Some Pig

In 1626, Peter Minuit bought this island for the Dutch from the Lenape Indians, whose name for the place meant either "hilly island" or "place of inebriation," depending on whom you want to believe. The Dutch called it "New Amsterdam," since it was the seat of the "New Netherlands".

In due time, of course, the English realized that someone else owned something somewhere that they did not, so they sent a few boat-loads of blokes with guns to rectify the situation. The city was then renamed "New York," in honor of the then Lord High Admiral of the Royal Navy (and secret Catholic), soon to be ignominious loser the Battle of the Boyne (and downfall of the House of Stuart), James, the Duke of York & Albany.

This is the guy who marched a Catholic army into Ireland and lost, earning him the gaelic nickname Séamus á Chaca, or "James the Shit".

But where did "York" come from in the first place?

The Celts used to call this particular bit of what is now northern England Eborakon, or "place of yew trees". When the Romans took over, as was their want, they changed the name ever so slightly to Eboracum. Then came a couple of misunderstandings. The Anglo-Saxons heard Ebor as their own Eofor, and changed the name to Eoforwīc, or "wild-boar town". The Vikings in turn heard Eoforwīc as their own Jórvík, or "horse bay". Ever the economizers, the Normans then simplified this to "York".

Therefore, "New York" can be taken to mean:

"New Place of Yew Trees",
or,
"New Wild Boar Town" (though my preference would be for "New Pork"),
or,
"New Horse Bay",
or even,
"New Shit".