The Rockaways

Rockaway
Cluster of neighborhoods in Queens
Rockaway Peninsula along the coast of Queens
Country	United States
State	New York
City	New York City
Borough	Queens
Named for	Corruption of original Lenape language name
Population
• Estimate (2007)	130,000
ZIP code	116xx
Area code(s)	718, 347, and 917

The Rockaway Peninsula, commonly referred to as The Rockaways or Rockaway, is the name of a peninsula on Long Island, New York. The Rockaway Peninsula is located entirely within the New York City borough of Queens. A popular summer resort area since the 1830s, Rockaway has become a mixture of lower, middle, and upper-class neighborhoods. Its relative isolation from the urban areas of the city, especially Manhattan, has traditionally made it a popular summer retreat. In the 2010s, it became one of the city's most quickly gentrifying neighborhoods.

The neighborhood is part of Queens Community Board 14. As of January 1, 2007, the peninsula's total population is estimated to be just below 130,000. Rockaway is entirely in New York's 5th congressional district, represented by Congressman Gregory Meeks. All ZIP codes in Rockaway begin with the three digits 116 and the central post office is in Far Rockaway.

What is now known as Rockaway was inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans, but sold to the Dutch by the Mohegan tribe along with most of Long Island in 1639, and to the British in 1685. Finally the land was sold to Richard Cornell, who settled there. The name "rockaway" is the later corruption of a Lenape language word that sounded phonetically something like "rack-a-wak-e", and referred to the area. It may have meant "place of sands" (see: Toponymy of New Netherland and Metoac#Exonyms).