why is waterloo called waterloo?

[edit] Battle of Waterloo
Main article: Battle of Waterloo
Waterloo's claim to fame is the famous Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815) between the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Alliance of the Seventh Coalition (Great Britain, Prussia, Austria and others), under the main allied commanders, the Duke of Wellington and General von Blücher. There is a memorial in the form of a statue of a lion (looking towards France) on a hill, with 226 stairs, called La Butte du Lion. Other attractions related to the battle are the Wellington Museum and la Chapelle where Wellington is said to have made a prayer before going into battle.


The Wellington Museum on the Chaussee de Bruxelles
The view from the top of the Lion's Mound La Butte de Lion
[edit] Modern-Day Waterloo
Today Waterloo contains two Carrefour hypermarkets, a Delhaize store, a Ibis hotel, a Fortis Bank branch, numerous office parks and two international schools: St. John's International School and the Scandinavian school. A row of shops, called Petit Paris is along Chaussee de Waterloo from the church to the intersection with Dreve Richelle

There are also numerous bars that are very popular on the weekends. One in particular is "Le Marginal" which is located next to the main church in the center of town.


[edit] Origin of the name
The placename, of Dutch origin, is most likely derived from "water", which means water and lo(o), which is an ancient word for forest. Possibly, the early settlement was located near marshy woods.

Well, it's in Belgium. In Flemish, "water" means just the same as in English, but I can only hazard a guess that the "loo" part might be a Flemish pronounciation of "lieu". In French (and hence to the Walloon French-speakers in what is now Belgium) this means "place". So my tentative suggestion is "water-place".

Good question. I have often wondered that myself. However, nobody so far has given you the answer you're looking for. They've told you where it is and what went on there, but that's not what you mean, is it?

As far as I know, it was the name of the nearest small town to the battlefield in 1815 were Napoloeon fought his last major battle against the British, lead by Wellington, and the Prussians, lead by Blucher.

Most of the Waterloo's around the place have been named in honour of that battle.

A bit off topic but in the 19th century when the line from SW london stopped at Vauxhall some Russians saw the station, and guess what......they took "vauxhall" (or the cyrilic spelling) as the russian word for station!

It's the name of a village in Belgium where Napoleon was defeated. Funny name, I know.

cos one day,many years ago,someone flushed the bog,and it overflowed throughout the streets.so they called it "water from the loo",and over the years,it's been shortened to waterloo.

names after the battle of waterloo... it has nothign to do with water or a loo or water in a loo.. lol...