Earlier this month the Worcester Red Sox asked fans at an event “Who beats the WooSox?”

The question resurfaced Monday when the organization revealed its nickname and logo at the Mercantile Center in Worcester.

Whether asked Monday night, last month or last year, the answer remained consistent: nobody.

The team will retain its Red Sox moniker as it moves to Worcester from Pawtucket in 2021. For more than 40 years, the Triple-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox has been known more colloquially as the PawSox, a name coincidentally sparked by a Worcester native. When it makes the 45-minute move up Route 146, that will change to the WooSox.

“We love that the fans actually named the team,” club Chairman and Principal Owner, Larry Lucchino said in a statement. “We asked everyone from kids in kindergarten to octogenarians at senior centers to give suggestions and reactions, and while many suggestions and debates were clever, in the end, we discovered what Worcester already knew: nobody beats the WooSox.”

Accompanying the name is a new logo, featuring the iconic yellow smiley face with two hands swinging a bat engraved with a “W.” He’s also wearing a red hat and red socks.

His name is “Smiley Ball” in honor of Harvey Ball, a Worcester native who designed the smiley face in 1963.

The Worcester Red Sox revealed its logo on Monday at the Mercantile Center in Worcester.

His son, Worcester attorney Charlie Ball, viewed the WooSox logo design during the process to ensure accuracy, as did Bill Wallace of the Worcester Historical Museum.

The cursive script of WooSox created a heart in the middle of “WooSox,” meant to pay homage to Worcester’s motto that it’s the “Heart of the Commonwealth.”

The Worcester Red Sox revealed a team logo and lettering in the Mercantile Center on Monday. The "W" features a heart that's signifies the city's motto that' it's the "Heart of the Commonwealth."

Since the team announced the move last year, many around Worcester began calling the team the “WooSox.” Through more than a year of prodding and polling fans, no other nickname could knock WooSox off its pedestal.

More than 1,000 people submitted 218 team names.

Submissions ranged from the Diggers, Diners, and Duck Boats to the Heart Sox, Hot Sox, and Holy Sox. Fans also offered such names as the Ruby Legs, RocketMen, and Righteous Rebels, as well as the Wicked Worms, Wicked Coolers, and Wonderdogs.

“It’s not as though everyone goes ‘I want it to be WooSox.’ But when you test it versus Dirt Dogs and Gritty Kitties and Rocket Sox and Ruby Legs or Ruby Sox and the Worcester Worcesters, it’s not 100 percent to zero,” Worcester Red Sox President Charles Steinberg said in May. “It’s that it just seems to be the little engine that could. It just continues to nudge ahead and maybe that’s a metaphor for Worcester as well.”

In May, the Pawtucket Red Sox ownership filed trademarks on three nicknames: the Worcesters, Wicked Worms and Ruby Legs.

Minor League Baseball, though, acquired the rights to the WooSox name in July of 2018, about a month prior to Worcester and the organization reaching a tentative agreement.

The WooSox are scheduled to begin their first season in Worcester in April of 2021 at Polar Park. Ground officially broke on construction for the new stadium in July.

Minor League Baseball now allows clubs to change their name for a promotion that reflects the fun, food, and culture of a city. The Pawtucket Red Sox, for example, were the Hot Wieners for one night in 2018 and the Fightin’ Quahogs for a night in 2019.

Expect the WooSox name to stick, but occasionally the club has 218 options to dig into for special nights.

“We were amused by the Gritty Kitties, Night Owls, and Green Bananas, a reference to the unripened fruit that will soon head from Polar Park to Fenway Park,” Steinberg said. “So some of the remaining suggestions, such as the Worcester Worcesters, the Wonderdogs, and the Wicked Worms, may yet see the light of day — or the grass and the dirt.”