Croatoan Island

… a name applied by John White on his map of 1585 to the S portion of Hatteras Island (Dare County) and a portion of Ocracoke Island (Hyde County). Hatteras Inlet, now dividing this portion of the Outer Banks into two islands, was opened in 1846. Ralph Lane, governor of the first Roanoke colony, named the island "My Lord Admirals Iland" in honor of Lord Howard of Effingham, created Lord High Admiral in 1585. By 1657 Comberford showed the island as "Chowanoke." Smith, in 1624, had called it Abbots Island. The name Croatoan was derived from the Indian village that was on the present Cape Hatteras (Kro-otän [talk town], indicating the chief's residence.) See also Portsmouth Island.