‘Bushwick’ comes from Boswijck, Dutch for ‘neighbourhood in the woods’ or ‘little town in the woods’.
Peter Stuyvesant chartered the area under that name in 1661. Bushwick Avenue once marked the boundary between the enlarged village of Williamsburgh and Bushwick; early 20th-century planners proposed calling it Bushwick Boulevard, a name never officially adopted. According to old Brooklyn street lists, Aberdeen Street was formerly William Street in Bowronville.