New York's Out Of Place Caribbean Name
Vložit
- čas přidán 26. 09. 2023
- HELP SUPPORT NAME EXPLAIN ON PATREON: / nameexplain
TIKTOK: / nameexplain
INSTAGRAM: / nameexplainyt
FACEBOOK: / 248812236869988
TWITTER: / nameexplainyt
BOOK: bit.ly/originofnames
MERCH: teespring.com/stores/name-exp...
Thank you to all my Patrons for supporting the channel!
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Jamaica NYC: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica...
Queen’s: ny.curbed.com/2015/10/20/9912...
What Is Jamaica Named After?: www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/ny...
History Of Jamaica Queens: www.go2ccj.org/visit-jamaica/...
Jamaica On Trip Advisor: www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attract...
Animals Of Jamaica: study.com/academy/lesson/anim...
Coney Island Name Origin: www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe...
Jamaica On Etymonline: www.etymonline.com/word/Jamai...
Jamaica Reddit Thread: / til_that_jamaica_in_ny...
Anyone watching from Jamaica? Either the NYC neighbourhood or the island?
The neighborhood, its funny because we're ethically Jamaican and live in Jamaica.
I am watching this while waiting for the train in Jamaica right now!
I'm watching from the actual country
I worked in Jamaica Plain in Boston.
Watching from Jamaica the island
NYers hearing that Jamaica is a ‘nice quiet little neighborhood’: 😂😂😂
It’s absurd that he said that. I’ve been there; parking is scarce and noise is abundant.
Its not that bad it's just a major transit hub for eastern Queens/Eastern Long Island
A lot of it is. I lived there, there's plenty of quiet suburban blocks. Not all of it is a ghetto like South Jamaica.
I live on the outskirts it's quiet for like the morning, but sometimes I can prop up at my window with a bag of chips to watch an argument
@@kitsuneg.d.xlol
I grew up and still live in New York, and I have Jamaican roots. Growing up I thought it was called Jamaica because a lot of Jamaican ppl live there. I was wrong 😅
F'qyeah Wayne you had a good time with that though, I hope
@@dsxa918 ... Perhaps a lot of Jamaicans & other Caribbean people live there because they were originally attracted to its name.
@@helloxonsfan Nope, actually the African Americans move there as the whites were moving out to LI. So the caribbean folks from Brooklyn followed and Jamaica, Queens became a black majority neighborhood.
I see more Guyanese people than Jamaicans in Queens for sum reason 😅
You are NOT wrong. How you a New Yorker and a British dude corrects what you knew all this time. Streets were named and changed throughout the years in NY and whether or not the name meant "resting place" in another language ...it ABSOLOUTELY is connected NOW to (and for decades on decades) the culture and people. Thats why there were grants and incentives for Jamaican businesses in Jamaica Queens. You smell the beef patties off the train lol. Like little Italy, China Town and so on. NY knows what and who to expect when there
Xaymaca / Jamaica from the Arawak/Taino Tribe language means "The Land of wood and water" I am from Trinidad and Tobago and We were taught this in Caribbean history class.
That is correct. Most enslaved Africans taken to America passed through Jamaica which had the richest port in western world in that time. Tainos are also the natives of the Caribbean, Arawaks came from Central and south America were of different tribe, they came later after the Tainos to the Caribbean
Wow as someone with taino ancestry i never knew this.
@Joseph-rt6kb Yes, Jamaicans of Taino descent are now reconnecting with Taino culture. They are connecting with Tainos from other countries, especially Puerto Rico. Jamaica has several places named by Tainos. Interesting fact: Former British athlete and medalist Colin Jackson, whose parents are both Jamaican, is Taino and has a very Taino face shape but of course has black skin. Many Tainos and Africans escaped slavery together in Jamaica and formed communities together.
As someone who was out of school two years ago this was not thought 🇹🇹😅
Agreed 💜
I’m from Jamaica Queens and my family is from Jamaica the Caribbean. I love that you are doing this lol
Is there a large Jamaican community in Jamaica Queens?
@@highway2heaven91 yea there is lol. A lot of Jamaicans and Dominicans and other Caribbeans
@@FlyGuyLaFlare That’s ironic. We’re they drawn to the community because of the name?
