Was the city of Buffalo, New York, named after the animal?
No. The City of Buffalo received its name from the creek that flows through it. However, the origin of the creek’s name is unclear, with several unproven theories existing. One holds that the name is an anglicized form of the French name Beau Fleuve (beautiful river), which was supposedly an exclamation uttered by Louis Hennepin when he first saw the stream; this is thought to be unlikely, as no period sources contain this quote. Early French explorers reported the abundance of buffalo on the south shore of Lake Erie, but their presence on the banks of Buffalo Creek is still a matter of debate, so the origin of the name of the creek is still uncertain. Neither the Native American name (“Place of the Basswoods”) or the French name (“River of Horses”) survived, so the current name likely dates to the British occupation which began with the capture of Fort Niagara in 1759. Also given credence by local historians is the possibility that an interpreter mistranslated the Native American word
