What’s in a Name? It’s the ZIP Code That Matters : Postal service: With 92630 specified, mail will reach El Toro . . . er, Lake Forest.

The postmaster has ruled: If you live in El Toro or Lake Forest, you can continue to use the city name in an address, but just make sure the ZIP code is correct.

“They can use El Toro, Lake Forest or Timbuktu,” said Hector Godinez, the regional postmaster in Santa Ana. “Put the correct ZIP code and we’ll deliver it rain, sleet or snow or gloom of night.”

The ruling Thursday appeared to end confusion that arose last month when the residents of greater El Toro voted to become a new city and, by a very slim margin, chose to call the city Lake Forest--much to the chagrin of longtime residents and the U.S. Postal Service, which already has a Placer County community called Lake Forest on its books.

That raised the question of whether letters addressed to the new Lake Forest would make it there at all.

Noting the Lake Forest in Northern California, Godinez had initially said it was unlikely that the new city could be called Lake Forest because dozens of letters without ZIP codes are sent each week between the two communities.

But postal authorities in Washington on Thursday approved a recommendation that letters addressed to El Toro or Lake Forest be delivered as usual as long as they carry the correct ZIP code: 92630.

Helen Wilson, one of five people elected to the City Council that will be inaugurated on Dec. 21, said postal officials told her that they “don’t want to get involved in politics.”

Wilson said the council-elect is bound to follow the voters’ choice of the name Lake Forest. She and other members of the council-elect already refer to the new city-to-be as Lake Forest.

During the last month, the name change has been hotly debated in this community of 57,000. Weeks after the referendum, residents still fill the editorial pages of local newspapers with letters of outrage over the change.

Supporters of the name El Toro say it reflects the region’s rich history and charge that residents of the planned community of Lake Forest were behind the change. Others contend that the name Lake Forest exudes a more chic image than does El Toro (Spanish for “the bull”).

Wilson said Thursday that she is not certain whether the new council will apply to change the name of the post office itself to Lake Forest.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Godinez said.