The expression Your Neck Of The Woods is used to imply a person's neighbourhood. Back in the early colonial America, the British began putting names to places in order to stamp their mark on the country. There was often a deliberate attempt to avoid traditionally English-sounding names and instead opt for words such as Hollow, Fork, Stick and Foot. One word which made the journey across the ocean was "neck", which had been used in England since the mid-16th century to describe a narrow strip of land surrounded by water. However, the new American settlers used the word to describe narrow strips of woodland in the new country and would identify native Indian settlements, often located in the forests, by which "“neck of the woods" they could be found in.