Why is New York City Called “Gotham”?

Writes Tim McGraw:

I’m watching the movie “Batman Rises.” It’s a pretty good action flick with overtones of why populism and socialism are bad economics and policy in general.

In the Batman comic books, NYC is always referred to as “Gotham.” My Dad always called the city Gotham when we’d visit it from our home in New Jersey. So, I looked up the reason why NYC is called “Gotham.”

Washington Irving, the famous 19th-century writer who penned “Rip Van Winkle” and “Headless Horseman,” didn’t think much of New Yorkers. He wrote a story in which he called the city Gotham. Irving considered New Yorkers as foolish madmen. Gotham was a Medieval village in England. The locals are said to have been crazy and foolish. The locals also said that their condition was contagious. This was to keep the evil and wicked King John from residing in their town. It’s pretty clever, and it worked.

Gotham means “Goat Town” in Old English/Anglo-Saxon. Goats were considered foolish and pig-headed by farmers in England.

Oddly enough, or maybe not, New Yorkers took the name “Gotham” to heart.

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.