I plucked this from a local History list (H-LOCAL):

>> I've had an inquiry about the origin of the name of Buffalo, New
>> York. George Stewart asserts that the name comes from Buffalo Creek,
>> which in turn came from an Indian named Buffalo. Kelsie Harder offers
>> three possibilities: (1) old bones, possibly elk, moose, or wild cattle;
>> (2) a derivation from French beau fleuve 'beautiful river'; or (3), as
>> in Stewart, from an Indian by that name. Harder also says that there
>> were never any buffalo (i.e., bison) in that area, a statement I doubt.
>> Is there any new evidence to support any of these theories or some

One person responded that it was because there were buffalo in the region
(citing hunter's accounts of bison in PA, Tenn., & Georgia.)

French's 1860 _Gazetteer of New York State_ notes that nearby Scajaquady
Creek was named for an Indian - perhaps a source of the confusion in the
initial question?  A cursory check of Barber & Howe's 1841 _ Historical
Collections of the State of New York_ provides no answer.

I also found a reference to buffalo being found on the south shore (but not
the north shore) of Lake Erie in 1718 (Memoir on the Indians Between Lake
Erie and the Missippi, in _New York Colonial Documents_, IX:885) (I knew it
would someday be worth what I paid for the set!)

Where there really bison/buffalo there and is that how the place got its name?


Dan W.