Who Gave Nutley Its Unique Name?

NUTLEY, NJ — Type “Nutley” into Google and you’ll likely find the suburban New Jersey township at the top of the search results.

Apparently, the town’s unique name gives it an SEO boost ahead of Essex County neighbors such as Verona, where a Google search bumps a similarly named town in Italy to the top of the list, or Belleville, where Google favors several municipalities in the U.S. and Canada over its New Jersey peer.

But how did Nutley end up with such a standout moniker?

On Monday – citing a 1974 article in The Nutley Sun – the Nutley Historical Society gave local residents a reminder about the uniqueness of their hometown’s name.

“According to historical reports, the name Nutley was first used in this area by the owners of a huge, square homestead which overlooked the Passaic River,” the society wrote on social media. “Nutley Manor, as the house was called, had been built around 1826 by Peter Crary, who was then mayor of New York City.”

However, the exact origin of the Nutley name is a little murky.

“The uniqueness of is name is important to the mystique Nutley has developed through the years. As publisher Johnson Foy proudly proclaimed in his 1918 special supplement to The Nutley Sun. ‘There is only one Nutley.’ No other community in this country bears the name Nutley, a name which the town adopted during a reorganization of its municipal government in 1902. Surprisingly, no one seems to know exactly where the name Nutley came from. Historians generally agree that the word is or English origin and means ‘a field of nuts.’”

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Photo: Google Maps