While dozens of names in Brooklyn have a Dutch origin, many of them were changed when the English took over. As our borough series "What's in a Name?" continues, we take a look at British influence in Brooklyn. NY1's Jeanine Ramirez has the story.

Is the neighborhood of Gravesend, named for a graveyard? It's true the neighborhood is home to the city's oldest cemetery, built in the 1640s. But historians say that has nothing to do with how this area got its name.

Gravesend was one of Brooklyn's six original towns, created under Dutch rule. It was the only one granted to someone from England, and the only one founded by a woman, Lady Deborah Moody, who came with her son, a count, to escape religious persecution.

Some historians say the Dutch governor named it "Gravesande", which means "Count's Beach". Or perhaps for the Dutch town of the same name. Some speculate it has English origin.

"There's a place in England called Gravesend and it's really easy to assume since she was an English woman, ‘Oh she must have named it for Gravesend, England,’" said Joseph Ditta, founder of the Gravesend Gazette.

Moody's house and the cemetery are on Gravesend Neck Road. There also used to be a Gravesend Avenue. 

"Here where we see the trolleys running in what's now McDonald Avenue though originally it was Gravesend Avenue," Ditta said. "The name was changed in the 1930s by some citizens who felt the name sounded too morbid."

Gravesend had a village square. Today there are remnants of that square. But 17th century Dutch colonial rule didn't last long. The English soon put their stamp on many places beyond Gravesend. They changed Dutch names like the town of Breuckelen to Brook Land and Boswijck to Bushwick.

Some developers evoked ideas of British aristocracy in places like Flatbush. There's Malborough and Buckingham Roads. And even more so towards the ocean — there's Bath Beach and Brighton Beach.

"That part of Brooklyn was close to the shore and like Coney Island and like Brighton Beach they really were places where the wealthy people in Brooklyn and New York City went to vacation," said Jerome Krase, Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College.

Here in Manhattan Beach, English sounding street names are in alphabetical order.

Amherst, Beaumont, Coleridge, Dover. Down to Oxford. And, of course, the entire county is named after the King of England.