Knickerbocker, also spelled Knikkerbakker, Knikkerbacker, and Knickerbacker, is a surname that dates back to the early settlers of New Netherland that was popularized by Washington Irving in 1809 when he published his satirical A History of New York under the pseudonym "Diedrich Knickerbocker". The name was also a term for Manhattan's aristocracy "in the early days"[1] and became a general term, now obsolete, for a New Yorker. The term is also used to refer to the Anglo-Dutch "old line" families of New York City, as opposed to New England "Yankee" interlopers and other newcomers.[2]
Notable people with the surname
edit- Austin Knickerbocker (1918–1997), American professional baseball player
- Brianna Knickerbocker (born 2001), American voice actress [3]
- Bill Knickerbocker (1911–1963), American professional baseball player
- David Buel Knickerbacker (1833–1894), 3rd Protestant Episcopal bishop of the diocese of Indiana
- Harmen Jansen Knickerbocker (c. 1650 – c. 1720), Dutch colonist in New Netherland (New York)
- Herman Knickerbocker (1779–1855), United States Representative
- Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker (1898–1949), American writer and journalist
- I. B. Knickerbocker (1864–1954) American politician in the state of Washington
- Jerry Knickerbocker (born 1943), American politician in the state of Minnesota
- Charles Knickerbocker Harley (born 1943), academic economic historian
Pseudonymously
edit- Cholly Knickerbocker, a pseudonym used by a series of society columnists writing for the New York American and the New York Journal-American
- Diedrich Knickerbocker, a pseudonym of Washington Irving
- Suzy Knickerbocker, a pseudonym for columnist Aileen Mehle
References
edit- ^ Riis, Jacob (1890). "I. Genesis of the Tenement". How the Other Half Lives. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. (at Wikisource: How the Other Half Lives – Chapter I)
- ^ Burrows, Edwin; Wallace, Mike. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898. Oxford University Press. pp. Chapter 28. ISBN 978-0195140491.
- ^ "Brianna Knickerbocker". IMDb.