghent.
Source:
Berne
Overseas connection: Bern, Switzerland
Recorded namesake
A Swiss city appears in Albany County’s hill country. The 1911 Hudson–Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs traces Berne’s name to the Swiss city and links it to early settler Jacob Weidman. This is a documented historical account; many Germans also settled the town. A place name can preserve one connection without describing everyone who lived there.
New Scotland
Overseas connection: Scotland
Documented homeland connection
This one makes its connection clear. The New Scotland Historical Association attributes the name to the sizable Scottish population that arrived in the decades before the American Revolution. The town was established in 1832. Here, the name reflects a community’s homeland, not an ancient city admired from afar.
Source: New Scotland Historical Association
Bethlehem
Overseas connection: Biblical Bethlehem in the West Bank
Recorded biblical connection
Bethlehem adds another biblical name to the Hudson Valley. Founded in 1793, the Albany County town was intentionally given its biblical name, according to the published Hudson–Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs. Its namesake overseas is Bethlehem, traditionally remembered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus. Like Goshen and Canaan, it reflects how places known through scripture found their way onto the region’s map.
Source: Hudson–Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs.
Guilderland
Overseas connection: Gelderland, the Netherlands
Documented homeland connection
Guilderland brings the name of a Dutch province to Albany County. The town historian traces its 1803 name to Gelderland in the Netherlands, the ancestral homeland of the Van Rensselaer family. The connection is still visible on the town’s flag, which features Gelderland’s coat of arms. The slightly altered spelling preserves a reminder of the Dutch roots that helped shape this part of the Hudson Valley.
Source: Town of Guilderland historian.
Rensselaer County
An ancient city and a mountain range
Troy
Overseas connection: Ancient Troy, in present-day Türkiye
Recorded namesake
Troy brings Homer’s world to the Hudson. New York’s city of Troy took its name in 1789 from the ancient city associated with the Iliad. There’s a geographical wrinkle worth remembering: ancient Troy stood in what is now Türkiye, though its place in Greek literature helps explain the name’s classical appeal. Think of this as a literary connection to the ancient world, rather than a namesake in modern Greece.
Source: Troy history overview; naming date also recorded by the NY Senate
Alps
Overseas connection: The European Alps
Reported landscape connection
The hamlet of Alps, in the town of Nassau, is a small but delightful place. Rensselaer County’s NYGenWeb place-name guide says its mountainous surroundings inspired the European name. The comparison refers to the terrain; it does not suggest that the local hills are anywhere near as large as the Alps.
Source: Rensselaer County NYGenWeb
Berlin
Overseas connection: Berlin, Germany
Shared name; origin unresolved
Berlin shares its name with Germany’s capital, but the county’s NYGenWeb guide says it has not established who chose the local name or when.
Source: Rensselaer County NYGenWeb
Brunswick
Overseas connection: Braunschweig, Germany
Possible connection; origin unresolved
Brunswick is the English form of Braunschweig. The county’s NYGenWeb guide discusses a possible connection through the British monarchy’s German titles, while acknowledging that the local naming decision remains unverified.
Source: Rensselaer County NYGenWeb
Nassau
Overseas connection: Nassau, Germany, and the House of Orange-Nassau
Recorded European connection; naming route varies by account
Nassau’s name is linked to both German territory and Dutch history. Rensselaer County’s place-name guide traces it to the former German duchy of Nassau and the House of Orange-Nassau. Another account says the Dutch trading post Fort Nassau directly inspired the town’s 1808 name change from Philipstown. The accounts differ on how the name reached the area, but both point to its European connections.
Sources: Rensselaer County place-name guide and Nassau town history overview.
Greene County
From ancient Greece to Egypt
Athens
Overseas connection: Athens, Greece
Recorded namesake
Across the river from Hudson, Athens takes its name from the classical Greek city. The village was incorporated in 1805, followed by the surrounding town in 1815. These are separate milestones, an important distinction when telling its story. Along with Troy farther upriver, Athens offers an inviting starting point for spotting the ancient world in the everyday geography of the Hudson Valley.
