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Trivia – Where does Westchester County get its name from?

By Debbie Gartner

Home Builder with The Flooring Girl

March 20, 2012 12:57 AM

I’ve lived in Westchester County NY most of my life, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that I finally learned the origin of the name of Westchester.

It always annoyed me that there was Eastchester, a town in Westchester, and it didn’t seem that they were related…and Eastchester is not on the eastern part of Westchester and it just didn’t seem like this had anything to do with the origin.

Well thanks to an issue of Westchester Magazine (Dec 2011), I finally found my answer. Westchester comes from the English town of Chester which is “West” of many English towns in the same way that we are “west” of many New England towns. And, of course, we are west of Chester.

So, now I have that mystery solved. Not sure about Eastchester though, so I have a bit more research to do on that new mystery. Eastchester was established earlier (1643) and the county of Westchester (which contains Eastchester) in 1683.

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Where does Westchester County get its name?

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Kathleen Daniels, Probate & Trust Specialist

KD Realty - 408.972.1822 - San Jose, CA

Probate Real Estate Services

Debbie, Inquiring minds want to know! It seems everything does have an origin. Eastchester remains a mystery for now.

Mar 20, 2012 01:57 AM

Debbie Gartner

The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY

The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

Kathleen - Yes, it cerainly does. Since our area has been established for a while, there are a lot of oddities when it comes to town lines.

Mar 20, 2012 03:23 AM

Gene Mundt, IL/WI Mortgage Originator - FHA/VA/Conv/Jumbo/Portfolio/Refi

NMLS #216987, IL Lic. 031.0006220, WI Licensed. APMC NMLS #175656 - New Lenox, IL

708.921.6331 - 40+ yrs experience

What an amazing portion of the country to live in, Debbie. You're surrounded by American History and lore ...

Gene

Mar 20, 2012 04:32 AM

Kat Palmiotti

eXp Commercial, Referral Divison - Kalispell, MT

Helping your Montana dreams take root

The Eastchester mystery probably has nothing to do with the Westchester one.

I was just in Albuquerque NM this past weekend, where all the streets end in NW, SW, NE, SE. We were picking a restaurant for dinner, and I couldn't understand why one restaurant, which was north of the second one, said SE, while the restaurant that was south said NE. How could the north restaurant be south and the south restaurant north? I was sooo confused. It winds up the northern restaurant was actually part of a different town and they had their own numbering scheme.

Soooo, Eastchester's name probably has nothing to do with Westchester!

Mar 20, 2012 06:46 AM

Gene - Yes, it is really cool. A lot of history here. I need to spend some more time exploring.

Kat -LOL, that is so funny. Oh, and as you know, here we have the same street that in some towns will change name even though it's the same street and in other towns keep the same name and change the #'s. Oh and yes, the 2 names are NOT related. But, I still don't know the origin of Eastchester except for some story about Anne Hutchinson...but that has nothing to do w/ the name.

Mar 20, 2012 07:58 AM

Chris Smith

Re/Max Chay Realty Inc., Brokerage - New Tecumseth, ON

South Simcoe, Caledon, King, Orangeville Real Esta

Debbie, many Ontario towns owe their origin to places in England and Holland and Germany... as well as other cities around the world British soldiers might have served in.

Mar 20, 2012 08:38 AM

Janis Borgueta

Newburgh, NY

Retired RE Salesperson

Debbie ~ I so know how all of this can be confusing with names and places. I will certainly let my husband know about he Westchester.. as he loves the word origins. He is always coming up with something like that.

Mar 20, 2012 10:27 AM

Chris - Yes, I have really noticed that about places in Ontario.

Janis - Cool, so glad you have some new info to provide.

Mar 20, 2012 10:41 AM

Ed Silva, 203-206-0754

Mapleridge Realty, CT 203-206-0754 - Waterbury, CT

Central CT Real Estate Broker Serving all equally

Debbie, That's how the Havens got their names as well. It started with New Haven and then got broken off into West, East and North, if it were South it would have been on Long Island

Mar 20, 2012 11:26 AM

Ed - Cool. And, don't forget Brookhaven!

Mar 20, 2012 11:37 AM

Kathy Streib

Cypress, TX

Home Stager/Redesign

Debbie- I love learning the origin of names and things! Let us know what you find out about Eastchester.

Mar 20, 2012 11:52 AM

Kathy - Thx, yes me, too. We'll see...not sure if I can find, but I shall try. I lookd earlier, and didn't have good luck.

Mar 20, 2012 12:07 PM

Patricia Kennedy

RLAH@properties - Washington, DC

Home in the Capital

Debbie, I always wondered about where Westchester got its name. We learn something new every day on this place!

Mar 21, 2012 12:07 PM

Pat - Yes, we do! I had been wondering for a long time, too.

Mar 21, 2012 12:41 PM

Anonymous

Dennis During

When was the name Westchester first used? What did the Dutch call Westchester?

Sep 12, 2012 11:52 PM

#15

Dennis - Actually I wrote a blog post on similar topic - Where does Westchester County get its name from? You can also learn more about Westchester County on wikipedia here

Sep 13, 2012 12:19 AM

Trivia – Where does Westchester County get its name from?

Where does Westchester County get its name?

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