What ‘Meridian’ Means and How the Popular Idaho City Got its Name

Meridian is one of Idaho's fastest growing cities and is constantly named one of the best places to raise a family. It is certainly popular and business is booming. So how did this now great and thriving city get its start and where did the name come from?

There are some slightly varying stories out there on Meridian's beginning but they all lead to generally the same thing.

Wikipedia says that "The town was established in 1891 on the Onweiler farm north of the present site and was called Hunter. Two years later an I.O.O.F. lodge was organized and called itself Meridian because it was located on the Boise Meridian and the town was renamed. The Settlers' Irrigation Ditch, 1892, changed the arid region into a productive farming community which was incorporated in 1902."

The city of Meridian website itself has a slightly different description although parallels other similar claims on the origin of the town.

According to Meridiancity.org, "The original Meridian town site was filed in 1893 on homestead grant land belonging to Eliza Ann Zenger. Her husband, Christian, filed the plat with county officials and called it Meridian. Meridian was incorporated as a village in 1903 with a population of approximately 200 and a bustling business center."

It seems there may still be some debate on the exact year and exact way that the now thriving city got its name. So what does the word Meridian itself mean?

"The term meridian comes from the Latin meridies, meaning "midday"; the subsolar point passes through a given meridian at solar noon, midway between the times of sunrise and sunset on that meridian. Likewise, the Sun crosses the celestial meridian at the same time."

Oxford dictionary has two noun descriptions for it - The first: "a circle of constant longitude passing through a given place on the earth's surface and the terrestrial poles"

The second: (in acupuncture and Chinese medicine) each of a set of pathways in the body along which vital energy is said to flow. There are twelve such pathways associated with specific organs."