Puy-de-Dôme is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Auvergne. Originally, the department was to be called Mont-d'Or (Golden Mountain), but this was changed to Puy-de-Dôme following the intervention of , a local deputy, because of a concern that the name originally chosen risked attracting excessive unwelcome attention from the national taxation authorities.