Names of New York

Discovering the City's Past, Present, and Future Through Its Place-Names

By: Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

Narrated by: Joshua Jelly-Schapiro

"A casually wondrous experience; it made me feel like the city was unfolding beneath my feet.” (Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror)

In place-names lie stories.

That’s the truth that animates this fascinating journey through the names of New York City’s streets and parks, boroughs and bridges, playgrounds and neighborhoods.

Exploring the power of naming to shape experience and our sense of place, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro traces the ways in which native Lenape, Dutch settlers, British invaders, and successive waves of immigrants have left their marks on the city’s map. He excavates the roots of many names, from Brooklyn to Harlem, that have gained iconic meaning worldwide. He interviews the last living speakers of Lenape, visits the harbor’s forgotten islands, lingers on street corners named for ballplayers and saints, and meets linguists who study the estimated 800 languages now spoken in New York.

As recent arrivals continue to find new ways to make New York’s neighborhoods their own, the names that stick to the city’s streets function not only as portals to explore the past but also as a means to reimagine what is possible now.

©2021 Joshua Jelly-Schapiro (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Fascinating . . . A smorgasbord of New York City lore . . . Lovers of the Big Apple will delight in this unique and informative history.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Jelly-Schapiro’s sprightly prose and ear for New Yorkers’ stories shows, if nothing else, that place-names are less permanent than the ground they identify, and changing them helps forget a past or shape a future.” (Booklist)

“Reading Names of New York is a casually wondrous experience; it made me feel like the city was unfolding beneath my feet. This treasure of a book is surprising, delightful, and often quietly heartbreaking; it doesn’t just satisfy curiosity, but creates and renews it, illuminating the palimpsest of human conflict and devotion that lies just under the everyday landscape of New York.” (Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror)

Disappointing

Narrator has a soft voice that is hard to hear and trails off leaving you rewinding frequently. An ideological agenda Dom I notes what could have been an interesting topic.