The Charlotte Bobcats will officially become the Hornets next season , uniting the Queen City ’s current NBA team with its honest-to-goodness nickname . The original Charlotte Hornets enfranchisement moved to New Orleans in 2002 , but last year changed its name to the Pelicans , freeing Hornets up . In pureness of the former Lynx rufus , here are eight other pro sport teams that prefer for a new nickname .
1. Houston Colt .45s
Houston ’s baseball team was primitively known as the Colt .45s , but squad president Judge Roy Hofheinz made a variety " in maintain with the times" in 1965 . Citing Houston ’s status as " the space age working capital of the world , " Hofheinz settled on Astros . " With our new vaulted stadium , we recall it will also make Houston the mutation majuscule of the world , " Hofheinz said . The change was in all likelihood also motivated by pressure from the Colt Firearms Company , which object to the utilisation of the Colt .45 soubriquet .
2. New York Highlanders
In 1903 , the original Baltimore Orioles moved to New York , where they became the Highlanders . As was common at the meter , the squad , which played in the American League , was also known as the New York Americans . New York Presseditor Jim Price is often credited with coining the nickname Yanks , or Yankees , because it was easy to fit in newspaper headline . The squad formally adopt the Yankees name in 1913 .
3. Tampa Bay Devil Rays
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Vince Naimoli , owner of Tampa Bay ’s expanding upon team , pick out Devil Rays out of more than 7,000 suggestions submitted by the public in 1995 . The reaction was not positivist . " So far , I ’ve fielded about 20 telephone shout protest Devil Rays , and most of the callers have draw themselves as Christians who are upset about the Holy Scripture devil , " aTampa Tribunecolumnist told a newsperson less than a week after the nickname was announced . In his excellent bookThe special 2 % , Jonah Keri said Naimoli was raging people did n’t like the name . " He regularise the squad to conduct a phone canvass , where citizenry could vote on one of two names : Devil Rays or Manta Rays . " Though Manta Rays was the other loss leader , the team claimed Devil Rays caught up , and it was declared the succeeder .
According to Keri , Naimoli originally wanted to dub his squad the Sting Rays . But that name was trademarked by a team in the Hawaiian Winter League and Naimoli refused to pay $ 35,000 to buy it . The team dropped the " Devil" after the 2007 season and the curse that had plagued the franchise for the previous decennary was on the face of it lifted , as Tampa Bay made a surprising streak to the World Series the undermentioned season .
4. Washington Bullets
In the other 1990s , Washington Bullets owner Abe Pollin said he was becoming torment with the association of his team ’s nickname and gun violence . After Pollin ’s friend , Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin , was assassinated , Pollin determine to take activity and harbinger his plans to rename the squad . ( However , Dan Steinberg of D.C. Sports Bog wrote avery detailed historyof the name change , and questioned the wallop Rabin ’s death had on the determination . ) disregardless , a name - the - team competition was curb and fans vote on a leaning of finalists that included Wizards , Dragons , Express , Stallions , and Sea Dogs .
The pick left D.C. diary keeper scratching their head word . AWashington Posteditorial panned the selections : " Except for Sea Dogs , which is simply inexplicable , they appear like the outturn of the same computing machine programs that create name for new car models and washables detergents . " Not long after Wizards was announced as the winning name before the 1997 - 98 time of year , the local NAACP chapter chairwoman complained that the nickname carried Ku Klux Klan associations .
former nicknames for the franchise admit Packers and Zephyrs .
5. Tennessee Oilers
After relocating from Houston to Tennessee in 1995 , the squad play two seasons as the Oilers before proprietor Bud Adams held a statewide contest to rename the squad . Titans was chosen over nicknames such as Tornadoes , Copperheads , South Stars , and Wranglers . “ We want a new cognomen to reflect strength , leading and other heroic quality , '' Adams told reporters .
6. New York Titans
The New York Titans were renamed the Jets in 1963 after Sonny Werblin lead an investment radical that purchased the bankrupt franchise for $ 1 million . According to a contemporaryNew York Timesstory , the dealership count name itself the Dodgers , but nixed the thought after Major League Baseball did n’t care it . Gothams also got some consideration , but the team did n’t like the melodic theme of let it contract to the Goths , because “ you know they were n’t such nice people . ” The last finalist to fall was the New York Borros , a pun on the metropolis ’s borough ; the team worry that opposing fans would make the Borros - burros connectedness and derisorily call the police squad the fathead .
Eventually the squad became the Jets since it was going to act in Shea Stadium , which is penny-pinching to LaGuardia Airport . According to the Pro Football Hall of Fame , the name was supposed to ponder the “ modern approach of his team . ”
7. Boston Braves
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In 1933 , one twelvemonth after he learn an NFL dealership in Boston , George Preston Marshall changed the team ’s soubriquet from Braves to Redskins . According toThe New York Times , the name change was made to avert mix-up with baseball game ’s Boston Braves , who later go to Milwaukee and then Atlanta . The franchise relocate to Washington before the 1937 season .
8. Anaheim Mighty Ducks
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Quack . Quack . Quack ! Quack ! QUACK ! Anaheim conjoin the NHL in 1993 and its team was known as the Mighty Ducks , after the popular Disney movie and cross - marketing fomite of the same name . The nickname was alter to Ducks and the logo was changed in 2005 after Disney sold the team .
dowery of this story originally appear in 2010 .
