History of New York City (prehistory–1664) with the ethnic and racial balance of the community. The economic activity brought in a wide variety of ethnic groups to the fledgling city during the 17th century, including Spanish, Jews, and Africans, some of them as slaves. The Dutch origins can still be seen in many names in New York City, such as Coney Island (from "Konijnen Eiland" – Dutch for "Rabbit Island"), Bowery from "bouwerij" (modern Dutch "boerderij" = "farm"), Brooklyn (from Breukelen), Harlem from Haarlem (formalized in 1658 as "Nieuw Haarlem"), Greenwich Village (from Greenwijck, meaning "pine wood quarter"), Flushing (from Vlissingen) and Staten Island (from "Staaten
European rabbit and "rabit" (18th century). The root word is the Walloon "rabett", which was once commonly used in Liège. "Rabett" itself is derived from the Middle Dutch "robbe", with the addition of the suffix "-ett". The term "cony" or "coney" predates "rabbit", and first occurred during the 13th century to refer to the animal's pelt. Later, "cony" referred to the adult animal, while "rabbit" referred to the young. The root of "cony" is the old French "connil" or "counil", of which the Norman plural was "coniz", and later "conis". Its forerunner is the Greek κὐνικλος, from which the Latin "cuniculus" is