After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, many resident settlers, named the area Pilsen, after the city in what is now the Czech Republic. Many incoming immigrants settled in what is now the Lower West Side in the 1850s and 1860s.

The neighborhood of South Lawndale was originally settled by East Europeans, mainly by Germans Czechs, in the late 19th century. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, other ethnic groups, took residences through the years, drawn by employment by industries in the area.

The area of North Lawndale was given its name by real estate brokers Edwin Decker and Alden Millard, who invested in real estate following the annexation of the area area into Chicago in 1869.

Few Chicago neighborhoods have undergone as dramatic a transformation in such a short amount of time as the West Loop. A downtrodden area for much of the 20th century, the West Loop turned a corner when the newly built United Center hosted the Democratic National Convention in 1996.

Like West Garfield Park, East Garfield Park gets its name from Garfield Park, previously Central Park, which was renamed after the assassination of President Garfield. The Chicago Park District manages approximately 20% of the neighborhood due to the park which occupies the neighborhood.

West Garfield Park neighborhood is situated west of Garfield Park, a park that received its namesake from President James Garfield, after whom the city renamed the park after his assassination in 1881.

The Austin neighborhood is currently the largest area by population and second largest geographically (behind South Deering), and received its name from Henry Austin, the real estate magnate who purchased and subdivided the land ~1866 calling it Austinville Subdivisions.

The park, which Humboldt Park gets its namesake from is named after German naturalist and geographer Alexander von Humboldt, who was renowned for his five volume Cosmos: Draft of a Physical Description of the World, whose visit to the United States, ironically did not include Chicago. The mainly large German population in the area at the time influenced the choice of name though.