@@highway2heaven91 i don’t even know lol
@@FlyGuyLaFlareJamaica Queens!! Very interesting
There’s a joke that you know a real Long Islander when you instantly recognize the phrase and groan slightly at the implications of “Change At Jamaica”
For real. Loool 😂
ahahahahaha. I grew up on Long Island (Oyster Bay line) and I felt this in my bones! …. My other Jamaica connection is that my dad taught at CUNY York College, which is right across the street from the station.
Lol. Same here (Merrick/Bellmore resident)
Look, while the exact reaction may vary, any 'true' long islander recognizes the phrase 'Change at Jamaica', my reaction is its just a stock phrase. "Get on the train, Change at Jamaica, then head into the city"
When i was little i thought the E train actually took you the country of Jamaica! When i finally went to Jamaica, Queens, I was highly disappointed 😂🤦🏽♀️
Lmao 😂
I’m Jamaican, born and raised in South Jamaica, Queens to a Jamaican (Manchester) father. I went to Jamaica High School and our mascot was the Beaver. This video corroborates what I learned growing up about both Jamaicas’ names. Sometimes, when I am overseas and Americans are not thought highly of, I tell people I’m Jamaican and my nose doesn’t grow.
Is it still rough out there? I went there many moons ago as a teenager (I’m from the UK) and it had lots of stores but was a bit edgy. Later found out that 50 Cent was from there! Weirdly it reminded me of some neighbourhoods in London.
@@andrewharding4806No, it's a lot mellower now, but you still don't want to be out late at night. It's nowhere near as bad as the Supreme Team days though, and there are alot of middle class families, especially around Baisley. I'm also from there and went to "Jack" (50 cent's high school) lol
@@beanpasteposts Ah okay, thanks!
Not the Jamaica Beavers lol I went to Jamaica High 2005
@@teufelhunden510nope they don’t idk how he’s Jamaican but born in America
There’s a neighborhood in Boston named Jamaica Plain. I wonder if has the same etymology?
I always wondered about that too..My father still lives there.
I'm from Jamaica Queens and my parents, coincidentally, are from Jamaica WI. So I looked into this very question a long time ago. From what I found, Jamaica was a reference to a specific clan designation for people living around Jamaica Bay. Despite rumors of their extinction the Lenape people are still very much alive with populations in New York, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Canada. You can probably confirm this with one of them. Another detail that my (admittedly sketchy) knowledge conflicts with is that the name Delaware comes from a former governor of the Virginia colony with the name being later applied the the Lenape speaking peoples in his area.
Yup, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr -- a major investor in the early Virginia colony. The English named Delaware Bay after him -- and named the nearby Lenape people after the bay.
Yes, the name Delaware does come from De La Warr, or _"Of The War"_
@@helloxonsfan"De la warr" doesn't meant "of the war", it means "of the warrior". The French word for war is "Guerre".
It's not a coincidence. Many Jamaican immigrants moved to Jamaica, Queens during the Jamaican diaspora, following Jamaica, WI gaining independence in the 1960s.
@@beanpastepostsyou did not watch the video, did you?
50 cent is from South Jamaica Queens. Others from the greater Jamaica area are The Lost Boyz, LL Cool J, Nicki Minaj, Run DMC, Ja Rule, Tribe Called Quest… among many other musicians & rappers. Babe Ruth lived in Jamaica Estates.
Donald Trump was also born and raised in Jamaica Queens
Good to see that these artists are carrying on the baton for The Toys of the 1960s.
@@MrSomervillen unfortunately. I like to wish he was never born
Yep! Jamaica Queens has played an important part in popular music.
Don't forget Onyx, of "Slam! Dunn dunn nunn" fame 😂
Jamaica is essentially the city center of southeastern Queens. NYC is so big there’s multiple central business district. Queens alone has Long Island City, Downtown Flushing and Jamaica. Before queens was a part of the city, Jamaica was the county seat going back to colonial times.
These three were towns, subdivisions of Queens County, before the unification into NYC.
@@robertewalt7789 yes, actually five towns; Flushing, Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown (modern day Elmhurst/Corona), and Oyster Bay.
Now Far Rockaway is also developing a little bit of a CBD along Mott Avenue.
@@duckmercy11 yeah queens has a bunch of smaller CBDs all throughout the borough. Some even have more people living there than places like Jamaica and Flushing.
Like you said there’s Mott Ave in Far Rockaway, there’s also places like Jackson Heights/Elmhurst around Roosevelt Ave and Broadway, Myrtle Ave in Ridgewood, Queens Blvd in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens stretching from
Jewel Ave down to Queens Borough Hall, and probably a few others that I’m forgetting.
