How did the New York Knickerbocker basketball team get its name (what is a knickerbocker)?
To answer the second part of your question, the name Knickerbocker was originally applied to a descendant of the Dutch settlers of New York. It was then expanded to include any New Yorker. Derived from this we have the word knickerbockers, loosely fitting short breeches gathered in at the knee, which were so named from George Cruickshank’s illustrations of ‘Knickerbocker’s History of New York’ (1809) by Washington Irving, where the Dutch worthies wore such clothing.
