Club Nicknames

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I've been thinking this morning about club nicknames and franchise names. 

I do wonder why when clubs were choosing a franchise name with the advent of Super League that so many already established names were chosen. What I mean by this is the use of names that are already very recognisable sporting franchises, mainly American sports teams or NRL teams. There are of course millions of things in the world that a team can be named after but the same things often get chosen. Is there actually a reason for this? 

I guess the absolute prime example of this is having two teams called Vikings in the same league. As I say as well, we have teams in both this country and Australia with the same nicknames.

It then got me thinking what RL in this country would look like if the teams all had their traditional nicknames in their names now. Certainly most of them wouldn't sound quite a snazzy such as Warrington Wires, or Leeds Loincloths but there would be some good ones in there as well that I'm sure fans would like, with it giving that link back to their history rather than just a random thing that has nothing to do with the place it represents. I'm not an expert on the traditional nicknames of teams so my second question is, does someone want to draw up a list of SL and Championship teams if their name was their traditional nickname?

[Tommygilf]

Loiners

Wire

Chemics

Trinity 

Robins

Airlie Birds

Glassblowers

Roughyeds

Leythers

Northern

[Tommygilf]

Some interesting historic names here too...

 

 

[Andy JG]

I can't stand where franchise names take over and become the team name..

ie in club rugby union The Stormers, The Bulls, etc... i'd hate that to happen in RL. A place name is part of a clubs identity. 

[Eddie]

I was always glad that Saints didn’t take a name, and Widnes should have been Widnes Chemics, loads better than Vikings which has nothing to do with the club or town. 

[Rene_Artois]

Dons

Gallant Youths

Dreadnoughts

Wasps

[Tommygilf]

12 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I was always glad that Saints didn’t take a name, and Widnes should have been Widnes Chemics, loads better than Vikings which has nothing to do with the club or town. 

St Helens by happy coincidence already had "Saints" though and used that heavily in their early branding and continue to do so more broadly.

Widnes I agree with generally. 

I think a lot of clubs could learn from Warrington with this. They are the Wolves but nod to being The Wire in their branding too. Hull KR get it right too with the robins in their branding. 

 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

16 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I was always glad that Saints didn’t take a name, and Widnes should have been Widnes Chemics, loads better than Vikings which has nothing to do with the club or town. 

This is essentially the one that got me thinking about this, as I said in my post; the fact that two teams are called Vikings in the same league and as you say, Vikings having nothing to do with Widnes. Chemics would be a cool nickname! I'll accept Vikings for Goole because this is an old Viking stronghold round here, though Goole is famous for its port so maybe a nod to that would be nice.

[Tommygilf]

27 minutes ago, Andy JG said:

I can't stand where franchise names take over and become the team name..

ie in club rugby union The Stormers, The Bulls, etc... i'd hate that to happen in RL. A place name is part of a clubs identity. 

It doesn't have to be - and there are more than a fee examples of clubs who don't rely on a place name.

I think in a world where so many of our clubs are up against football for recognition, the monikers help massively to differentiate ourselves. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

6 minutes ago, Rene_Artois said:

Dons

Gallant Youths

Dreadnoughts

Wasps

Who are the Gallant Youths?

[Tommygilf]

1 minute ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Who are the Gallant Youths?

Batley Bulldogs

[Eddie]

3 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

This is essentially the one that got me thinking about this, as I said in my post; the fact that two teams are called Vikings in the same league and as you say, Vikings having nothing to do with Widnes. Chemics would be a cool nickname! I'll accept Vikings for Goole because this is an old Viking stronghold round here, though Goole is famous for its port so maybe a nod to that would be nice.

Given the recent revelation about Harold’s army’s journey from Stamford Bridge to Hastings they might well have docked at Goole. 

[dkw]

1 minute ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

Who are the Gallant Youths?

Batley, no idea why.

[Eddie]

Wigan missed a trick by taking Warriors instead of Pies. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

Just now, Eddie said:

Given the recent revelation about Harold’s army’s journey from Stamford Bridge to Hastings they might well have docked at Goole. 

You're a man after my own heart, Eddie. Do like a bit of local history! 

[Tommygilf]

Just now, Eddie said:

Given the recent revelation about Harold’s army’s journey from Stamford Bridge to Hastings they might well have docked at Goole. 

Goole Anglo-Norse doesn't have the same ring to it though.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

Wigan missed a trick by taking Warriors instead of Pies. 

They could have released a Christmas themed jersey and had 'Mince Pies' on the badge instead of just pies. Would have earned them a bob or two.

[Phil]

28 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Widnes should have been Widnes Chemics, loads better than Vikings which has nothing to do with the club or town. 

Widnes is a Norse name meaning “wide nose” named by the Vikings who settled there 

The most usual explanation for the origin of the name Widnes is that it comes from the Danishwords vid, meaning 'wide', and noese, meaning 'nose', referring to the promontory projecting into the River Mersey. However, the Widnes promontory is not particularly wide and another possible explanation is the first part derives from the Danish ved, meaning 'a wood' and possibly referring to a tree-covered promontory. Earlier spellings of the name have been Vidnes, Wydnesand Wydness.^[6]

Edited April 11 by Phil

[Tommygilf]

Hornets was before lots of clubs had names too

[sam4731]

There seems to be quite a few English non league football teams that have kept there industry name that the town was known for in the name of the club.

Prescot Cables, Vauxhall Motors, Stocksbridge Park Steels, Atherton Collieries, Harrogate Railway

[Eddie]

3 minutes ago, Phil said:

Widnes is a Norse name meaning “wide nose” named by the Vikings who settled there 

The most usual explanation for the origin of the name Widnes is that it comes from the Danishwords vid, meaning 'wide', and noese, meaning 'nose', referring to the promontory projecting into the River Mersey. However, the Widnes promontory is not particularly wide and another possible explanation is the first part derives from the Danish ved, meaning 'a wood' and possibly referring to a tree-covered promontory. Earlier spellings of the name have been Vidnes, Wydnesand Wydness.^[6]

Ok but it’s hardly a close relationship, by that measure every team in England (except Cornwall) could be called the Saxons, Angles or Danes. Also to note the Vikings (as we know them) weren’t called Vikings in that era, they were Danes. 

[Tommygilf]

3 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Ok but it’s hardly a close relationship, by that measure every team in England (except Cornwall) could be called the Saxons, Angles or Danes. Also to note the Vikings (as we know them) weren’t called Vikings in that era, they were Danes. 

None of them were called Vikings they were all called Danes, Norse or Northmen at the time. 

Cumbria would also not be Saxon or Angle either.

The Norse influence is clear all across the Danelaw which places in the West of modern England like Widnes were absolutely in.

The naming of a town from one language or another suggests a strong link to that language and its speakers, otherwise it wouldn't have cottoned on.

Edited April 11 by Tommygilf

[The Hallucinating Goose]

4 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

There seems to be quite a few English non league football teams that have kept there industry name that the town was known for in the name of the club.

Prescot Cables, Vauxhall Motors, Stocksbridge Park Steels, Atherton Collieries, Harrogate Railway

You get quite a few clubs called Welfare as well, which I presume is because they were set up by local industry social clubs.

[Futtocks]

2 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

Northern

aka Steam Pigs.

[Eddie]

28 minutes ago, sam4731 said:

There seems to be quite a few English non league football teams that have kept there industry name that the town was known for in the name of the club.

Prescot Cables, Vauxhall Motors, Stocksbridge Park Steels, Atherton Collieries, Harrogate Railway

And Arsenal.