Knickerbocker, also spelled Knikkerbakker, Knikkerbacker, and Knickerbacker, is a surname that dates back to the early settlers of New Netherland that was popularized by Washington Irving in 1809 when he published his satirical A History of New York under the pseudonym "Diedrich Knickerbocker". The name was also a term for Manhattan's aristocracy "in the early days"[1] and became a general term, now obsolete, for a New Yorker. The term is also used to refer to the Anglo-Dutch "old line" families of New York City, as opposed to New England "Yankee" interlopers and other newcomers.[2]