[Ketchepunak,] quoted as the name of Westhampton, describes "The greatest ground-nut place," or "The greatest ground-nuts." (See Kestaubniuk.)
[Wequaganuck] is given as the name of that part of Sag-harbor within the town of East Hampton. It is an equivalent of Wequai-adn-auke, "Place at the end of the hill," or "extending to the hill." (Trumbull.) The hill is now known as Turkey Hill, on the north side of which the settlement of Sag-harbor was commenced.
[Namke,] from Namaa, "fish," and ke, "place"—fish-place—was the name of a place on the creek near Riverhead. (O'Gallaghan.) More exactly, Nameauke, probably.
[Hoppogues,] in Smithtown, Suffolk County, is pretty certainly from Wingau-hoppague, meaning, literally, "Standing water of good and pleasant taste." The name was that of a spring and pond. In a deed of 1703, the explanation is, "Or ye pleasant springs." Supposed to have been the springs which make the headwaters of Nissequogue river at the locality now bearing the name of Hauppauge, a hamlet.
[Massapeage]—Massapeag, 1636; Massapeague, Rassapeage—a place-name from which extended to an Indian clan whose principal seat is said to have been on Fort Neck, in the town of Oyster Bay, was translated by Dr. Trumbull from Massa, "great"; pe, the radical of water, and auke, "land," or "Land on the great cove." Thompson (Hist. L. I.) assigns the name to "a swamp on the south side of Oyster Bay," now South Oyster Bay, and it is so applied in Indian deeds. There were two Indian forts or palisaded towns on the Neck. Of one the name is not given; it was the smallest of the two; its site is said to be now submerged by water. The second, or largest, is called in Dutch records Matsepe, "Great river." It is described as having been situated on the most southerly point of land adjoining the salt meadows. Both forts were attacked by Dutch forces under Capt. Pieter Cock and Capt. John Underhill, in the summer of 1644 (a local record says August) and totally destroyed with heavy loss to the Indians. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv, 15, 16.) In Prime's and other local histories the date is given as 1653, on the authority of "Hubbard's Indian Wars," and Capt. Underhill is assigned to the command in the attack on the largest fort. The official Dutch record, however, assigns that honor to Capt. Pieter Cock. The year was surely 1644, (Brodhead's Hist. N. Y., i, 91.) The prefix Mass, appears in many forms—Massa, Marsa, Marsha, Rassa, Mesa, Missi, Mas, Mes, etc., and also Mat, an equivalent of Mas.
[Massepe,] quoted in Dutch records as the name of the Indian fort on Fort Neck, where it seems to have been the name of Stony Brook, is also met in Jamaica Records (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 505) as the name of a creek forming a mowing boundary or division line extending from a certain place "Eastward to ye great creek called Massepe." The name is fully explained by the description, "Great creek." Massepe-auke means "Great creek (or river) land," or place; Mas-sepe-ink, "At or on the great creek." The Indian residents came to be known as the Marsepincks.
[Maskutchoung,] a neck of land so called forming one of the boundaries of Hempstead Patent as entered in confirmatory deed of "Takapousha, sachem of Marsapeage," and "Wantagh, the Montauke sachem," July 4th, 1657: "Beginning at a marked tree standing at the east side of the Great Plain, and from thence running on a due south line, and at the South Sea by a marked tree in a neck called Maskutchoimg, and thence upon the same line to the South Sea." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiv, 38, 416.) "By a marked tree in a neck called Maskachoung." (Thompson's Hist. L. I., 9, 15, 47.) It is probably an equivalent of Mask-ek-oug, "A grassy swamp or marsh." A local interpretation reads: "Grass-drowned brook," a small stream flowing through the long marsh-grass, to which the name was extended.
[Maskahnong,] so written by Dr. O'Callaghan in his translation of the treaty between the Western Long Island clans, in 1656, is noted in "North and South Hempstead Records," p. 60, "A neck of land called Maskahnong." It disappears after 1656, but probably reappears as Maskachoung in 1658, and later as Maskutchoung, which see.
[Merick,] the name of a village in Hempstead, Queens County, is said to have been the site of an Indian village called Merick-oke. It has been interpreted as an apheresis of a form of Namanock, written Namerick, "Fish place." (See Moriches.) Curiously enough, Merrick was a proper name for man among the ancient Britons, and the corruption would seem to have been introduced here by the early English settlers from resemblance to the Indian name in sound. The place is on the south side of the island. The Indian clan was known as the Merickokes.
[Quantuck,] a bay so called in Southampton, is of record, in 1659, Quaquanantuck, and applied to a meadow or neck of land. "The meadow called Quaquunantuck"—"the neck of land called Quaquanantuck"—"all the meadows lying west of the river, commonly called or known by the name of Quantuck." One of the boundmarks is described as "a stumpy marsh," indicating that it had been a marsh from which the trees had been removed. The name seems to correspond with this. It is probably from Pohqu'un-antack, "cleared or open marsh" or meadow. (See Montauk.)