Source: Athens overview; incorporation history from Friends of Athens and the town historian
Cairo
Overseas connection: Cairo, Egypt
Recorded association; motive uncertain
Cairo adds an Egyptian name to the Catskill foothills. According to the town’s history, it began as Canton in 1803 and was renamed Cairo in 1808 at the suggestion of merchant Ashbel Stanley. The history also notes the familiar local pronunciation, “Kay-ro.” The town’s revitalization study notes that theories differ about why they chose the name.
Columbia County
Belgium, Scotland and a Napoleonic battlefield
Ghent
Overseas connection: Ghent, Belgium
Documented namesake
The county historian’s page on Ghent explicitly traces the town’s name to the Flemish city in Belgium. The New York town was formed in 1818 from parts of Chatham, Claverack, and Kinderhook. It’s a particularly clear example: a Hudson Valley town and an overseas city share a name, and the local historical account confirms the connection.
Ancram
Overseas connection: Ancram, now usually Ancrum, ScotlandRecorded homeland connection
Ancram preserves a Scottish connection through the Livingston family. Local historical accounts record the change from Gallatin to Ancram in 1814, in reference to the family’s Scottish home. The overseas village is now generally spelled Ancrum. The slight spelling difference is a reminder that names travel through time as well as across the Atlantic.
Austerlitz
Overseas connection: Austerlitz, now Slavkov u Brna, CzechiaRecorded battle connection
Austerlitz reaches Europe by way of Napoleon’s 1805 victory. An 1878 county history, reproduced in the town’s history overview, credits Martin Van Buren with proposing the name when the town was formed in 1818. The old German place name survives here, while the European town is known today as Slavkov u Brna. The colorful account of Van Buren’s political repartee is best understood as a story recorded in that later history.
Source: History overview quoting Franklin Ellis’s 1878 county history
Canaan
Overseas connection: Biblical Canaan in the eastern Mediterranean
Biblical association; possibly carried through Connecticut
Canaan adds a biblical name to Columbia County’s map. The town historian records that early settlers came from Canaan, Connecticut, and that the New York community changed its name from “Kings District” to “Canaan” in 1788. Connecticut’s Canaan was itself named from the Bible. The local name may therefore have traveled through a neighboring colony before finding its Hudson Valley home, rather than being borrowed directly from the ancient region.
Sources: Town of Canaan historian and Connecticut’s official town naming history.
Chatham
Overseas connection: Britain, through the title Earl of Chatham
Recorded connection through a person’s title
Chatham’s name carries a British connection through William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. The town’s history records that it was formed in 1795 from parts of Kinderhook and Canaan and named in his honor because of his sympathy for the American colonists. Its place in this story comes through Pitt’s title, rather than a direct borrowing from the English town. Like Albany, Chatham shows how an overseas place name could reach the Hudson Valley through the person who bore it.
Source: History of the Town of Chatham.
Germantown
Overseas connection: Germany, particularly the Palatinate
German settler heritage
Germantown’s name reflects the people who made a new home here. In October 1710, about 1,200 Palatine settlers traveled from southwest Germany via England and established East Camp on the Hudson’s eastern bank. This connection to their homeland gives Germantown a distinctive place in the story: its name honors German settler heritage rather than a specific town overseas. More than three centuries later, descendants of those original families still live in the community.
Dutchess County
Italian echoes, with a mystery still attached
Tivoli
Overseas connection: Tivoli, Italy
TRADITIONAL ASSOCIATION; LOCAL HISTORY DOCUMENTED
Tivoli’s name is linked to Pierre DeLabigarre’s unsuccessful plan for a riverfront community in the 1790s. The village’s waterfront plan documents the project and his home, Chateau de Tivoli. Older accounts connect the name to the Italian town, while the Dutchess County Historical Society’s 1929 examination also reveals uncertainty about parts of DeLabigarre’s biography
Source: Village of Tivoli waterfront plan; DCHS 1929 Year Book
Milan
Overseas connection: Milan, Italy
SHARED NAME; ORIGIN UNRESOLVED
Milan may seem like an obvious Italian namesake, but its history calls for a closer look. The town’s comprehensive plan says the name’s origin is unknown, while Milan NY History describes the Italian connection as an assumption. The town was incorporated in 1818.
