How Did Premier League Teams Get Their Names & Nicknames? 

History and football. Can’t have a better combination.

I'd be interested in a one for the championship as well, a lot of teams in the second division have tonnes of great history as well.

Wolves aren’t called “The Wolves”, it’s just Wolves, and they’re very rarely ever called their full name of Wolverhampton unless you say Wolverhampton Wanderers

Leeds United's nickname used to be the Peacocks but in the 1960's our manager (Don Revie) was very supersticious and he believed birds to be bad luck. He got the club to get rid of the owl on our badge and to change our nickname to the whites. The following year we won our first ever major trophy, the League Cup.

Great Video! However, West ham wasn't called "THOMAS Ironworks FC". The Club was called "THAMES Ironworks FC". As in the river Thames.

Honestly Hilbert, i think you should do more "history in sports" videos. Your style really lends itself to this sort of sub topic

I am very surprised that you of all people did not mention the fact that Chelsea have the Tudor Rose on their badge. It's quite interesting actually. Many southern football clubs have the Lancaster rose on their badge, as the south mostly supported the Lancaster claim. And in the North, many clubs, like Sheffield United, have the Withe Rose of York on their badge. In the capital however, being the seat of the victorious regime, the Tudor Rose is common. They used to have three roses actually, to symbolise each of the three houses.

That was very interesting, thank you! West Ham's ground was actually just over the border in East Ham [They didn't join to become Newham till later], and the nearest underground station was Upton Park [West Ham station was two stops further down the line, East Ham one stop further up]. The ground was usually referred to as Upton Park. There was a legend, myth or whatever during WW2, that you could detect a German spy by getting him to say "Wolverhampton Wanderers" - it being believed that Germans always pronounced the letter "w" as "v".

West Ham used to be called Thames ironworks not Thomas ironworks, because of the club’s east London heritage rather than because of who our manager was. Another interesting fact about our history comes from the history of our crest. It used to be a picture of a castle with the crossed hammers symbol in either corner and this was to symbolise the fact that the Boleyn ground, or ‘Upton park’ as it was more famously known, was like a fortress. It was then changed to the current crest in 2016 after a move to the London stadium because the old Olympic stadium looked nothing like a fortress

To be clear Liverpool and Everton didn’t ‘split’ from each other, Everton existed first at Anfield, but when the stadium owner massively raised the rents Everton moved to a different stadium, so the owner of Anfield simply made a new club to inhabit the now deserted Anfield: Liverpool

A couple of errors on your Crystal Palace section. Penge is in the Borough of Bromley not Croydon and is still called Penge. The area now known as Crystal Palace (where the building and the original football ground which staged the FA Cup Final before WW1) is also in Bromley not Croydon. CPFC did not move to Croydon until they moved to the Nest in Selhurst after WW1.

Rather confusingly, "Liver" as in Liver bird and Liver building is not pronounced the same way as in Liverpool. It's actually lie-ver.

A not very well-known history behind Tottenham Hotspur’s name is they were also frequently called ‘Shit’ throughout the past 130 years because of they’re playing style, dating back to the Victorian era when they were shit.

As an American, my knowledge in football (although called “soccer” here) is essentially slim to none. But this video was extremely helpful and entertaining to watch Hilbert. Thanks!

I’ve not read all the comments so I may have missed something similar, however just to build on what you’ve said; Man City - they’ve always been known as the blues although they started being called the citizens during the last 10-15 years. The ship on their shirt refers to the Manchester ship canal. Man Utd - they also have the ship on their shirt as the Manchester ship canal was a big deal for Manchester in history. Everton - the name ‘The Toffees’ comes from the fact that Everton Toffee has been made in the area since the 1700’s. Liverpool - the bird is actually pronounced slightly differently to how you said it, it’s spelled Liver-bird but you’d pronounce it ‘Ly-ver’. The story says that the Liver bird attached to the liver building is tied down. If it flies away, the building will collapse and Liverpool will sink into the river Mersey. Thanks

7:47 - The word Liver is not pronounced as "Liv-ver" but "Lye-ver". This is due to the Scouse accent and pronunciation. Also the Liver Bird is a mythical creature that dates back to the 13th century and is a hybrid mix of a Cormorant, Eagle and a Phoenix.