My wife is from here. Been up there a lot, from Philly. Most of the population is Caribbean/West Indian, ironically. My wife is Haitian & afro-Panamanian. Jamaicans everywhere, too!
I lived there! Jamaica Queens will always be in my heart ❤️
Also you have to try Dani’s Pizza, it is absolutely out of this world
@@yurtnurtgarrIs it better than Margarita Pizza?
The Island of Jamaica is the most recognized Island in the world with best resources rivers beaches fresh clean tasting water and healthy natural grown foods fruits and foods seriously no doubt about that..
Very true... 👍🏽 👍🏽 👍🏽
Manhattan is the most Recognizable Island in the world I would think. . Japan is a chain of Islands too. I think they vastly out number Jamaicans. But idk.
@sourbythehour4204 I think he meant island nation but Japan might be just as known 😏 😉 🤔 😜
@@natty.roots.423only Jamaicans don't emulate Japanese culture n music like how they do with reggae n dancehall.
@@lajikn9ne945preach 👏
I so glad you enjoyed the pizza and bagels. We New Yorkers are rightfully proud of them.
Interesting! Similar to how Miami, FL has a different etymology than the Miami Valley in Ohio
you missed the glorious opportunity to talk about 2 other caribbean names in new york! Nassau County shares the name with the capital of The Bahamas and Long Island, New York shares a name with one of the major islands of The Bahamas as well!
I seem to keep hearing announcers in the NYC subway say "Transfer to the Wrong Island Railroad" instead of "Transfer to the Long Island Railroad." 😂
There's also a place call st Vincent also St Vincent hospital and there's a st Vincent in the Caribbean.
Trivial aside about Chicago's name: The natives in the area didn't eat garlic or onion, and thought of them both mainly as smelly plants. The white settlers who came after the natives had named the place did eat both plants, and could tell the difference between the 2. The white settlers found no garlic - but much wild onion in the Chicago area.
From the NCAA College Baseball game, Jamaica shows up in it whenever St. John's Red Storm is hosting a regional in the tournament. Jamaica is also the Spanish word for Hibiscus as in the drink Agua de Jamaica.
*Great vid! A few years ago I looked up why those two different locations share the exact same name. I was stunned to find out it was a complete & total coincidence. This has got to be one of the greatest naming coincidences of all time!* 👍🏽
I once visited a Mexican supermarket, where a lot of the food had labels in Spanish. One of them was a hibiscus-flavored candy (I think), which was called "Jamaica" on the package.
Yup, the candy is probably flavored to resemble the Mexican drink, "Aqua de Jamaica" which is a sugary hibiscus tea with lemon and ginger. It's called Aqua de Jamaica because the recipe comes from Jamaica (the island) were they call it Sorrel, which is what they call hibiscus over there. And the recipe used in Jamaica comes from west Africa were it is called Zobo, Sobolo, or Bissap depending on which country you are in. There's some theorizing that it is the actual original "Red Drank" popular in African American communities, or that Red Drank was an attempt to replicate the taste in soft drink form.
@@tomasmondragon883 ... Much thanks for this info.
... I love Sorrel, & it was great to see this wealth of information about one of my favorite drinks.
@@helloxonsfan yeah, same with Agua de Jamaica for me. I found it out while looking up recipes for it and honestly, I think I like the west African versions a bit more, they're a bit spicier 😋
Just putting it out there, the Spanish pronunciation of Jamaica is “Aye-Mai-ka”
@@eatsh1t closer to "haye-mai-ca"; the j makes an h sound in Mexican Spanish, or maybe more accurately a sound like a Greek χ. That is why sometimes in Mexico/Mejico you might see j and x swapped in and out of certain place names for no reason.
How does the name "Jamaica Plain" in Boston relate to these two?
I visited NYC in 2016, but only for 48hrs. Definitely not enough time to visit everything I wanted to visit. I did get to visit the Empire State Building, a Star Trek exhibit (which apparently was only a limited engagement), and eat steak at Delmonico's. I got to see a few other things, but not up close.
