The name John Crow was first recorded in the 1820s and comes from the Jamaican name for the turkey vulture. It has been suggested that previous to this, the range was known as the Carrion Crow Ridge, after an earlier name for the vulture. In 1885 Inspector Herbert T. Thomas of the local constabulary began an attempt to reach the highest peak of the range, and in 1890 was successful, publishing an account in his book 'Untrodden Jamaica'.He requested the then governor Sir Henry Blake to consent that they be renamed the Blake Mountains, but admits in his book the change met with opposition. The new name did not stick and they remain the John Crow Mountains.