New York City was originally known by what name?

Image credit: By Alfred Fredericks (Popular Science Monthly Volume 75/Brittanica) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The present day New York City was once inhabited by the Lenape tribe. The Lenape were Native Americans who spoke an Algonquian language which we today refer to as Unami. In 1524 the first European who visited the area arrived and named it Nouvelle- Angouleme in the honor of Francis I.

Then in 1625 the Dutch arrived at the area and in 1926 Peter Minuit, the first governor, bought the Manhattan island from the Natives. The Dutch built a small town on the island and named it New Amsterdam.