Our URL is https://www.ahistoryofnewyork.com, so Bryan likes to abbreviate the site this way: AHNY.

If you Google ahistoryofnewyork.com, you’ll find that the first entry is the site’s official name “Patell and Waterman’s History of New York.” I’ve begun abbreviating the site’s name this way: PWHNY.

Given that the name is inspired by Washington Irving’s 1809 volume, I suppose it’s appropriate that there should be a plethora of names. Irving’s first edition bore the title A History of New York, which is the title that Betsy Bradley uses for her recent Penguin classics edition, which reprints the 1809 first edition. At some point, which I have not yet been able to pinpoint, publishers started referring to it as “Knickerbocker’s History of New York by Washington Irving.” That’s the title that Macmillan used, for example, in the 1909 edition that was included in its “Pocket English and American Classics series” (see Google Books). Actually, the cover of that edition reads: “Irving’s Knickerbocker’s History of New York.” A bit awkward, that.

So which abbreviation should we use? If you Google either “AHNY” or “PWHNY,” you don’t get to our site, so I suppose it’s still up for grabs. I’m planning a Facebook page for the site (stay tuned), and once we get 25 fans, we’ll be able to have a username for the site. Since I’m doing it (Bryan is not at Facebooker), it’s going to be “PWHNY”!