Evanston

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A city in northeastern Illinois on the shore of Lake Michigan, known as the home of Northwestern University ; a small city in southwestern Wyoming near the Utah border
2. A lakeside municipality in northeastern Illinois that borders Chicago ; a town in southwestern Wyoming situated close to the Utah state line
3. The Illinois city on Lake Michigan that hosts a major private university ; a Wyoming community in the southwest, not far from the border with Utah

Etymology: Evanston, Illinois, takes its name from Evans, the surname of a founding family, with the common English place-name ending "-ton" meaning "settlement" or "farmstead." The pattern is an old one: English towns named "Evanston"-style combine a personal name with "-ton," the same element found in countless villages across England, from Brighton to Preston. The city's name honours John Evans, a Chicago-area figure whose family's connection to the land shaped the settlement that grew on the lakeshore. Evanston thus follows the familiar model of American towns named after a prominent man, with the English suffix giving the name a settled, rural sound.