Who was Yale University named after?

It was originally called Yale University collegiate school when it was founded in 1701. It was renamed in honor Elihu Yale in 1718. Yale had made a fortune in the East India Company and later in the diamond trade, and he made some sizeable donations to the school – books, a portrait of King George I and some expensive textiles – and the school returned the favour durch took his name and became Yale College. Yale was born in Massachusetts but left for England at the age of three and never returned, so he never attended the school that eventually bore his name.