Where do Football Club Names come from?

As the British football season comes to an end, have you ever wondered about the names of the football clubs involved? I often have, and have asked myself the question “why is Manchester called United, when there is another major team in the same city?” The same question goes for Sheffield, and where did the title Wednesday come from? Why are Bolton called Wanderers, and Bristol Rovers?

Time for a little research! My research reveals some interesting stories about the development of these names, and of the histories of some of the clubs involved.

Looking first at the names Wanderers and Rovers, these usually mean that when the teams first started out they did not have a fixed home ground, and wandered or roved from pitch to pitch. As an example Bolton Wanderers started life as Christ Church FC in 1874 and played their home games at 3 different venues. The club name was changed in 1877 to Bolton Wanderers, and the team was one of the twelve founder clubs of the Football League in 1888. Bristol Rovers also lacked a permanent home ground when it was formed as Black Arabs FC in 1883. The team played at a number of venues and changed its name to Eastville Rovers in 1884, later becoming Bristol Eastville Rovers, and finally formally changing to Bristol Rovers in 1899. By this time the club had a fixed home ground at Eastville, where it remained for almost 100 years.

It is fairly obvious that teams with names like City, County and Town derive their names from their locations. Manchester City, for example, was established to help alleviate poverty and social need in east Manchester in 1894, and named Manchester City so that it could be a team that the entire city would be proud of. At the same time another club operating in Manchester, Newton Heath, had started out as a football team from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) depot of the same name. Originally playing only against other departments of the LYR, the team started to represent the entire LYR and wore the green and gold colours of the company livery. Newton Heath FC became insolvent in 1902, and was rescued by a consortium of local businessmen, who immediately changed the club name to Manchester United. I wonder if they ever imagined the global brand that that name now represents!

Across the Pennines in Sheffield, a cricket club called the Wednesday, strangely enough played its games on a Wednesday! In 1867 the club decided to form a football team to help the cricketers stay fit and keep together as a team throughout the winter months. Thus Sheffield Wednesday Cricket and Football Club was born. The football team was a great success and soon eclipsed the cricket team. Originally playing its games at Bramall Lane, Wednesday soon moved on to another venue, the Olive Grove. There was a sound financial reason for this as the club had to pay a percentage of the gate receipts to the owners of the Bramall Lane ground. After Wednesday’s departure the ground owners decided to form another football club in an attempt to replace the lost income. In 1889 Sheffield United Football Club was formed, and still plays its home games at the Bramall Lane ground.

In future blogs I will take a further look at some of the interesting names and histories of sporting clubs in Britain and across the world. In the meantime, if you would like help with your written English, please visit our website www.writtenenglishcorrected.com