Before it was Rockaway Avenue, this street bore the name of William Paca.
A 1928 Brooklyn Standard Union article recalled that in 1863 Rockaway Avenue 'labored under the doubtfully pronounceable name of Paca Street'. Another old street history calls it Paca Avenue, named for William Paca, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The word 'Rockaway', as in the Rockaways, comes from a Munsee (Lenape) place name that colonists wrote down in many spellings, such as Rechouwakie or Reckowacky.