Did you know the full name of Notre Dame is University of Notre Dame du Lac? (Univeristy of our Lady of the Lake!)

But if there are two lakes on campus why just a singular lake in the title?

The story is that it was winter when Father Sorin first visited the place that would soon be Notre Dame. He wrote to the founder of the Holy Cross order, Father Basil Moreau,

“Everything was frozen over. Yet it all seemed so beautiful. The lake, especially, with its broad carpet of dazzling white snow, quite naturally reminded us of the spotless purity of our August Lady whose name it bears, and also of the purity of soul that should mark the new inhabitants of this chosen spot.”

The wintery wonderland was so frozen it looked like there was only one lake, not two!

Registry