Christopher Chierchio | Why Is New York City Called Gotham?

You’ve heard of the nicknames of New York City before, The Big Apple, Empire City, The city that never sleeps…...and Gotham? This is one that not too many people are too familiar with, unless you’re talking about DC Comics Gotham City. The name Gotham doesn’t have its original roots from the comics, but from a time long before.

The word itself comes from medieval England, as a term that meant “Goat’s Town”. That meaning has pretty much nothing to do with our beloved city. It is also the name of an actual town in England, which has no connection to NYC either. So at this point why is it called Gotham?

It actually comes from a man named Washington Irving, a name you might recognize as the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”. Washington Irving was also a resident of NYC and coined the term in 1807. He formed a group of friends that wrote a satirical magazine called Salmagundi which chronicled a few stories of a city called Gotham.

In these short stories, Irving wrote about a small village of Gotham in England (not the real one). One story in particular “The Wise Men of Gotham” is where it is believed to derive from. In the story the villagers of Gotham hear from a few sources that King John will be passing through their village. The villagers knew that if the King would travel through the town, it would cause chaos throughout the village. The villagers create a plan to deter the King from arriving in their tiny village. They decided to fake a disease that brought on madness in the sick, and that the disease was highly contagious. They acted like a bunch of crazy people with the disease in hopes that King John would find a way around to avoid the sickness. The plan eventually worked and the King found another way around the village.

Irving used Gotham as a fictitious city, but meant as a parody on the real life city of New York City. He used it in multiple other stories, but the initial thought was that residents of NYC act crazy for show. Whether people at the time knew Irving was mocking them or not, they embraced the nickname. Over 200 years later, we still use the name as part of a list of others to describe the city we all call home.

This blog was originally posted on ChristopherChierchio.org on October 5th, 2018

Christopher Chierchio is a philanthropist located in New York City. He loves his city and loves giving back to his community. Christopher supports his city and fellow members of the community by donating his time, talents, and money to various groups and organizations. When he is not helping others, Christopher Chierchio spends time with his wife of 21 years and his three children. He enjoys the time he gets to spend with his family and values them above all else.