By Sam Day 06/04/2015

All of the followers of this website share one thing in common: we all support Everton. That's simple, isn't it. That name unites us all. Commonly heard ringing out from the creaking old stands of Goodison Park whenever the team gets a corner, it has spurred on many great sides down the years, changing the outcome of hundreds of matches...

"Everton, Everton, Everton!" That is thousands of people passionately shouting without realising that it is just three syllables, just one word, meaningless to the majority of the world. Despite the constant use in everyday life, I'm sure the majority of fans have never even thought about what it means or what many of the other terms associated with us are doing in Everton's lexicon. Where did they come from? What do they mean?

A simple search of Wikipedia gives you these answers but I'm certain its something that most have never done. Take our original name as an example, St Domingo's FC. Inspired by the Methodist Church that founded the club, this served as our title from 1878 to 1879 and has left a mark on Everton throughout their history.

Currently, another Toffees fan-page as well as Everton's own cosmetic range take their name from this church which in turn owes its origins to none other than Saint Dominic, a 12th century monk. Born in Spain and rumoured to have been involved in the Medieval Inquisition, a predecessor to the infamous Spanish Inquisition, the man is the patron saint of astronomers (remember this if partaking in an especially difficult pub quiz!).

He also gives his name to the Dominican Republic and its capital, Santo Domingo, the Spanish translation. Strangely, for our early team name, "saint" was Anglicised rather than written as "santo", whereas Dominic was used in its Spanish format. Don't ask me why!

Another example people may not have thought about very much is our very own Goodison Park. Almost 40,000 spectators visit the Grand Old Lady every fortnight yet barely any know of its derivation. Obviously, Goodison Road is adjacent to the stadium and provided the ground with a name. However, this street was called "Goodison" by the Walton Local Council who were given a sewage report of it by George Goodison, a local civil engineer, in 1882. As a result, part of our identity is indebted to Liverpool's 19th century sanitation system. Furthermore, the road and ground could easily be called Smith, Johnson, or any other common surname you could care to mention. How weird would that be?

Finally, the name 'Everton' itself is also easily explicable but not widely known. The "Ever" in our name comes from the Saxon word "eofor" meaning wild boar, and the "ton" equates to "town". Eofor is also coincidentally the name of a minor prince in JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as a godly character in Beowulf, the oldest English poem. Evidently, when the small village of Everton was formed sometime in the 12th century, there must have been plenty of wild boars roaming the area.

Therefore, next time you're standing on the Gwladys Street (Gwladys means Princess in Welsh) when Everton have a corner, maybe you should think to yourself:

I am singing about wild boars in a stadium named after a sewage worker, in support of a team inspired by the patron saint of astronomy.

You learn something new everyday!

Share this article

Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer

About these ads

© ToffeeWeb