When watching games, most of us have noticed that many sports teams are named after animals.
Some of us have gone a step further and wondered how so. Why of all possible names, teams have decided to give a name after wolfs, bulldogs, huskies, etc.
Well, how teams are named depends on the sport and the country or region. Naming conventions vary.
You might have noticed that soccer clubs worldwide don’t have animal names and that NFL teams are not likely to be carnivorous predators.
Also, some of the oldest sports teams in the world don’t seem to be named after animals.
In short, it comes from wanting to have an identity of something that can beat or dominate a person. You want the team to seem like something that can win while perhaps invoking some other qualities of the animal.
But there’s much more to this subject than a simple explanation.
Without further ado, let’s dive into clubs named after animals (and why’s that).
Why Are Sports Teams Named After Animals?
The practice of holding an animal companion in the team name initially comes from North American professional leagues. Not just ice hockey teams but also teams from football and basketball keep an animal in their name.
There are two aspects:
- On the one hand, the animal appeared on the city coat of arms and was integrated into the logo from the very beginning of the club.
- On the other hand, towards the end of the 1990s, infected with Americanization, the clubs increasingly identified themselves with mostly aggressive animal logos. The background to this was also marketing aspects to increase the sale of fan articles.
The English-speaking world is where animal names first became popular; Australia was even a trendsetter in this area shortly after the turn of the century.
For example, as part of marketing, logos are printed on fan articles, and the team animal is brought to life as a mascot.
And there’s one other thing about animal mascots that’s pretty nice. They don’t get offended the way people do. They don’t tell you that a caricature of them needs to go away.
You can do fun things with animal mascots – you can have one beat the other up or eat it, and it’s a show of dominance. The kids love it. You can’t do as much of that if the mascot is a certain type of person.
Ultimately, it comes down to symbolism. It’s easy to rally people behind images, all the more about powerful, large, or otherwise animals with impressive qualities.
It’s common to promote local fauna and/or animals that might represent qualities or themes the team describes itself with (granted that that might be subject to change over time).
Lastly, all the themes and logos are ultimately there to distinguish teams from each other.
NBA Teams with Animal Names
Eight of the 30 teams in the NBA league are named after animals.
When these teams were originally named, some were voted by fans, some were linked to local history, some had deep meaning and some meaning, and some wanted a bizarre name, and it’s so named for almost no valid reason.
Some animals are symbols of the city, and some are to learn the spirit of struggle and struggle of animals, such as Bulls and Timberwolves.
Milwaukee Bucks: From the name, it is not difficult to see that the deer have a pivotal position in the local area. Wisconsin, where Milwaukee is located, is indeed rich in this wildlife.
The Bucks entered the NBA in 1968, and the judges chose “Bucks” from more than 1,400 names, and the winner who named the team was rewarded with a car.
The Milwaukee Bucks can see a lot of white-tailed deer in North America, but especially in the fields and forests of Wisconsin. The white-tailed deer is one of the symbols of the state of Wisconsin. “Bucks” refers to the males of this deer, the only one that grows antler (Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
Minnesota Timberwolves: Minnesota is the primary habitat of the Timberwolves in the United States, so the name was easily chosen.
Another name, Polar, competed with it at the beginning. However, when entering the NBA in 1989, the Timberwolves ended up with a 2/3 approval rating in the naming vote.
Memphis Grizzlies: Another rather uninspired way of naming it because the club, when initially created, was located in an area where grizzlies abound.
The Grizzlies, who only joined the NBA in 1995, were originally in Vancouver, where there are 20,000 Canadian Grizzlies.
Although the team later moved to Memphis, the team name remained. At the time of the naming contest, the Grizzlies also competed with “Dragon,” “Condor,” “Dashan,” and so on.
Atlanta Hawks: Atlanta is not rich in eagles. The name comes from the name of an Indian chief.
When an Indian gave birth to a child, the first person to visit said that whatever he saw, the child was named after it.
The most famous warrior among the Indians was Black Hawk, a Sauk chief in the 1830s. Settled in Milwaukee in 1951, renamed the Eagles. He later moved to Atlanta but did not change his name.
Charlotte Hornets: As early as the Revolutionary War, the British colonial general Charles Cornwallis wrote to the King of England: “A war in this place is like a war in a hive.”
The hornet represents the spirit of the North Carolina people. In the end, it won the competition for the title.
Dallas Mavericks: The original meaning of “Mavericks” on the Mavericks’ logo is maverick.
It should be interpreted as a calf (horse) not branded in the old west or a calf (horse) that left the team and lost its way.
The name Mavericks commemorates the life of the local western cowboys because “unbranded calves” often stray into other people’s fields to graze.
Although they don’t understand the rules, they represent a fearless spirit. “Maverick” was the culmination of more than 4,600 names selected at the time.