Just flew home from JFK and was wondering about that… thanks for giving me the answer haha
Other places outside of Jamaica, that use Jamaica in there name:
In the United States
Jamaica, is an unincorporated community in Glynn County, Georgia
Jamaica, is an unincorporated community in Jamaica Township, Vermilion County, Illinois. Illinois
Jamaica, is a city in Guthrie County, Iowa
Jamaica, Vermont, a New England town
Jamaica (CDP), Vermont, the central village in the town
Jamaica, is an unincorporated community in Middlesex County, Virginia
Jamaica Beach, is a city in Galveston County, Texas
Jamaica Plain, is a neighborhood of 4.4 square miles (11 km2) in Boston, Massachusetts
In Cuba
Jamaica, is a municipality and town in the Guantánamo Province of Cuba
Jamaica, is a town and consejo popular ("popular council") in San José de las Lajas, Mayabeque Province, Cuba
Ships
HMS Jamaica (C44), a cruiser of the Royal Navy
SS Jamaica, a United Fruit Company turbo-electric liner that was commissioned into the US Navy as USS Ariel (AF-22)
USS Jamaica (CVE-43), an escort carrier of the US Navy
In Mexico
Mercado Jamaica, Mexico City (Jamaica Market)
Other
Jamaica coalition (politics) (German: Jamaika-Koalition; also known as the Jamaica alliance, Jamaica traffic light, black traffic light or Schwampel) is a term in German politics describing a governing coalition among the parties of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), Free Democratic Party (FDP), and the Green Party.
The term comes from the fact that the symbolic colors of the parties in such a coalition-black for the conservative CDU/CSU, yellow for the liberal FDP, and green for the Green Party-are also the colors of the flag of Jamaica.
Jamaica (drink), a hibiscus tea drink popular in Mexico
Wow! Much thanks for this info. It's great to see that there are so many places & things that have the name. 👍🏽
Jamaica was named by the native people of the island so i can bet they are all related to the island of Jamaica, especially agua de Jamaica in Mexico
Thanks for the copy and paste 😂
As well, there is a drink in mexico made from the hibiscus plant and it is called Jamaica (ha-mike-a).
The subway station in Astor Place, Manhattan has mosiac art of beavers on the wall.
I am from Chicago, and was taught the name meant "wild onion" due to the smell that permeates the air during evening cooking. I also know the French were looking for beavers after a while, I believe they were originally looking for easy access to fish, so when they got to Chicago they loved how it has rivers & the lake which meant food for them. And the wild onions was supposedly a huge part of the allure. After you mentioned the garlic I thought it couldn't be true but sure enough that's what every source online says now. I had never heard that it was a miscommunication between the tribes and the explorers but it does make a ton of sense now that I am framing it that way. You have quite literally just changed my life! I'm going to be the most annoying person at the dinner party from now on "well, actually, stinky onion was referring to GARLIC, not a field of wild onion, who told you it was actually onions??"
It's just a coincidence? Jamaican me crazy!
I’m only a minute in and I already know this will be a great video!
Isn’t there a Nassau on Long Island too?
Yes, there is. That’s my county. We got a Caribbean “connection”as well, to the Bahamas.
This is more than just a funny video. I am from Jamaica Queens, and both my parents are from Jamaica. It’s actually a very common thing, but you have shed light on the name’s origin, and I’m very happy for that. I thank you!!! 🙏🏿
As far as South Jamaica though, It’s on the south side of the LIRR, and I’d be very careful with that section of town. Jamaica Estates is rich, and Jamaica itself is A big shopping center supported mainly by the lower sections of Queens.
Rusdorf doesn't sound Dutch, it sounds more German: "Dorf" is German for "village" (the Dutc equivalent is "dorp").
Source: I am a Dutch person who also knows German.
There were Germans in New Netherland. There were everything in New Netherland. Also, almost every Dutch name of the era has been mangled. Gravesend came not from the English city, but the Dutch home of the colony's director, 'sGravenage, or in English the Hague
Actually it was called Rustdorp.
@@JesseKuiper, that makes a lot more sense
Delaware doesn't come from the tribe, the name comes from a British Colonizer, Lord De La Warr. The tribe somehow got that name, because they lived in the place he colonized. The Lenape reached from DE, through NJ, past NYC and possibly as far as CT and MD.
Also, beavers love wood and water....
Yup, Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr. He was a major investor in the early Virginia colony, and the English named Delaware Bay after him -- and named the tribe after the bay.
The Lenape, or Delaware, were also in NJ and Rockland and Orange Counties in NY. A subgroup of the Lenape were the Tappan, giving their name to the Tappan Zee, the widest part of the Hudson River.
