Coney Coney may be : an English word for a rabbit , or rabbit 's hair . Originally it was pronounced in a way that rhymed with money and honey . Later its pronunciation changed to /kəʊ.niː/ following its adoption as a slang term for the female genitals ( usually spelled cunny when used with this meaning ) . In Elizabethan English the phrase `` Coney catching '' referred to confidence tricks , as in Robert Greene 's The Art of Coney Catching . It has been popularly supposed that Coney Island , in the New York City borough of Brooklyn , was named for its ( former ) abundance of rabbits . This explanation is disputed , however . Another name for both hyraxes ( a subungulate , one of the paenungulata ) and pikas ( related to rabbits ) . The word coney ( i . e . `` rabbit '' ) has been used to translate the Hebrew Bible word שָּׁפָן ( shaphan ) , more accurately rendered `` hyrax `` . the common name for a Caribbean fish , Cephalopholis fulva , in the genus Serranidae , subgenus Epinephelinae . a type of hot dog served at one of the Detroit -based `` Coney Island '' restaurants . Coney Sauce a spicy beef `` chili '' served on hot dogs . In Ohio many places have coneys on the menu ; you would get a hot dog and Coney Sauce . Coney Island hot dog - a hot dog style originated on Coney Island , and also served in the Michigan based Coney Island restaurants which uses Coney sauce , that is similar to the Michigan hot dog , and may be considered a type of chili dog Michael G. Coney , a Canadian science fiction writer . This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title . If an internal link led you here , you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article . Categories : Disambiguation /kəʊ.niː/ שָּׁפָן 