"In 1876, former California Governor Leland Stanford purchased 650 acres of Rancho San Francisquito for a country home and began the development of his famous Palo Alto Stock Farm for trotting horses. He later bought adjoining properties to bring his farm to more than 8,000 acres, land that eventually became the Stanford campus." http://www.stanford.edu/home/stanford/history/begin.html Standford University was founed by Leland Stanford, therefore, its true name is Leland Stanford Univiversity aka LSU !