Source: Town of Milan comprehensive plan and Milan NY History
LaGrange
Overseas connection: Lafayette’s estate in France
Recorded connection to a French estate
LaGrange
Overseas connection: Lafayette’s estate in France
Recorded connection to a French estate
LaGrange brings a touch of French history to Dutchess County. First established as Freedom in 1821, the town was renamed LaGrange in 1828 to avoid confusion with another New York community. The new name honored the Marquis de Lafayette by borrowing the name of his French estate. LaGrange thus recalls both a place across the Atlantic and the French soldier whose support aided the American cause during the Revolution.
Sources: Town of LaGrange · Dutchess Tourism: French Connections
Rhinebeck
Overseas connection: The Rhine River in Europe
An overseas river name combined with a local family name
Rhinebeck’s name links a European river with a family closely connected to the town’s early history. According to the Rhinebeck Historical Society, “Rhine” recalls the Rhine River, while “Beek” commemorates Henry Beekman, the early land patentee. The name thus has roots on both sides of the Atlantic: a familiar Hudson Valley community with an echo of one of Europe’s great rivers.
Source: Rhinebeck Historical Society: Walking Tour
Rhinecliff
Overseas connection: The Rhine River in Europe
Recorded Rhine association; accounts differ on the naming route
Rhinecliff carries an echo of the Rhine along the Hudson’s banks. A 1905 U.S. Geological Survey place-name dictionary traces its name to early settlers from Germany’s Rhine River region. Another account says it combines nearby Rhinebeck with the local cliffs. Since the explanations differ, the precise origin calls for some caution, but both place this riverside hamlet among the Hudson Valley’s names with European connections.
Sources: U.S. Geological Survey: The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States · Rhinecliff naming history
Ulster County
A refuge remembered in a new home
New Paltz
Overseas connection: The Palatinate, or Pfalz, GermanyDOCUMENTED HOMELAND CONNECTION
New Paltz’s name remembers a place of refuge. The French-speaking Protestant families who established the community had found safety in the Pfalz region of present-day Germany before coming to America. The town and village’s natural resources inventory explicitly connects the name to that region. The families settled beside the Wallkill in 1678, after receiving their patent in 1677. It is a French-speaking community’s history preserved through a German regional name.
Source: Town and Village of New Paltz inventory; Historic Huguenot Street
Kingston
Overseas connection: Kingston Lisle, England
Recorded connection to an English family estate
Kingston’s name carries a piece of English family history to the Hudson. Known under Dutch rule as Wiltwyck, the settlement was renamed Kingston in 1669 in honor of Kingston Lisle, the English estate associated with Governor Francis Lovelace’s maternal family. Long before Kingston became New York’s first state capital, its name reflected the shift from Dutch to English colonial rule—a change still visible in the Hudson Valley’s map.
Sources: Historical Society of the New York Courts: Ulster County History · 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica: Kingston
Marlborough
Overseas connection: Britain, through the title Duke of Marlborough
Recorded connection through a person’s title
Marlborough brings a British aristocratic title to Ulster County. The town’s official history names John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, as its namesake and records its founding in 1788. The connection is to the duke, not a direct borrowing from the English town of Marlborough. Like Chatham, it shows how a person’s title could carry an overseas place-name into the Hudson Valley.
Ulster
Overseas connection: Ulster, Ireland
Recorded county connection through an Irish title
The county itself is part of this story. Established in 1683, Ulster County was named by James, Duke of York, who also held the Irish title Earl of Ulster. The title brought the name of the historic province in northern Ireland across the Atlantic to the Hudson Valley. Established much later, in 1879, the Town of Ulster shares the county’s name, though the origins of its own name are less clearly documented.
Sources: New-York Historical Society: Ulster County Collection · Ulster-Scots Agency: New York’s Irish Connections
Orange County
An English county and a biblical landscape
Cornwall
Overseas connection: Cornwall, England
RECORDED NAMESAKE
Cornwall’s natural resources inventory explains that settlers called the area “New Cornwall” because it reminded them of Cornwall, England. The town historian dates its founding as New Cornwall to 1788 and its renaming to Cornwall to 1797. It’s an appealing example of a familiar landscape lending its name to a new one, with the Hudson Highlands standing in for the English county’s scenery.
