Association football club names
Football club names are a part of the sport's culture, reflecting century-old traditions. Club names may reflect geographical, cultural, religious or political affilitiations — or simply be the brand name of a club's primary sponsor. Because of the British origin of the sport, many clubs, even outside Europe, have their names written in English.
Formation of the name
A club's name is usually composed of two or more of the following elements, in most cases in the language of the club's home country:
- a word describing the type of entity that runs the club (or ran it when it was founded), such as "Club", "Association", "Society", "Centre", "League", "Union", etc. More recently some clubs are regular commercial enterprises[citation needed] and may have this reflected in their names.
- a word indicating that the club is associated with some sport(s), usually (but not always) including football. Examples are "football", "athletics", "exercises", "sports", etc.
- a geographical name associating the club with some place (usually the town or region where it plays home matches). Examples: "Paris", "Milano", "Recife", "Croatia", "Goiás" or, alternatively, a word that associates the club with something else (a religious, cultural or political tradition). Sometimes the name of the town or the country may be written as in English (AC Milan) or in broken English (River Plate).
- a proper name, mascot or nickname, like "Cruzeiro" "Betis", or "Crusaders".
- in Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands some clubs are associated with the monarchy like Real Madrid.
Except for particles (prepositions, conjunctions, etc.) other words appear infrequently.[citation needed]
In Europe, many (if not most) clubs are named after their towns or cities (e.g. "Deportivo La Coruña", "Liverpool FC", "Hamburger SV", etc. In South America, clubs are more likely to have proper names than to bear the city's name. Some clubs, like Hansa Rostock or Torpedo Moscow may have both.
It is not uncommon for a club to be known for a name that is not written on its badge; which can be for several reasons, but usually it is because there are two different clubs with exactly (or more or less) the same name, prompting one or both to be suffixed with a geographical distinction. Famous instances of this are PFC CSKA Moscow and CSKA Sofia; Dynamo Moscow, Dynamo Kyiv, Dynamo Dresden and Dinamo Tbilisi; América de Cali (Colombia) and Club América (Mexico).
Other clubs are more usually known by nicknames than their full names. In Brazil, for instance, Vasco da Gama is usually called simply "Vasco".
In a few cases the thought surname is the official name of the club. The most common misunderstandings of this are Glasgow Rangers and Glasgow Celtic, where their proper official names are simply Rangers F.C. and Celtic F.C. Another misunderstanding is Belfast Crusaders where the proper name is just Crusaders F.C.
Club names referring to a profession or education
Club names referring to an ethnic, national or religious background
| Topic | Meaning | Country | Clubs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albion | Archaic name for Great Britain |  England
|
Brighton & Hove Albion, Burton Albion |
 Scotland
|
Stirling Albion | ||
| Borussia | Latin name for Prussia. |  Germany
|
Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Borussia Fulda, Borussia Neunkirchen |
| Croatia | Clubs founded by and for members of the Croatian diaspora. |  Australia
|
Adelaide Croatia Soccer Club, SC Croatia, Sydney Croatia, North Perth Croatia, Newcastle Croatia, Whyalla Croatia, Fremantle Croatia, Gwelup Croatia |
 Canada
|
Toronto Croatia, | ||
| Germany
|
Croatia Berlin | ||
| Serbia | Clubs founded by and for members of the Serbian diaspora. | Australia
|
Fitzroy City Serbia, Albion Park White Eagles, Berwick Kings Krajina, Bonnyrigg White Eagles, Canberra White Eagles, Dianella White Eagles, Noble Park Drina, Springvale White Eagles, Westgate Sindjelic, White City Woodville |
| Canada
|
Serbian White Eagles |
Club names referring to geographical features
| Topic | Meaning | Country | Clubs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bay | Indicates a close proximity to a bay |  Wales
|
Colwyn Bay |
| Borough | England
|
Stevenage Borough, Nuneaton Borough, Eastbourne Borough, Radcliffe Borough, Hampton & Richmond Borough | |
| City | England
|
Norwich City, Manchester City, Birmingham City, Gloucester City, | |
 Ireland
|
Cork City, Derry City | ||
 Italy
|
Città di Palermo | ||
 Northern Ireland
|
Armagh City | ||
 Spain
|
Ciudad de Murcia | ||
| Wales
|
Cardiff City | ||
| County | England
|
Derby County, Notts County, Stockport County | |
| Forest | Indicates a close proximity to a forest | England
|
Nottingham Forest, Forest F.C., Forest Green Rovers, Forest Town, Waltham Forest |
| Mountain | See: Mount Ararat |  Armenia
|
FC Ararat Yerevan |
 Iran
|
F.C. Ararat Tehran | ||
| Town | England
|
Huddersfield Town, Halifax Town |
Club names referring to real or mythical people
| Topic | Meaning | Country | Clubs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ajax | Club names containing a reference to Ajax the Great or Ajax the Lesser. |  Estonia
|
FC Ajax Lasnamäe |
style="text-align: left"| Malta
|
Rabat Ajax F.C. | ||
 Morocco
|
Ajax Kenitra | ||
 Netherlands
|
AFC Ajax, Ajax Sportman Combinatie | ||
 South Africa
|
Ajax Cape Town | ||
 United States
|
Ajax Orlando Prospects |
Club names referring to sport
Sports societies
| Topic | Meaning | Country | Clubs |
|---|---|---|---|
| CSKA | CSKA means Central Army Sports Club in Slavic languages, indicates that the team was originally part of the army. | Armenia
|
CSKA Yerevan |
 Bulgaria
|
CSKA Sofia | ||
 Moldova
|
CSKA-Agro Stauceni | ||
 Russia
|
PFC CSKA Moscow | ||
 Tajikistan
|
CSKA Dushanbe | ||
 Ukraine
|
CSKA Kyiv | ||
| Dynamo | Eastern European teams, indicates that the team was originally part of the Soviet Dynamo sport society or an equivalent such as Sportvereinigung Dynamo. |  Albania
|
KS Dinamo Tirana |
 Belarus
|
FC Dinamo Minsk, FC Dinamo Brest | ||
 Croatia
|
Dinamo Zagreb | ||
| Estonia
|
Dünamo Tallinn | ||
 Georgia
|
FC Dinamo Batumi, FC Dinamo Sokhumi, FC Dinamo Tbilisi | ||
| Germany
|
Berliner FC Dynamo, SG Dynamo Dresden | ||
 Latvia
|
FK Dinamo-Rīnuži/LASD | ||
| Moldova
|
FC Dinamo Bender | ||
 Romania
|
FC Dinamo Bucureşti | ||
| Russia
|
Dynamo Moscow, Dynamo Bryansk, Dynamo Makhachkala, Dynamo Stavropol | ||
| Ukraine
|
Dynamo Kyiv, FC Dinamo Luhansk |
Club names referring to values and ideals
List of common club names
 | This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. |
References
- ^ "Histórico". NetVasco. Retrieved 2007-06-23.