Yep that beavers love water analogy popped up in my head as well 😂
Both names describe the resources available in that place.
Freaky. I suggested this yesterday, unaware that you were already working on it. Or even that you were on ur side of the Pond.
Now do the two Galicias, and the two Miamis!
Boston too has an area named Jamaica Plain
Thanks for this explanation of this remarkable coincidence of names that is....well....just a coincidence, as it transpires. It came back to me that I'd seen the name before in the context of the 1960s Girl Group scene, but I'd forgotten which girl group that was, so I looked into that and was reminded that it was The Toys, who came from the Jamaica that wasn't the island in the Caribbean and who are perhaps best remembered for their Soul-like treatment of the 'Minuet In G Major', 'A Lover's Concerto', which was a Transatlantic hit single in the late summer/autumn of 1965.
Back around the middle of the last decade as I was in the midst of my Web discoveries that ultimately led to my blogging about the female Pop scene of the former Soviet Bloc at 'Girls Of The Golden East' and then at the Fan Blog for Valérie Čižmárová, 'Bananas For Breakfast' I thought that taking a look at the female Pop scene in regions of Europe at the other political extreme (ie., Right) at that time might be a good idea for comparison's sake. Since the Runner-Up at the Eurovision Song Contest of 1971, taking place in Dublin, was (then Franco's) Spain's Karina with 'En un mundo nuevo' ('In A New World'), she seemed to be as good a way in as any and I discovered that she'd done a Spanish-language cover of 'A Lover's Concerto' as 'Concierto para enamorados', the title being a literal translation of the original.
By another remarkable coincidence, Karina (real name Maribel Llaudés) comes from another place-name beginning with 'Ja-' - the Andalucían city of Jaén.
Trump grew up in Jamaica Estates. When I was in high school (which is near that neighborhood), his mom still lived in there.
Yes, his childhood home is literally next to my in-laws house in Jamaica Estates.
New Yorker here. I’ve always wondered at the origin of Jamaica’s name. Thanks bro!
Yall were 15 minutes from me and didnt tell me??? I see the jfk air traffic control building whenever i go to costco lol
Glad you had a great time in America, Patrick!
In São Paulo, we too have a subway station named "Armenia", but that one is in fact named after the country of Armenia.
I do not live in Jamaica the island nation nor the neighborhood in NYC but I currently work in Jamaica, Queens. Did you know there's a street called Jamaica Avenue in the neighborhood of Jamaica, in Queens county/borough in the City of New York , which also is a part of the State of New York?! There's also Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn Avenue, New Jersey Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue and bet you didn't know they're all in Brooklyn, NYC, NYS, either did you?! And the original Manhattan Beach was not in California but in Brooklyn, NY.
Half my town, across the tracks, use to shop there heavy back in the 80's. You can catch or meet big time entertainers there if your fortunate back then. Mostly rappers and reggae artists though and my buddies and I would catch the LIRR or the bus to get there. Good ole days without stupid social media.
Brooklyn has a bunch of avenues named after other states - Georgia Ave, Alabama Ave, Washington Ave etc.
Boston has a Jamaica Plain as well.
I'm from Long Island, NY, and I always assumed it was because of carribiean immigration. But it makes sense that it would be based off of native names, we do that on Long Island, too. Towns with native American names like Patchogue, Cutchogue, Ronkonkoma, and Montauk are near English named towns like the Hamptons, Sayville, Smithtown, and Bohemia. Also, if you're not from here, you more than likely pronounce the native names wrong (at least to our ear, even though virtually none of us are native Americans here).
Im frm patchogue and i dated a girl frm jamaica and she had no idea how to pronounce it lol
Wyandanch
Commack is pronounced Comac. It used to be spelled Comac and pronounced Commack.
Fascinating
When I drove through Jamaica Vermont years ago on a road trip I was expecting to see some Jamaican culture there.
Arts, entertainment, and media:
Jamaica (novel), a novel by Malcolm Knox
Giamaica or "Jamaica", recorded by several Italian artists
"Jamaica" (song), a song by Bachman-Turner Overdrive
"D'yer Mak'er", a song by Led Zeppelin - pronounced "Jamaica"
Jamaica (musical), a musical by Harold Arlen and EY Harburg
> "D'yer Mak'er", a song by Led Zeppelin - pronounced "Jamaica"
Which in turn comes from an old joke:
"My wife took a vacation in the Caribbean."
