Named after William Dyckman, a Dutch farmer whose family owned land here.
Jan Dyckman came to New Amsterdam in the 1660s via Bentheim in Westphalia; his grandson William (1725–1787) inherited part of the family land, and the family owned over 250 acres of farmland in the area. After the Revolutionary War the family rebuilt their farmhouse at Broadway and 204th Street, around 1784. The street lies where West 200th Street would be.