Efforts are being made throughout the world to reconnect fish habitat by removing dams and other stream barriers. Many such opportunities exist for habitat reconnection along the tributaries of the Hudson River Estuary, in New York. The migratory fish runs are much diminished in the Hudson when compared to historical accounts of eyewitnesses, and several species, including sturgeon, could potentially benefit from restoring their historic habitat by removing human‐made in‐stream barriers. We use historical research and toponymy, the study of place names and their origins, to investigate whether an area referred to as “Sturgeon Pool” on a tributary to the Hudson River might be correctly named as historic habitat of Shortnose Sturgeon Acipenser brevirostrum. Sturgeon Pool is currently inaccessible to sturgeon and most other migratory fish because of the Eddyville Dam, and our research corroborates the view that sturgeon historically used this habitat.