What’s in a Name? Origins of area NFL Team Names

With the Washington Football Team officially branding themselves the "Commanders," an article on espn.com referenced the origins of all 32 teams' nicknames.

Let's dive into some of our area NFL Franchises:

Denver Broncos

The Broncos were a charter member of the AFL. When a contest was held to name the new franchise, 162 entries were submitted. The winner? A 25-word effort from Ward M. Vining on why Broncos should be the team's nickname was declared the winner. -- Jeff Legwold

Get our free mobile app

Kansas City Chiefs

The Dallas Texans -- after moving to Kansas City before the 1963 season -- assumed the nickname of Kansas City's mayor, H. Roe Bartle, who was known as "the Chief.'' Bartle was a key figure in helping Kansas City lure the team from franchise founder Lamar Hunt's hometown of Dallas. -- Adam Teicher

Green Bay Packers

The team actually was referred to as both the Packers and the Indians upon its inception in 1919. But two days after the local paper, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, initially used both names, it began referring to the team only as the Packers. Indians came from the Indian Packing Co., a meatpacking company that was the team's original sponsor. According to the Packers, it's not clear who coined the nickname, but it was likely one of two Press-Gazette staff members, either sports columnist Val Schneider or city editor George Whitney Calhoun, the latter serving as co-founder of the team along with Curly Lambeau. When Acme Packing joined Indian Packing as a team sponsor in 1921, sticking with the name Packers made even more sense. -- Rob Demovsky

Minnesota Vikings

There were several nicknames suggested when Minnesota was granted an NFL franchise in 1960, including Chippewas, Miners, Voyageurs and Vikings. Bert Rose, Minnesota's first general manager, recommended the Vikings nickname to the team's board of directors to pay homage to the state's deeply rooted Scandinavian American culture. The name was chosen because it represented both "an aggressive person with the will to win and the Nordic tradition in the northern Midwest," according to the team's website. -- Courtney Cronin

Chicago Bears

The franchise -- under the direction of team founder George Halas -- was originally called the Staleys. When the agreement to keep the Staleys name expired in 1922, Halas decided to rename the team the Bears. Halas considering using the name Cubs, but ultimately felt that since football players are bigger than baseball players, football players should be called Bears. -- ESPN

There you have it. All 32 NFL Franchises have a name. All that's left is to speculate as to what's on the horizon for exciting expansion opportunities for the league and the nicknames that follow.