"Jamaica?"
"No, she wanted to."
(or words to that effect)
Excellent info. Much thanks...!!! 👍🏽 👍🏽 👍🏽
You were here!!!! We're all bagel and pizza snobs here - and rightfully so!!!! Thank you for explaining Jamaica Queens.
Im from Jamaica and can’t believe one of my favorite CZcamsrs made this
I'm from NYC but never lived in, or near, Jamaica. But I'd heard of it. And I'd always wondered what the connection was with the island...and now I learn there isn't one...
funny enough a lot of Jamaicans and people from the Caribbean live in Jamaica queens .
Man now I want to know other places named after Native American tribes. Like I didn’t know Dakota is a tribe.
About half the states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Ohio, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Idaho, Kansas etc.
I was born in Jamaica Queens. Honestly never gave it a second thought now that you brought it up
I've heard one guy pronounce it Ya Mike Ka , this was at a LIRR train station.
That person might have been a Spanish speaker- that’s similar to the Spanish pronunciation (“Ha Mike Ka”)
@@MrSomervillen no he wasn't he was a white guy. this was deep in long island mind you.
@@HayleyAnjuna Spanish people are white. Besides that, there are a lot of Native white Spanish speakers
he wasn't spanish @@catcountry0099
Thats how the natives pronounced it from the island of Jamaica, its xaymaca/Xamaica meaning land of wood and water. The x is silent
I have changed trains at Jamaica hundreds of times over the years, including yesterday, and have always wondered about this. Thank you, I will never go through Jamaica again without thinking of beavers
"I'm from Jamaica."
"You don't look Jamaican."
"Jamaica *Queens*"
Thanks!
I'm a bit behind, but I'm working on getting caught up!
Jamaica Station on the LIRR is like a prism refracting a beam of light; it's where every LIRR service except the Port Washington Branch diverge from each other (some services use the same right-of-way but skip stops; such as Hollis Station, the next stop east on the Main Line only being served by Hempstead Branch trains while Oyster Bay Branch, Port Jefferson Branch, Ronkonkoma Branch, and Montauk Branch trains pass through nonstop). Thus, a common phrase you'll hear on LIRR trains is "change at Jamaica", since trains from, say, Far Rockaway or Long Beach are much more likely to go to Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn instead of Penn Station in Manhattan where a good number of commuters are likely to be headed
I don't live in Jamaica but I live on Long Island so I see it all the time when I'm taking the train. "This stop is... Jamaica. The next stop is... Penn Station"
4:22 Found it strangely fitting that you marked the screen with a big red x when you said that the two Jamaicas aren’t related.
Oh, I do wonder if that was the reason they’re spelled N pronounced exactly the same is because of the fact is that they came into contact with each other somehow. Like I do believe that the names, kind of came together at some point.
Anyone who gets packages in Eastern Canada from the US knows of the postage depot in Jamaica, NY as it is where tracking drops off
This video was great I live in Jamaica ny j always wondered why 🤣 but queens has a hugeee water aqueduct three I believe so cool to see
Basically more context from what I know as a New Yorker, Jamaica is a major transit hub away from the rest of the city, it's one of the biggest transport hubs on the periphery having many subway lines connect and terminate there, the Long Island Railroad, and the JFK Airtrain. Being a Bengali, I know Jamaica as one of the biggest Bangladeshi communities in the city. It's one of the most Bengali places outside of South Asia and it always shocks the Bengalis that visit New York. It has many different parts like the affluent Jamaica Estates and the more ghetto style South Jamaica. Being Bengali I know people and have family that live all over Jamaica. I can't speak for the experience of many other ethnicities and people's that live there and their experiences (I live in Brooklyn) but yeah this what I think of Jamaica as.
I grew up in Jamaica New York. Growing up, Jamaica was full of Caribbean people but now it’s full of my fellow Bengali people. Caribbean neighborhoods mostly moved South.
So you are telling me there is a place in NYC named after rodents?
(No, it isn't rats, though NYC has a lot of rats)
How on earth did this become a rodent video?
Beavers and coneys.
Jamaica :D
I grew up in Jamaica Queens. On 183rd Street off of Hillside Avenue from age 3 until 27.
cool video
I always wanted to know if there was any link between this and the spanish word for hibiscus - jamaica (hah-ma-ee-cah)
I'm a little west of Jamaica in Forest Hills, but I'm very familiar with the train station 😅
Note: this story contains a few good “Name Explainers” you might not have know before!
