Named after Van Cortlandt Park and the colonial Van Cortlandt family.
The park is named for the Van Cortlandt family, prominent in the area in the Dutch and English colonial periods. Jacobus Van Cortlandt acquired the land in the 1690s; his son Frederick (1699–1749) began the Van Cortlandt House in 1748 but died before it was finished. In 1888 the City of New York acquired the family property and made it a public park.