Chicago Bulls: In the 1980s and 1990s, Michael Jordan made the Bulls the world’s most recognizable American basketball team.
One hundred years before Jordan’s time, Chicago was the center of the American meatpacking industry.
Cattle from all over the central United States were loaded onto trains to Chicago and slaughtered in large meatpacking plants.
Although most meatpacking plants are now out of Chicago, the name “Bull” harks back to that history.
New Orleans Pelicans: The team announced in a press release that its colors would be red, gold, and navy, all colors found in the New Orleans city flag. After the 2012–13 season, the team formally adopted its new brand identity.
The name Pelicans refers to the brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana.
NHL Teams with Animal Names
The NHL currently consists of 30 teams, six of which have an animal name.
The San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks triggered a true marketing boom in the early 1990s. Before that, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Hartford Whalers were among themselves for a long time.
Below we’re explaining where the animal names of the six current NHL teams come from.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Carol McGregor, the wife of the license part-owner, came up with the name more or less by accident.
It was known that the team would play their home games at the Civic Arena, so she asked what the arena is popularly called.
Since the venue was often nicknamed “The Big Igloo,” it was natural to give the team the animal nickname “Penguins.”
The original logo features a penguin in front of a triangle, which stands for “The Golden Triangle” of downtown Pittsburgh.
Buffalo Sabres
A bison and two crossed sabers are featured in their logo. For one, the team is from Buffalo, New York, and was originally going to be referred to as the “Bisons” (Buffalo).
However, brothers and owners Seymour Knox III and Northrup Knox wanted to find a more original and unique team name and started a naming contest.
They finally selected “Sabres” (saber) from numerous entries. The brothers justified their decision by saying that the saber is a weapon carried by a leader and is strong on offense and defense. That’s exactly what they hoped for from their team.
Arizona Coyotes
In 1972, the Winnipeg Jets—now known as the Arizona Coyotes—were first established. They relocated to Phoenix for the 1996–97 season, where they held a name competition for the team.
The coyote, which is regarded as Arizona’s most dreaded predator, won this battle. The term “scorpion” for an animal came in second.
At first, the team was called the “Phoenix Coyotes” until they moved again to Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix.
At the beginning of the 2014/15 season, they renamed themselves “Arizona Coyotes” because they were not only considered a hockey team for Glendale or Phoenix but wanted to stand for the entire state of Arizona.
Thus, the team hoped to be able to inspire fans from all over the southwest.
Anaheim Ducks
In the history of the North American professional league, only one team – the Anaheim Ducks – has been given a brand name.
With the release of “Mighty Ducks – Das Superteam” in 1992, Walt Disney scored a huge success. Disney quickly established a professional ice hockey team so that it could realize this.
The NHL franchised the movie with Disney the following year after realizing how well-liked it was. The team was given the name “Mighty Ducks of Anaheim” and was given the movie’s logo.
The name was changed to Anaheim Ducks when Disney sold the team in 2005.
San Jose Sharks
The San Jose Sharks were established in 1991, and that same year they held a drawing for tickets to the Chicago game. The main purpose of this should be to identify the team.
Out of over 2,300 entries from around the world, “Sharks” was ultimately chosen as the winner. Rubber Puckies, Screaming Squids, Salty Dogs, and Blades also advanced to the finals.
The most well-liked suggestion, “Blades,” was ultimately disregarded because of the gang allusion.
The team name was appropriately chosen because, at the time, seven different species of shark made their homes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. “The Red Triangle” is the name of the location.
Florida Panthers
The Panthers of Florida were established in 1993. The native Florida wildcat at the time was a threatened species.
In an effort to draw attention to the critical issue, the team decided to call themselves after the graceful big cat.
When the team’s name was announced, Chairman Bill Torrey gave reporters his forecast that the hockey players would honor the Panthers by being as quick on the ice as the animal in its natural habitat.
NFL Teams with Animal Names
Sixteen of the 32 teams in the NFL are named after animals. Here are the explanations for some of them:
Baltimore Ravens are so named because Edgar Allen Poe, who lived in Baltimore, wrote a poem called “The Raven” (“Nevermore”). The other Baltimore sports team, the MLB Baltimore Orioles, is also named after a bird.
Arizona Cardinals were originally in Chicago. The team’s owner bought faded maroon jerseys from the University of Chicago and named his team the Cardinals due to the color.
Los Angeles Rams, which were in Cleveland when they were founded, chose the name Rams to nod to Fordham University’s team.
Philadelphia Eagles were named after the Eagle in the NRA (National Recovery Act), a new deal administration.
Chicago Bears were originally called the “Staleys” after the starch company that supported them, but they changed the name to the Bears because they played in Wrigley Field and wanted to keep the bear theme.
Detroit Lions were probably named to be somewhat consistent with the Tigers.
However, most of the team names were decided by various contests – Bengals, Broncos, Dolphins, and a few others were chosen in this manner.