The first water that Hudson named is Gravesend Bay. The Dutch hired Block to retrace Hudson's travel up river so, perhaps Block named it. I doubt that the Dutch would have done that! Nancy On Apr 12, 2007, at 10:14 AM, Robert Spiegelman wrote: It would be grealy appreciated if David Allen could add more detail to the statement that "The English started calling it the Hudson River at a fairly early date as a way of asserting their claims to the area." Is there any source or dates you can point to on this. Was Hudson their man, or a Dutch operative, or England's appropriation of a Dutch operative's name? Any light you can shed here is welcome. Thank you. Robert Spiegelman NYC One advantage of this phrase is that it allows lazy writers to duck the more difficult question of how these eponymous places got their names. Hudson almost certainly did not name the river after himself. The Dutch used the equivalents of "North River," "River of Orange," or "Great River of New Netherland." The English started calling it the Hudson River at a fairly early date as a way of asserting their claims to the area. It is not known for certain whether Champlain or Block named the geographic features that now bear their names. As I recall, Lake Champlain appears on Champlain's 1632 map of New France, which makes it possible that he named the lake after himself, but he was a modest man, and perhaps he was just going along with somebody else's suggestion. The case of Adriaen Block is also a bit problematic. "Adrian Blox eyland" appears on the 1614 "Adriaen Block Chart," which is a copy of a chart by Cornelis Doetsz that Block apparently modified. It is certainly possible that Block named the island after himself, but the name could have been added by the person who copied the map. Incidentally, Long Island appears on the Block chart as "Matowacks." The Dutch did not start calling Long Island "t'Lange Eylandt" until later. David Allen Encinitas, CA ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. Helveticahttp://www.eyeonthehamptons.net