Blauvelt is a hamlet (an census-designated place), named for Judge Cornelius I. Blauvelt is located in the Town of Orangetown, in Rockland County, New York. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a population of 5,207. The name "Blauvelt" is that of a prominent family that settled in the area in the 18th century. It is a Dutch name that came into use nearly 150 years before the first Blauvelts came to the New World. The etymology of the name probably comes from the coat of arms adopted by the first Blauvelt, Pieter Blauwveld, a prominent trader in the Netherlands. Literally, it means "blue-field," likely a reference to the blue and yellow shields hung on Pieter's ships (a common 14th century Dutch method of identifying the owner). The first Blauvelt in America was a peasant farmer who worked on Kiliaen VanRensselaer's estate cultivating tobacco, in 1638.