Hoover Dam is named for Mr. Herbert Hoover, the Nation's 31st President. When construction of the dam was initiated, on September 30, 1930, Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur ordered that the dam to be built in the Black Canyon of the Colorado as part of the Boulder Canyon Project Act was to be called Hoover Dam. By a Congressional Act of February 14, 1931, this name was made official.

After Mr. Hoover left office, the names "Boulder Canyon Dam" and "Boulder Dam" were frequently used when referring to the dam, allegedly because the new Secretary of the Interior did not like Mr. Hoover. However, the name of the dam was never officially changed from "Hoover."

In the 80th Congress (1947), a number of bills were introduced to "officially" restore the name of Hoover Dam.

The Hoover Dam is 727 feet high, 1,244 feet long, 660 feet thick at the base, and 45 feet thick at the crest. It weighs 5,500,000 tons and contains 3,250,000 cubic yards of concrete. Two spillways, one on each side of the canyon, protect the dam and powerhouse from overflow and are each large enough to float the greatest battleship. They have a channel height equal to a 10-story building.

On the Lake Mead side of the dam, the water is over 500 feet deep. Lake Mead contains enough water to cover Connecticut 10 feet deep. The amount of water released through the dam in a day can be as high as 299,200 gallons (40,000 cubic feet per second) or as low as 52,360 gallons (7,000 cubic feet per second) depending on how much water is needed down stream. Typically the highest flows are in July and lowest are in December.