What's in a name? Well, for the Hamlet of Lindenhurst - a lot!

News 12 Long Island's Danielle Campbell and Brian Endres uncover the Lindenhurst name game that took place in Long Island's Hidden Past.

Neguntatogue was the Indian name for the village. It meant forsaken land - and it was the first known name given to what we now call Lindenhurst. 

Historian Anna Jaeger says next, the area was called Huntington South because during the 1600s and 1700s farmers from Huntington would travel there to harvest salt hay for their livestock.

In the early 1800s, wealthy New York City investor Thomas Wellwood bought up the land and brought in the train. 

"Once the railroad came through they were able to bring hundreds of people to this area to see the land," says Jaeger.

Wellwood had a partner in the development who was from Breslau, Germany. The plan was to bring German immigrants out on the train in hope they would settle here. 

Breslau, the new name given to the town, prospered for two decades - and German traditions and customs were celebrated. 

Remnants of that time remain today - like a square-shaped home built in 1870.

No one is quite sure why Breslau's name was changed - some say it was the horrific unsolved double homicide of a husband and his young wife - others say it was bad land deals and failed mortgages. Whatever the reason, by 1891, Breslau was renamed Lindenhurst, and it was said to be done in honor of all the hamlet's linden trees.

Many more wonderful stories on the local history of Lindenhurst will be available in a new book called "From Breslau to Lindenhurst." The book comes out in September.