Where did the name of Block Island, Rhode Island come from?

AOR

Originally called Manisses ('Manitou's Little Island') by Narraganset Indians, the island was sighted by the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 and later named for Dutch explorer Adriaen Block, who visited there in 1614. Settlers from Massachusetts arrived in 1661, and Block Island was admitted to the colony of Rhode Island three years later. Jul 15 00, 8:58 PM

zbeckabee

Block Island was named after Adriaen Block. Nobody really knows for sure who saw the island first. The Vikings may have cruised around its coastline. The Italian explorer Verrazzano was said to have discovered it, and compared it to the island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean, which accounts for the state's name of Rhode Island. But the first man known definitely to have explored the island was a Dutchman. He sailed around the island more than three hundred and fifty years ago and gave it his name—Block. http://www.quahog.org/factsfolklore/index.php?id=49 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adriaen_Block Mar 22 08, 11:03 AM