Tel Aviv, founded in 1909,was established when a small group of Jewish families moved from the overpopulated Arab town of Jaffa to a selected desert area. There, the construction of Tel Aviv began.The city began to grow in population because of the thousands of people from Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Thousands of imigrants settle there every year. Tel Aviv got its name from the title of Theodor Herzl's novel, Altneuland, translated to mean, "old new land." The Hebrew title, "Tel Aviv," combined the hebrew word, tel, meaninf an ancient site, and another hebrew word, aviv, meaning springtime. In 1950, two years after the establishment of Israel as a jewish state, Tel Aviv and Jaffa combined into the same city. Its official name is now Tel avive- Jaffa. 

To read more, go to http://www.worldtravelguide.net/tel-aviv/history-and-culture#ixzz1DZSNvN9a .