The club that became West Ham United was called 'Thames Ironworks FC' not Thomas ironworks. They were formed by the owner and foreman of the Thames Ironwork and Shipbuilding Company in Canning town, East London.

This was fantastic. I’ve been looking for English-language histories of the top Serie A clubs. Would love it if you could take them on next.

Leeds United are also called the Peacocks, because their ground Elland Road used to be called the Old Peacock Ground, which it's self was named after the associated pub. In fact the defunct Leeds City, who used to play at same ground, were also called the Peacocks.

Great video, one point I picked up on is you stating wolves are the oldest team currently in the premier league being formed in 1877, however earlier in the video you mentioned Aston Villa were formed in 1874. Still an incredibly informative video

What a coincidence, I have been paying more attention to the Premier League recently and I wondering why some of these teams were named what they were. Thanks for the video Hilbert.

Really enjoyed that, especially being someone not from the UK who is a fan of the league but never had much knowledge about the nicknames or the history of the clubs. Great job!

As an Argentine to me. The premier is the best and most fun and competitive league to watch. Outside of South America ofcz... Ps i miss the old Manchester City shield the new one looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint

I really like to see you do a video for the other clubs in the English Football League. There's plenty of interesting stories to be told here!

Couple points: Norwich's kit was changed to yellow to match the nickname Another theory for the origin of toon was a reference to the black and white kits looking like the cartoons of the time The borough of Newham was a name chosen by locals as it was a combination of the boroughs of East Ham and West Ham

Hilbert, another informative video, loved it. I learned some new info about teams I have been for years but you need to tighten down on the errors. The two that jumped out were the West Ham dates and how many teams are in the league. Keep up the good work.

I never expected such a great history channel to dedicate an episode to football. Football and history happen to two of my favorite things, so congrats on creating the perfect video sir.

I just randomly came across this video and I must say it was fantastic. Both brief and informative. Thank you!

Please make more football history videos!

Leeds are nicknamed the Peacocks or Scum, depending on where you're based.

Thank you for the explanation of the Premier League and the sport of football at the start of this video, for all of the viewers who didn’t know but were nevertheless interested in a video on the origins of the league’s club names.

City are known as The Citizens as a slate on Manchester United, who are actually from the NEIGHBOURING CITY OF SALFORD. This became the city club&fans official nickname during the season of the Thaksin Shinawatra takeover (owners before the Mansour's), as a very public protest against the "Noisy Neighbours" tag they received from the media after Shinawatra's takeover. The official team nickname before this was simply "The Sky Blues", which after their rise to the Premier league became "The City Blues" as the club has always maintained that their kit is "City Blue" as opposed to "Sky Blue". I actually work at National football museum, in Manchester. It's a question we get quite regularly from younger visitors. Other than this, a very well-informed video. Nice work dude 😎

The nickname 'Man U' first came into existence with insult from West Brom fans who chanted this about the United Legend, Duncan Edwards (one of the Busby Babes and Munich air disaster victim) as they said, "Duncan Edwards is manure, rotting in his grave, man you are manure-rotting in your grave." so United fans hate Man U and I think Man Utd is far, far more used anyway

Local Manc here, firstly great video, lot of interesting facts I didn't know, there's two things I want to touch on though, mainly Manchester Uniteds old name, it's Newton Heath, not Newtown, named after the Newton Heath area in East Manchester (about half a mile from where Manchester City now play amusingly) although Newton did originally derive from Newtown it's pronounced like the surname of Sir Isaac. Also the Citizens name is popular amongst City fans themselves, but doesn't seem to have taken off with other fans, it'll slowly get more popular over time though I think as City push it in their marketing frequently these days, it's plastered all over the stadium which I walk past daily 😅

Love all the clips from the mitchell and webb show you've edited in 👌🏻

Fantastic to see you tackling this topic! COYS!!!!

the ham part of west ham actually refers to it being a Hamlet outside the city of Londons walls, the area was known as the tower hamlets , this included all the small Hamlets east of the Tower of London. You will also find that West Ham fans use the Irons Nick name, The nickname Iron belongs to Scunthorpe United

This is brilliant. Be great to hear and learn about other clubs.

