Chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges. The name Côte-des-Neiges traces its origin back to 1698, when the first road was built to this area and reached a stream running down the snowy north side of Mount Royal. The stream was given the name ruisseau des Neiges and became the basis of the lots established by the surveyor Gédéon de Catalogne.The côte of Notre-Dame des Neiges (Our Lady of the Snows) was created as the Village of Côte-des-Neiges in 1862, divided in two in 1889, and annexed by the City of Montreal in 1908 and 1910. The original road, later the village's main street, retains the name chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges.
Numerous côtes in Montreal were named for aspects of the Virgin Mary while the island was a seigneury of the Sulpician Order, which is especially devoted to the Virgin. Our Lady of the Snows refers to a miracle in the fourth century in which snow supposedly fell in Rome in August to indicate the site chosen by the Virgin for the future Basilica of St. Mary Major.
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