Hamilton (New Zealand)

Hamilton city (1996 pop. 108,429), N central North Island, New Zealand, on the Waikato River. Situated between Auckland and Wellington, Hamilton is the transportation and industrial center of a densely populated dairy area. The Univ. of Waikato, founded in 1964, is in the city.

Hamilton, Australia, Bermuda, Canada, New Zealand, UK, USA 1. Bermuda: founded in 1790 and named after Henry Hamilton (d. 1796), governor of the island at the time. It has been the capital since 1815.2. Canada (Ontario): originally the site was called Burlington Bay. When it was settled in 1813 it was renamed after George Hamilton (1787–1835) who had laid out the city.3. New Zealand (North Island): originally a military outpost erected on the site of a deserted Maori village called Kirikirioa, it was renamed after Captain John Hamilton, a British Royal Navy officer who was killed while fighting the Maori, when it became a city in 1877.4. UK (Scotland): formerly Cadzow and renamed in 1445 after a family called Hamilton, itself probably derived from a place meaning a ‘farmstead in rough country’ from the Old English hamel ‘broken’ and tūn. The Hamiltons received it from Robert I the Bruce (1274–1329), King of Scots (1306–29), after victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.5. USA (Ohio): founded in 1794 as Fairfield adjacent to Fort Hamilton which had been named after Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804), the illegitimate son of a Scottish father, who became the first secretary of the US Treasury (1789–95). Fairfield was later renamed Hamilton.