Source: Cornwall natural resources inventory and town historian
Goshen
Overseas connection: The biblical land of Goshen, Egypt
RECORDED BIBLICAL CONNECTION
Goshen brings us into biblical geography. The 1908 History of Orange County identifies the town’s namesake as the Goshen of the Bible. The link is to an ancient region in Egypt, not a modern city. That distinction makes the comparison useful without suggesting that every Hudson Valley name has a straightforward modern counterpart.
Source: The History of Orange County, 1908
New Windsor
Overseas connection: Windsor, England
Documented English place-name connection
New Windsor brings an English name to the banks of the Hudson. According to the town historian, its name derives from Windsor, England, with “New” added—a familiar way to give an American settlement a name rooted across the Atlantic. The link is straightforward, though New Windsor developed a history all its own, including its important role as the site of the Continental Army’s final encampment of the Revolutionary War.
Source: Town of New Windsor: Early History
Newburgh
Overseas connection: Newburgh, Scotland
Recorded Scottish connection; naming accounts differ
Newburgh’s name connects the Hudson waterfront with Scotland. Older local histories identify Newburgh on Scotland’s River Tay as its namesake, citing similarities between the two riverside settings. Accounts differ on exactly who chose the name and when. The recorded Scottish connection still gives Newburgh a place in this story: a name from across the Atlantic finding a new home beside another great river.
Source: History of Orange County: Newburgh
Chester
Overseas connection: England
Recorded English connection; precise namesake unspecified
Chester adds another English connection to Orange County’s map. The village’s official website says it was named for a place in England, though it doesn’t specify which one. This supports including Chester among the Hudson Valley’s names with overseas roots, while leaving its exact English namesake unknown. The borrowed name became part of a community whose own story includes dairy farming and a claim to being the birthplace of Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
Source: Village of Chester: About Our Village
Warwick
Overseas connection: Warwick or Warwickshire, England
Traditional English connection; name carried through a local farm
Warwick’s name came to the community through a farm. In the early 1700s, Benjamin Aske named his property Warwick, and the name gradually spread to the surrounding settlement and, eventually, the town. Historical accounts suggest a link to Warwickshire, England, though Aske’s reason for choosing the name is not firmly documented. The possible English connection followed a distinctly local path: from a farmer’s property to a familiar name on Orange County’s map.
Sources: Village of Warwick: Village History · Historical account of Warwick’s name
Westchester County
A French port and an English coastal tradition
New Rochelle
Overseas connection: La Rochelle, France
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
New Rochelle offers one of the region’s clearest stories of its ties to its homeland. According to the city’s own account, Huguenot refugees named their new purchase after La Rochelle, the French port and Huguenot stronghold. They purchased the land in 1689.
Source: City of New Rochelle
Hastings-on-Hudson
Overseas connection: Hastings, England
LOCAL TRADITION; ORIGIN UNRESOLVED
The Hastings Historical Society says no one knows for certain how the village got its name. The most popular explanation credits British immigrant William Saunders, who supposedly saw a resemblance between the Palisades and the cliffs at Hastings on England’s south coast. It’s a lovely story to share, as long as you include the society’s caveat.
Source: Hastings Historical Society Museum in the Streets
Briarcliff Manor
Overseas connection: Brier Cliff, a family home in Ireland
Documented Irish estate connection
Briarcliff Manor’s name began with a home remembered across the Atlantic. John David Ogilby named his Westchester property Brier Cliff, after his family home in Ireland. The name took hold locally, eventually becoming Briarcliff and then Briarcliff Manor. Its story is tied to an estate, not borrowed from an overseas town—a reminder of how settlers brought familiar names into the Hudson Valley landscape.
Sources: Village of Briarcliff Manor: History Timeline · Briarcliff Manor–Scarborough Historical Society: All Saints Episcopal Church
Scarsdale
Overseas connection: Scarsdale, Derbyshire, England
Documented English homeland connection
Scarsdale’s name brings a corner of Derbyshire to Westchester County. Caleb Heathcote named his manor after the English district tied to his ancestral home. Born in Chesterfield, he came from the historic Hundred of Scarsdale—“hundred” being an old administrative division. The name later passed to the town, founded in 1788. Its English namesake was a district, not a single town, preserving the link to Heathcote’s roots.
