The county was named in 1798 for Robert R. Livingston, who lived from 1746 to 1813 and served in the New York provincial convention in 1775, the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1777 and from 1779 to 1781, and as one of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence. He was Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1781 to 1783, administered the oath to George Washington as first president in 1789, was appointed minister to France by Jefferson from 1801 to 1804, and was a partner of Robert Fulton in constructing the first steamboat.