Thank you Hilbert for another great video. Beautifully done!

You should do this with every division down to the national league! Lots of historic clubs on the way down to non league. Awesome video!

Not our nickname but Cardiff are known to “do the ayatollah” which is tapping your head they do this because when the ayatollah died in iran Cardiff were terrible and since the news was filled with Iranians showing grief by tapping their head Cardiff fans started tapping their heads after every loss as a sign of grief for how terrible Cardiff were

This was really interesting, would love to see you do this for championship clubs

Loved this mate. You have an amazing channel anyway, and getting some football history in here makes it better :) keep up the good work mate!

Very good history lesson! Thank you 👍🏻

Haweh tha TOON!! Just found your videos. It's nice to hear a local voice on RU-vid!

14:35 - you say that WHU was created in 1985 instead of 1895 :) And by the way, isn't liver bird pronunced differently to the city itself? Isn't it as "leiver bird"?

This was a great departure from your usual, thanks.

This so educative and interesting. Thank you 😊

Further context to West Ham’s location: Newham was formed in 1960s after the amalgamation of East Ham and West Ham which were hitherto separate boroughs!

Reminds me of a video by Alfie from HITC Sevens. You guys even have a somewhat similar style. Would love a collab one day between you two!!

Please do all the leagues this video was truly lovely

Love this video as a Burnley fan. Thank you Hilbert

The fact that you are a fellow newcastle fan brings joy to my heart

The Seven Sister cliffs are closer to Brighton than Dover, they are more iconic as well. The hill on which half of Brighton is situated on is called ‘Albion Hill’, so the hotel on the seafront is called ‘The Royal Albion’.

Not the content I was expecting from Hilbert, but I'm here for it

Great video, would love to see one for stadiums and even other sports or leagues

Aston Villa were founded in 1874 and Wolves were founded in 1877. So how does that make Wolves to oldest club currently playing in the premier league?

Newcastle United use 1892 as that is when they took that name and became the only professional club in Newcastle. In reality, they’re Newcastle East End who were founded as Stanley FC in 1881 (changing to East End in 1882). It was actually Newcastle West End (founded 1882) that played at St James’ Park which is located on the western edge of the city centre. East End started out at Stanley Street in Byker in the east end of Newcastle (hence the original name). They played at a few grounds in Byker before moving to the neighbouring area of Heaton. It was East End who had the better team and finances, but West End had the better location. West struggled financially and ended up going under. Several West End directors met with their East End counterparts inviting them as the city’s only professional club to take up residence at St James’ Park. East End accepted. As they moved out of the East End and wanted to appeal to the whole city they decided on a new name. Newcastle United was chosen in a vote held during a public meeting. Also ‘Toon Army’ refers to the supporters not the club. It’s a bit outdated as well as hasn’t really been used since the 90s. The Magpies is the proper nickname but yes The Toon is also used. Supporters can be called ‘Mags’

High value content. Thank you

This is amazing seeing you talk about this. Will you do more videos on this?

I'd love to see your take on eredivisie nicknames

No.1 Southampton is a city - not a town. No.2 The club was called 'Southampton St. Marys' before adopting the simplified name 'Southampton'. So it's easy to see where their nickname came from.

Amazing video, tons of info, loads of fun. Please keep the music a bit lower as it becomes tiring after some mins :)

Great video Hilbert. You should do a video on the nicknames of the championship team and the rest of the football league. Also congrats on smashing my team arsenal last Match day, Newcastle are really improving with the new owners. I thought Wolverhampton’s nickname was the old gold as well as just wolves.

You should do the whole EFL , theres so much history to be explored

It has to be the most Brighton thing ever that their entire modern identity comes from trying to copy Crystal Palace

This was awesome. You should do EFL Championship clubs as well.

Super interesting video, thank you very much !

