Bedford recalls a hamlet named after an English town; Nostrand, a settler family.
The 17th-century hamlet of Bedford was named after the market town of Bedford in England, and Bedford Avenue grew partly out of the old Bedford Road. Nostrand Avenue, originally Nostrand Lane, honours the Nostrand family and is believed to be named after Gerret Noorstrandt, a 17th-century settler. In 2004 it was co-named Toussaint Louverture Boulevard, after the Haitian revolutionary.