Sources: Village of Scarsdale: History · Scarsdale Historical Society: Streets and Place-Names
South Salem
Overseas connection: Hebrew and biblical Salem
Recorded Hebrew association; name retained in a local hamlet
South Salem shares its name’s origins with North Salem. Local historian Jack Sanders links the original Salem community’s name to the Hebrew word for “peace.” After the community was divided, its southern portion became known as Lower Salem, then South Salem. In 1840, the town was renamed Lewisboro in honor of benefactor John Lewis, but South Salem remained the hamlet’s name. Its Hebrew and biblical associations persist, though no direct borrowing from an overseas place name has been established.
Sources: Jack Sanders: Ridgefield Place Names · Town of Lewisboro: Town History
Putnam County
Carmel
Overseas connection: Mount Carmel, Israel
Recorded biblical place-name connection
Carmel brings the name of a biblical mountain to Putnam County. An early local history identifies Mount Carmel as its namesake, noting that the town’s wooded hills and fertile valleys were thought to resemble that landscape overseas. Established in 1795, Carmel joins Bethlehem, Canaan, and Goshen among Hudson Valley communities named for places familiar through scripture.
Source: Historical and Genealogical Record of Dutchess and Putnam Counties: Carmel
Sodom
Overseas connection: Biblical Sodom, associated with the Dead Sea region
Traditional biblical association
Sodom gives Putnam County an unusually pointed biblical name. One historical account says the hamlet in the Town of Southeast was named for its early inhabitants’ rowdy reputation, a comparison to the Sodom of scripture. Also known as Southeast Center, the community’s name serves as a biblical allusion in this story; its origin is best understood as reported tradition, not settled fact.
Source: Sodom, New York: Naming History
Rockland County
New Square
Overseas connection: Skvyra, Ukraine
Documented connection to a community’s ancestral home
New Square’s overseas connection is less apparent in its English spelling. Its name recalls Skvyra, Ukraine, the historic home of the Skverer Hasidic community. A contemporary report on the village’s incorporation described New Square as an Americanized form of Skvir. The name, carried across the Atlantic, preserves the community’s connection to its European roots.
Sources: Village of New Square: About · Jewish Telegraphic Agency: New Square’s Incorporation
Orangetown
Overseas connection: The House of Orange, through Orange County
Recorded connection through a royal name
Orangetown’s royal connection dates to when present-day Rockland was part of Orange County. An older county history says the town took its name from the county, which honored William of Orange, later King William III of England. The link overseas therefore comes through a royal title and the county, not from a direct borrowing from a European town. When Rockland County separated in 1798, Orangetown kept its name—a reminder of the region’s earlier boundaries.
Sources: History of Rockland County: Orangetown · Orange County: About Orange County
New Hempstead
Overseas connection: Possibly Hemel Hempstead, England, through Hempstead, Long Island
Documented American namesake; suggested English origin
New Hempstead’s name arrived in stages. Settlers from Hempstead on Long Island brought their former community’s name to Rockland County, adding “New” to distinguish their settlement. The earlier overseas connection is less certain: Hempstead’s official histories suggest the name recalls Hemel Hempstead in England. New Hempstead belongs here with that qualification—a name documented as having been carried from Long Island, with a possible English origin further back in its journey.
Sources: History of Rockland County: New Hempstead · Town of Hempstead: History
Orangeburg
Overseas connection: The House of Orange, through the regional Orange name
Indirect connection; precise naming history uncertain
The Orange name appears again in Orangeburg. An account from the Historical Society of Rockland County links the hamlet’s name to the regional name, also preserved in Orangetown and Orange County. The county’s official history traces its name to William of Orange, later King William III of England. Orangeburg’s connection is therefore indirect, and its precise naming history remains uncertain. Still, it preserves another echo of a royal name that left its mark on the Hudson Valley.
Sources: Historical Society of Rockland County: Regional Naming History · Orange County: About Orange County
A different way to read the road signs
The next time you come across one of these names, it may be worth pausing to consider its connection. New Paltz recalls a refuge. New Scotland recalls a homeland. Troy evokes an ancient city through literature. Milan leaves us with a question.
You don’t have to leave the valley to start following these stories. Sometimes the first clue is the name of a place just down the road.
