Why Houston is Howstin
To be quite honest, this has been driving me nuts since my first encounter with the street on my first visit to New York. I couldn’t fathom why an entire city of people would pronounce Houston (“hyuston”) as “howstin”.
My First guess was that this pronunciation debauchery was a result of the extremities of the “New Yorker” Accent. Keep saying “Houston” to yourself with a New York accent… you’ll eventually reach “Howstin”.
However, mere conjecture didn’t make it any easier to accept. So finally (I’m surprised it took me this long) I decided to look it up.
“… Houston Street is named for a congressman from Georgia, William Houstoun, who married Mary Bayard: her father Nicholas owned the land in Greenwich Village through which he cut the street in the early 1800s, naming it for his son-in-law. Houstoun spelled his name with that extra ‘u’ and likely pronounced his name Howstoon or Howston. Over time the extra letter fell out while the pronunciation remained.
Other accounts have the name derived from the Dutch term huystujn (“garden house”) from the Bleecker family gardens, on which the street was laid out.”
sources:
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/houston/houston.html
