 After Hoover 's election defeat in 1932 and the accession of the Roosevelt administration , Secretary Ickes ordered on May 13 , 1933 that the dam be referred to as " Boulder Dam " . Ickes stated that Wilbur had been <unk> in naming the dam after a sitting president , that Congress had never ratified his choice , and that it had long been referred to as Boulder Dam . Unknown to the general public , Attorney General Homer Cummings informed Ickes that Congress had indeed used the name " Hoover Dam " in five different bills appropriating money for construction of the dam . The official status this conferred to the name " Hoover Dam " had been noted on the floor of the House of Representatives by Congressman Edward T. Taylor of Colorado on December 12 , 1930 , but was likewise ignored by Ickes . 
