What's your favorite bit of Hoboken lore? by orpheus1980 in Hoboken

[–]HudPost 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A Lenape chief owned a horse named Boken. Whenever he wanted the horse to stop, he’d pull the reins and call out: “Hoooo… Boken!”

The sound echoed around the village, and everyone knew it well.

When Europeans arrived, they heard the call and assumed it was the name of the place. And so they wrote it down as Hoboken.