What Would Jacques Cortelyou Say?
Somewhere up in the great blue beyond, Jacques Cortelyou is looking down at the his namesake road, watching its businesses boom and wondering why we all insist upon butchering his name on a daily basis.
Cortelyou was a Dutchman and the surveyor behind the Castello Plan in 17th century New Amsterdam. As opposed to the common pronuncation (Core-tell-you), he pronounced his name Cortill-you. One of us is wrong on this one. It’s too bad the guy doesn’t know how to pronounce his own name.
I spoke with Brooklyn Borough Historian Ron Schweiger about the pronunciation mix-up and just last night overheard a group talking about Jacques’ name over drinks at Sycamore. No one has yet been able to explain just why and when the change was made except to say that sometimes, the Americanization of names is strange and arbitrary. Does anyone have any clues as to when and why the shift happened?