Great video, I've learned a lot! But there's something wrong or not so accurate. As a Manchester United fan it is wrong to call our team "Man U", In my understanding fans of other teams use to call us that after the plane crash in 1958.

Nice vid, love learning about random football history. Small nitpick, I think the nickname for Man City is 'Cityzens' rather than 'Citizens' as you spelt it in the video

This was nice, thanks alot! Please do the eredivisie from the Netherlands also. Would love to hear you pronounce Dutch football clubs names my guy! Keep it up!

That was super interesting, could you maybe look into some generally interesting and memorable football clubs generally from anywhere, tho learning about some old school traditional clubs that are no longer as relevant as they used to sounds super fun. Like Millwall or the Wanderers.

Manchester United fans NEVER refer to themselves as “Man U” supporters. It’s a name that was given to them by rivals in an awful and disrespectful chant - referring to the Munich air disaster.

We should America Football, “Hand-egg” really. It!s ridiculous it’s called football. I love all the Mitchell and Webb Look references here too.

Glad this is a football channel now lol - it would be cool if you made a video following the histories of the founding members of the Football League or something similar

Love it. Do each league

I am sure Brighton’s nickname has something with the place being synonyms with aggressive seagulls, not merely the Crystal Palace spin 😅

Halbert is a fan of Norf Fc, a proud customer of Greggs, hater of Souf FC, and greatest fan of Norf FC’s star player Ngubu

Big up Hilbert for the video and calling it the barclays premier league in the description, keeping it vintage.

Excellent video hibert

West Ham United was original called Thames Ironworks (not Thomas).

Great video. Just one correction Crystal Palace was founded in 1861.

Loved the video, one small suggestion, the old photos are really wonderful, but not on screen long enough to enjoy. If the letter manipulation could happen either over the photos or much shorter I think the video would be even better. Thank you

Nice video, you should do one about La Liga too

5:40 quick note Penge is still a thing i think crystal palace just took a bit of land from each bordering area

0:31 Arsenal 1:11 Aston Villa 2:01 Brentford 2:59 Brighton 3:54 Burnley 4:31 Chelsea 5:10 Crystal Palace 6:06 Everton 6:43 Leeds 7:07 Leicester 7:26 Liverpool 8:15 Man City 9:04 Man United 10:36 Newcastle 11:28 Norwich 11:55 Southampton 12:23 Tottenham 13:35 Watford 14:25 West Ham 15:33 Wolverhampton

I would love you too to cover the origins the New York london, waricksure and Irish county crest used in the gaa sports like you did for the premiere leugue in this video

Great video! If you could a video on the Bundesliga football clubs that would be awesome.

I found it interesting that you said Arsenal came from the munitions factory without mentioning the munitions factory is called the Arsenal.

You've got to do the names/nicknames of lower league teams now!

I really enjoyed this . Good content

This is amazing. A lot I already knew but the thinking behind the names was something I lacked knowing so thanks. Also some teams you might have missed maybe, not sure, Sunderland, Ipswich Town, Birmingham City, Middlesbrough, Preston, Portsmouth, Stoke, Notts County, Nottingham Forest, Blackburn, Bolton, Derby County and to some extent maybe Wigan, Millwall, West Brom, Sheffield clubs and maybe Wimbledon (AFC) dont know what happened to that club, etc. I have read a few things about these clubs being very famous and have a history to admire.

At the end you say "all 17 clubs" when there are 20? A few others have already mentioned stuff like the Liver and Wolves wearing gold, not orange and black

I've heard Man City often referred to as "the Skyblues" as well as as the "Citizens"

Herbert, i f-ing loved watching this video. It was so interesting. I like the story of “Southampton” and why they are called “saint” but although this was an insightful video the comments are just as good or even better. All the comments seem genuine and every fan of their respective teams knows their shit and know their history. Reading the comments was a history lesson in its self.

beautiful work. thanks for this

Very good content. Just one correction. Villa is the oldest current premier league club not Wolves.

A bit disappointed you didn't mention Spurs other, though be it controversial nickname... Saying this as an Ajax fan, as we have a very similar controversial nickname with a similar history.

This was brilliant, you should think about doing this for the championship

More vids on football please!