Knickerbocracy
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The Knickerbocracy was a popular synonym for "The Four Hundred", the supposed quantity of the social elite of New York City in the late 19th Century.
The familiar term Knickerbocker, a citizen of New York, derives from Washington Irving's tales of the fictional "Diedrich Knickerbocker". There was also a 19th Century baseball team called the New York Knickerbockers, and of course the current NBA franchise called the New York Knicks, "Knicks" short for Knickerbockers.
Source: The Empire State Building Book, by Jonathan Goldman, St. Martin's Press, 1980.