I’m a born ‘n bred NYer and still live in the building I was practically born in on the UES of Manhattan- specifically a very robust, mostly white but ethnically diverse working class neighborhood called Lenox Hill. There were were so many different types of white people,
each one had multiple churches, often reflecting individual towns in the Old World where everyone just picked up and left to land here in the New one. In a half-mile stretch starting from the Queensborough Bridge, under which “Little Orphan Annie” lived in a “Hooverville” (NX#1) a ghetto of displaced persons poverty stricken since that famous collapse of Wall Street and named after a certain President of the era.
There were the ubiquitous
Italians, Irish, Jews (who by now migrated mostly from the Lower East Side) and of course Germans, who even then were domineering and perhaps over represented.
But there were myriad smaller, more obscure groups with identities less well known, like Greeks, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians and also Bohemians. This last one is from whom we mostly derive the terms “bo-hunk” and “hunk” (NX#2) used to describe a big, “hunky” strappy guy- strong, but not too much in the upstairs department, not necessarily the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you know what I mean😉. Think a mechanic in a garage wearing overalls, covered in grease, lifting an engine block over his head but gets all the chicks. Importantly however, we also derive the term “honky” (NX#3) the sometimes comical, occasionally derogatory, but always under-appreciated term for white people.
This “honk” has also been attributed to reflect the particular nasal-y “honk-honk” (NX#4) sound some people think white people make when they speak. Don’t know how true it is, but at one time until just a decade past, on the Upper East Side from Turtle Bay to Yorkville, an evening cascade of “honk-honks” could be heard, followed by yelps and hollers, that I always figured mean the mating of My People was drunkenly taking place, just beyond my childhoods’ eyes🙈Anyway, the Bohemian “honky” thing is also closely mirrored by roots in the local ethnicities already mentioned namely Slovaks & Hungarians who definitely were hunky honkies, even if never specifically Bohemian.
Each one of these groups having left their uniques ethnic identifiers that remain to this day, if only by a thread due to “real estate development” ie: “genocide” without the bodies, but wholesale ethnic cleansing in every other sense of the word- at least so far as Iiii am concerned!🤨
Aaaanyhooze, I went to grade school a block away with lots of kids from all over the world due to plenty of hospitals, universities and United Nations missions in immediate area. In the 70s, NYC was living a broke-ass hell. This is when “white flight” hit hard and “Jewish lightning” struck burning swathes through neighborhoods- not because of “Jews” but because of the Mafia (Jewish or not) wanting to collect on insurance claims. Dirty, bitter and unfair. Not really worthy of a “Name Explain” but here it was in its derogatory ethnic horror.
This was also the height of “bussing” where kids from “poorer” (ie: “Black” & “Puerto Rican”) neighborhoods got “bussed” on both the “big yellow” kind (normal, regular kids - but from other neighborhoods) and the legendary titular “Name Explain” wonder “short” version (NX#5) for “Special Ed”…ucation cases (NX#6?) (ie: kids who wear hockey or “spazz” helmets (NX#7?) to school) to “better” (ie: “white”) ‘hoods because these schools were better funded.
Considering how little funding the white schools got, this was a counterintuitive way to solve disparity in education system. I never understood how alienating kids by shipping them off to “better” schools rather than just properly funding and caring for schools in their own areas was a good idea, even as a kid. UN-counterintuitively, this program failed miserably.
So all this hot air is just a long winded way of explaining that one day in Fifth or Sixth Grade, I was talking to a classmate bussed all the way in from “Jamaica”. It took all afternoon of him trying to explain that he wasn’t from the Carribean but rather Queens- and they just called that area Jamaica for some reason.
So, if you’re still out there- and I hope you are- “Rocky” Maynard of Jamaica Queens, NYC, I hope you and your twin sister Kenyatta are doing well (she borrowed a “special” pen from me and gave it back a week later covered in teeth marks- hated it, then but now I chuckle about it😁). You’ll always be famed in the memory of many an elder Fifth or Sixth Grader for a Benny Hill impression so memorable it cracked up teachers and parents alike, and that has kept a smile on my face ever since.
Ok, so half the ‘splainers were kinda lame, but maybe this story shows how… confusing names can be to eleven year olds?!?😳 Fuck if I know!
You rock, Name Explain!
