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Tim Boyle/Associated Press

Most sports fans don’t invest the same amount of time and thought into how their favorite team’s name came to be as they do on matters of immediate relevance, like position battles and ticket prices. For lifelong fans, how the team got its name was knowledge instilled in them since the moment that information was comprehensible. For sports fans that don’t necessarily have a stake in a particular franchise, the name is either obvious, or just is.

However, every team name has a story—even if that story is decidedly mundane. Mundane can be just intriguing as something far more grandiose, because mundane can be the most unexpected explanation. The machinations and cultural forces within a community that ultimately led to the very name that is so easy to take for granted, can be utterly predictable…or pure non sequitur.

This is how sports teams got their names.