Kiosh, or "Gull Island," was conferred on Ellis Island by Dr. Schoolcraft from the Ojibwe dialect. The interpretation is correct presumably.
Tenkenas is of record as the Indian name of what is now known as Ward's Island. [FN] It appears in deed of 1636-7. It means "Small island," from _Tenke_ (Len.), "little."
[FN] The Dutch called the island _Onvruchtbaar,_ "Unfruitful, barren." The English adopted the signification, "Barren," which soon became corrupted to "Barrent's," to which was added "Great" to distinguish it from Randal's Island, which was called "Little Barrent's Island." Barn Island is another corruption. Both islands were "barren" no doubt.
Monatun was conferred by Dr. Schoolcraft on the whirlpool off Hallet's Cove, with the explanation, "A word conveying in its multiplied forms the various meanings of violent, forcible, dangerous, etc." Dr. Schoolcraft introduced the word as the derivative of Manhatan, which, however, is very far from being explained by it. _Hell-gate,_ a vulgar orthography of Dutch _Hellegat,_ has long been the popular name of the place. It was conferred by Adriaen Block, in 1614-16, to the dangerous strait known as the East River, from a strait in Zealand, which, presumably, was so called from Greek _Helle,_ as heard in Hellespont--"Sea of Helle"--now known as the Dardanelles--which received its Greek name from _Helle,_ daughter of Athamas, King of Thebes, who, the fable tells us, was drowned in passing over it. Probably the Dutch sailors regarded the strait as the "Gate of Hell," but that is not the meaning of the name--"a dangerous strait or passage." In some records the strait is called _Hurlgate,_ from Dutch _Warrel,_ "Whirl," and _gat,_ "Hole, gap, mouth"--substantially, "a whirlpool."
Monachnong, deed to De Vries, 1636; _Menates,_ De Vries's Journal; _Ehquaons_ (Eghquaous, Brodhead, by mistake in the letter _n_), deed of 1655, and _Aquehonge-Monuchnong,_ deed to Governor Lovelace, 1670, are forms of the names given as that of Staten Island, and are all from Lenape equivalents. _Menates_ means "Small island" as a whole; _Monach'nong_ means a "Place on the island," or less than the whole, as shown by the claims of the Indians in 1670, that they had not previously sold all the island. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 453.) It is the equivalent of _Menach'hen,_ Minsi; _Menach'n,_ Abn., "Island," and _ong,_ locative; in Mass. _Mimnoh-han-auke._ (See Mannhonake.) _Eghquaons_ and _Aquehonga_ are equivalents, and also equivalents of _Achquoanikan-ong,_ "Bushnet fishing-place," of which _Acquenonga_ is an alternate in New Jersey. (Nelson's "Indians of New Jersey," 122.) In other words, the Indians conveyed places on the island, including specifically their "bushnet fishing-place," and by the later deed to Lovelace, conveyed all unsold places. The island was owned by the Raritans who resided "behind the Kol," and the adjoining Hackensacks. (Deed of 1655.) Its last Indian occupants were the Nyacks, who removed to it after selling their lands at New Utrecht. (See Paganck note.)