Upper East Yorkville//Lenox Hill, Names “B” Xplainin’ Crew- OUT, yo! Peace!
*plonk*
(Insert faint buzzing sound, followed by a muffled cough, a gun shot, a rolling beer bottle, a “buh-KAW”! and lastly, a cascade of “honk-honk-honks” across a moonlit city scape).
-End… SCENE!🤤
My neighborhood is right next to Jamaica, Queens lol
I'm Caribbean and live in Jamaica Queens. I've NEVER once thought of the name coincidence. Why? Cause I'm not stupid! 😂
There's plenty of random foreign names of towns neighborhood...Athens Georgia, London Connecticut, Paris Texas etc.
In order to think it was named for the immigrants you have to be really stupid & unread...sorry I know that's harsh..but it's true.
You can find HUNDREDS of examples of towns named after foreign cities or countries.
Attentive Analysis. {Applause}
My bucket list item for a trip to New York would be to visit the Hook and Ladder 8 Firehouse down on N.Moore St Manhattan Island, better known as the Ghostbusters Firehouse, but actually a real firehouse (one that was involved with rescue efforts on 9/11) to this day.
There's also a neighborhood in Boston call Jamaica Plain, so named because its residents sailed to JA on vacation to a town in JA named, for the same (opposite?) reason, Boston Bay. (At least this is the story I heard but the two places exist.)
Someone already noted that Delaware is based on the colonizer, not the tribe also sometimes named after the colonizer.
More minor, but there’s nothing about “river” in the name Chicago. It means something simply along the lines ramp/onion/garlic. They found ramps, not garlic btw - not that this is important in a video about Jamaica NY. Respectfully, a Chicagoan.
I grew up in Jamaica. I now live in Vermont and there’s also a Jamaica there! Ironically there are A LOT of Jamaicans that live in this part of Queens. Alot of this area used to be called Idelwild which was the name of the Airport before and t became JFK. I hope you enjoyed your stay! Peace!
✊🏿
I was just in Jamaica, Queens last month when I was attending a convention in Garden City, Long Island, and needed to take the Long Island Railroad from Penn Station in Manhattan and back. Jamaica is the main hub/terminal for many of the rail lines, so people frequently go thru there even if it's not their main destination.
'Watch the gap' 😂
Queens county and kings county have wonderful history.
At one time, both were made up of six Townships each.
When the area of Brooklyn incorporated as a city (where Brooklyn Heights is) it slowly grew, adding villages and neighborhoods surrounding it where eventually, the entire Kings County was the City of Brooklyn. It then got gobbled up by consolidation in 1898.
Queens county’s six Townships were Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay. It also had a small city get incorporated - Long Island City- which shrunk the size of the Newtown Township. When consolidation occurred, the county was split in half, with the Eastern three Townships becoming Nassau county and the Western three, with LIC and the Far Rockaway peninsula (was Hempstead), remaining as Queens and becoming a borough of the Greater City of New York.
Been lurking on this channel a long time, and you answered a question I've had since I was 12 (live and grew up in Downstate NY)😂
However, boo to the Yankees
Im Jamaican living there and we have alot of Jamaicans living in Jamaica queens 😅😂
Hey! I live in Jamaica!
if youre from here and order shipments internationally, there's a good chance Jamaica is where you'll package will arrive and be processed through customs.
What Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts?
I live around the Hollis area. I can tell you there is a lot of us Caribbean around the Jamaica area. Indians, Jamaican, Guianese etc etc. lived here all my life and I can attest that there's a lot of events that happens around here (my parents are from Saint Kitts and Nevis
Guyanese
Some cheeky people, if asked to point to Jamaica, would point to their copy of Houses of the Holy
It’s 20 minutes to time square, the Long Island rail goes there in 20 😭 that’s why it’s popular 😅
I never lived there but attended high school in that town.
6:07 Delaware is named after Lord De La Warr
You should do a video on the origin of the name Delaware.
Nice lol Jamaica, Queens is where I was born
For all my life I assumed this was because people from Jamaica moved to Queens.
I always wondered why Jamaica Queens and Nassau county in Long Island were named that way
What about Jamaica Plains, MA?
Please make a video of the state Georgia and the country Georgia!
6:05, Delaware actually comes from the name of one of the early colonial governors of nearby Virginia, Thomas West, Lord De La Warr. The name does not have, to my understanding, an indigenous explanation.