As I sit here watching the “California High School Football Game of the Century” between Long Beach Poly and De La Salle of Concord, I was wondering.
Some schools are called De La Salle, like the high school in Concord and the elementary school I attended. Other schools are called just La Salle, like the college in Philadelphia and a high school in Pasadena.
All of the schools have some connection with St. John Baptist De La Salle, who started the Christian Brothers, a noted teaching order.
Any ideas on why there are these differences. I imagine there must be other schools with this name in other states.
Good question. I’m not sure how much a part of the name the “de” is considered to be. In the Petit Larousse, the “de” isn’t capitalized and the name isn’t alphebetized under “de” unless the person is foreign (i.e., not French). Charles de Gaulle is found under G and Jean-Baptiste de La Salle is under L.
The French call such a school “école de La Salle” where it’s not clear to me whether the de is part of the name or not. I did find mention of one school in Quebec called “École De-La-Salle”.
In Spanish they seem to leave out the “de” altogether (e.g., Colegio La Salle).
Incidentally, the cities of La Salle in Quebec and Illinois are not named for the saint, but for the explorer, René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.