Sports Team Names and Their Origins

When you live in a city that has several professional sports teams you sometimes take the name of the team for granted. It is no different here in Pittsburgh, PA, where there are three teams to deal with, and the uniqueness and originality that has come from how they were named is quite interesting. For instance, most baseball fans are familiar with the story of how the "Alleghenies", the original name of the ball team here, were accused of "pirating" a player from another team and thus got the name to stick. Many football fans, however, do not know that the Steelers were first called the "Pirates", stealing the name, if you will, from the baseball team.

If you study sports trivia you learn quite a bit about how sports teams got their names, or what they were known as years ago. During the early days of professional baseball team names were more than interesting: they were creative and sometimes profoundly irregular. It was fashionable in those days to name ball clubs and players after some descriptive piece of garment, such as their socks. The Brown Stockings soon became the Browns; the White Stockings became the White Sox, and so on. The Reds were also shortened from the color of their socks, making it easy for them to pick a color of uniform. The Cleveland Browns, on the other hand, were named after their illustrious and Hall of Fame coach Paul Brown, who led the team to consecutive championships in the All-American Football Conference, which soon merged with the NFL.

Some interesting names in baseball lore were borrowed from those earlier days when teams came and went. The current day Mets got their name from some early New York teams that had the lengthy name shortened from "Metropolitans" to a much shorter one. This is in reference of the city itself. The A's, a franchise that has been moved twice, was originally the "Athletics" and even today most fans do not use the longer name. The Giants received their name from a description of what the team was like to its owner and coach. The original Washington Senators were obviously named after the D.C. area's most influential politicians, a name that stuck only after several other names didn't seem popular with the fans.

On a side note, the highly successful Los Angeles Lakers are sometimes mysteriously named as if their origins came from some mythical world of an ancient California. The name, however, was given to the franchise long ago when it was located in Minnesota, the "Land of Lakes". It's strange to some that the name was never changed.

The Baltimore Orioles franchise is a curious one. A franchise existed in the early days called the "Lord Baltimores", recalling the historical founding of the city. After a stint in the pre-twentieth century National League, the team was forcefully disbanded and the players distributed amongst the remaining clubs. The first years of the American League saw the team adopted again, but the franchise was soon moved to New York to become the Highlanders and eventually the Yankees. Finally, when the St. Louis Browns were moved to Baltimore, it seemed logical to revive the Orioles label, of course referring to a popular state bird.

Some names have been controversial, such as the Braves and the Indians. Originally playing in Boston, the Braves had several different names. with the more popular "Beaneaters" not sticking, a reference to the town itself. The Cleveland franchise also had several earlier names, including Blues and Naps (a shortening of its early great star, Napoleon Lajoie). Some would say that it is insulting or downgrading to place a label on a sports team such as "Indian" or "Brave", but I somehow agree with those who say it's an honor to have people think so highly of the reference to borrow the name to a beloved sports franchise. Who would not want a team named after themselves, or something honorable like "The Fighting Irish"?

One of the most interesting stories deals with one of the longest running clubs in baseball history, and one of the most frustrating, the Chicago Cubs. The team got its nickname as a rather unusual description of its players and their youthful play. The team, first known as the White Stockings, later became known as the Colts, the Orphans, and finally the Cubs. The most fascinating story is the one about how they got the "Orphans" label. Their well-beloved and long running player-manager, Adrian "Cap" Anson, was fired. He had been running the team for so long the fans didn't know how to react to the release, thus thinking that they and the players had lost their father. He had led them to their most successful pennants in their long history.

A bit of research is needed to explore just about any reference to a sports team, and it would take a complete book to mention the imaginative and sensical ways that franchises have been named. The examples above mark only a portion of the stories to be told. Hopefully these samples will get you interested in how your own hometown teams were named, if not already done here. Go and indulge yourself with exploration and you might be surprised what you find. There are plenty of reference sources out there, besides the internet. Some stories may even make you scratch your head. By the way, yes I would feel honored to have a team called the "Jimmys" or the "James". It has a ring to it.

Sources: ESPN Books, (2009). ESPN Sports Almanac, Sports Almanac, Inc., pp. 107-08.

Thorn, J; Palmer, P, (1993), Total Baseball Third Edition, HarperPerennial, New York.