In a league in which the Lakers reside in Los Angeles and the Jazz are from Utah, the New Orleans Hornets officially announced Thursday night that they would no longer be on the list of teams with nicknames for regions other than their own. Starting next season, the franchise will be known as the Pelicans.

The announcement had been rumored since early December, and the choice of Pelicans as a replacement name was a poorly kept secret. Louisiana is known as the Pelican State, and the brown pelican is the state bird. It appears on Louisiana’s flag and seal and on the state’s commemorative quarter.

The pending change opens the door for one of the stranger possibilities in the history of N.B.A. record-keeping should the Charlotte Bobcats, an expansion team that replaced the Hornets after the team moved to New Orleans in 2002, attempt to reclaim the Hornets moniker.