West Long Branch is a Borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the borough population was 8,258. It is the home of Monmouth University. In 1908, the people of the West Long Branch section of Eatontown became unhappy with paying taxes to Eatontown and not getting what they thought was a fair return. A request was made that the West Long Branch section be separated from Eatontown. The Township of Eatontown strongly resisted as there were several large estates in the West Long Branch section that were a source of considerable taxes. An Act of the New Jersey Legislature was passed on April 7, 1908, and the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders authorized an election. On May 5, 1908 the referendum was held in West Long Branch with voters approving the separation. On Tuesday, June 16, 1908, the West Long Branch section of Eatontown Township became the independent Borough of West Long Branch. Prior to being called West Long Branch,the town was called Mechanicsville from the 1700s through the Civil War and then Branchburg in the 1870s. The name West Long Branch appears in the 1889 Wolverton Atlas of Monmouth county.