 It is one of six squares designed by the founder of Adelaide, Colonel William Light, who was Surveyor-General at the time, in his 1837 plan of the Adelaide city centre and North Adelaide.The square was named in 1837 by the Street Naming Committee after the Duke of Wellington, and in 2003 assigned a second name in the language of the original inhabitants, Kaurna, Kudnartu, as part of the dual naming initiative by the Adelaide City Council.Kudnartu was a Kaurna woman from the Clare District.