[Naversing] is entered on Pownal's map between Rosendale and Fountain creeks, in the old town of Rochester. The map location may not be correct. The name is from Newás-ing, (Del.), "At a point or promontory." The familiar form is Neversink.
[Mattachonts,] a modern orthography, preserves the name of a place in the town of Rochester, Ulster County, and not that of an Indian maiden as locally stated. The boundary description refers to a creek and to a swamp. The record orthographies are Magtigkenighonk and Maghkenighonk, in Calendar of Land Papers, and "Mattekah-onk Kill," local.
[Amangag-arickan,] given as the name of an Indian family in western Ulster (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 505), is probably from Amangak, "Large," with the related meaning of terrible, and Anakakan, "Rushes," or sharp rushes. Amangak is from Amangi, "Big, large, powerful, dire," etc., and -ak, animate plural.
[Ochmoachk-ing,] an unlocated place, is described as "Above the village called Mombackus, extending from the north bound of the land of Anna Beake southerly on both sides of the creek or river to a certain place called Ochmoachking." (Patent to Staats, 1688.)
[Shokan,] the name of a village on Esopus Creek, in the town of Olive, has been interpreted as a pronunciation of Schokkan (Dutch), "To jolt, to shake," etc., by metonymie, "A rough country." The district is mountainous and a considerable portion of it is too rough for successful cultivation, but no Hollander ever used the word Schokken to describe rough land. At or near the village bearing the name a small creek flows from the west to the Esopus, indicating that Shokan is a corruption of Sohkan, "Outlet or mouth of a stream." Sohk is an eastern form and an is an indefinite or diminutive formative. Heckewelder wrote in the Delaware, Saucon, "The outlet of a small stream into a larger one." Ashokan is a pronunciation. The same name is met at the mouth of the East or Paghatagan Branch of the Delaware. Shokan Point is an elevation rising 3100 feet.
[Koxing Kil,] a stream so called in Rosendale, is of record Cocksing and Cucksink—"A piece of land; it lyeth almost behind Marbletown." It is not the name of the stream but of a place that was at or near some other place; probably from Koghksuhksing, "Near a high place." (See Coxackie.) On map of U. S. Geological Survey the name is given to the outlet of Minnewaska Lake, which lies in a basin of hills on Shawongunk Mountain, 1650 feet above sea level.
[Shandaken,] the name of a town in Ulster County, is not from any word meaning "Rapid water," as has been suggested, but is probably from Schindak, "Hemlock woods"—Schindak-ing, "At the hemlock woods," or place of hemlocks. The region has been noted for hemlocks from early times.
[Mombackus,] accepted as the name of a place in the present town of Rochester, Ulster County, is first met in 1676, in application to three grants of land described as "At ye Esopus at ye Mumbackers, lying at ye Round Doubt River." In a grant to Tjerck Classen de Witt, in 1685, the orthography is Mombackhouse—"Lying upon both sides of the Mumbackehous Kill or brook." The stream is now known as Rochester Creek flowing from a small lake in the town of Olive. The late John W. Hasbrouck wrote, "Mombakkus is a Dutch term, literally meaning 'Silent head,' from Mom, 'silent,' and Bak or Bakkus, 'head.' It originated from the figure of a man's face cut in a sycamore tree which stood near the confluence of the Mombakkus and Rondout kills on the patent to Tjerck Classen de Witt, and was carved, tradition says, to commemorate a battle fought near the spot," that "for this information" he was "indebted to the late Dr. Westbrook, who said the stump of the tree yet stood in his youthful days." Although the evidence of the existence of a tree marked as described is not entirely positive, the fact that trees similarly marked were frequently met by Europeans in the ancient forests gives to its existence reasonable probability. In his treatment of the name Mr. Hasbrouck made several mistakes. "Place of death" is not in the word, and Dutch Mom or Mum does not mean "Silent"; it means "Mask," or covering, and Bak or Bakkes, does not mean "head," it is a cant term for "Face, chops, visage." Mombakkes is plainly a vulgar Dutch word for "Mask." It describes a grotesque face as seen on a Mascaron in architecture, or a rude painting. Usually trees marked in the manner described included other figures commemorative of the deeds of a warrior designed to be honored. Sometimes the paintings were drawn by a member of the clan or family to which the subject belonged, and sometimes by the hero himself, who was flattered by the expectation that his memory would thereby be preserved, or his importance or prowess impressed upon his associates, or on those of other clans, and perhaps handed down to later generations.
[Wieskottine,] located on Van der Donck's map (1656), north of Esopus Creek and apparently in the territory of the Catskill Indians, is a Dutch notation of Wishquot-attiny, meaning, literally, "Walnut Hill." A hill and trees are figured on the map. The dialect of the Catskill Indians was Mahican or Mohegan. It seems to have influenced very considerably the adjoining Lenape dialect. On a map of 1666, the orthography is Wichkotteine, and the location placed more immediately north of the stream. The settlement represented can be no other than that of the ancient Wildwijk, now Kingston. The name has disappeared of record, as has also Namink on the Groot Esopus.
[Catskill,] now so written, primarily Dutch Kat's Kil, presumably from Káterákts, or "Kil of the Katarakts," has come down from a very early date in Katskil. On Van der Donck's map of 1656 it is written Kats Kill, but he never wrote Kil with two l's. Older than Van der Donck's map it evidently was from the frequent reference to the "Kats Kil Indians" in Fort Orange records. Its origin is, of course, uncertain. Reasonably and presumably it was a colloquial form of Katerakts Kil—reasonably, because the falls on that stream would have naturally attracted the attention of the early Dutch navigators, as they have attracted the attention of many thousands of modern travelers. It was the absence of an authoritative explanation that led Judge Benson to inflict upon the innocent streams which now bear them the distinguishing names of Kat's and Kauter's, and to relate that as catamounts were probably very abundant in the mountains there and were naturally of the male and female species, the former called by the Dutch Kauter, or "He cat," and the latter Kat, "She cat," the streams were called by those names. His hypothesis is absurd, but is firmly believed by most of modern residents, who do not hesitate to write Kauter, "He cat," on their cards and on their steamboats, although it is no older than Judge Benson's application. He might have found a better basis for his conjecture in the fact that in 1650, on the north side of the Kat's Kil reigned in royal majesty, Nipapoa, a squaw sachem, while on the other side Machak-nimano, "The great man of his people," held sway; that, as they painted on their cabins a rude figure of a wolf, their totemic emblem, easily mistaken for a catamount, the name of "He cat" was given to one stream, and "She cat" to the other.