So, watching Liverpool vs Chelsea replay last night (Bless you, Fox Sportsworld!) and my son is watching with me. Six year olds often find questions left unasked by mere mortals. So he wants to know, “Why do they call it ‘Liverpool’? Are there lots of livers lying around?”
So, what is the origin of the name Liverpool?
For bonus points, I’ve been wondering if all of the teams in the Premiership have nicknames and if so what they are?
As a lifelong Liverpool FC fan and only non-Liverpool-born child of a family of scousers I have to say I have absolutely no clue what the origin of the city’s name is. 
Maybe you can tell us what a “scouser” is then (I know who it refers to, but what’s the reference)? Oh, and in the game we watched last night, which I assume occurred sometime over the weekend
Liverpool got jobbed on that non-call of the hand in the box on Tioga for Chelsea! That game really should have been a draw at worst.
Wikipedia says this:
I suspect like most english place names, no one really knows how the places ended up named as they did.
Every premier league team, and probably every league team, has a nickname.
Arsenal are the Gunners
Aston Villa are the Villains
Birmingham are the Blues
Blackburn are Rovers [may not count as nickname technically]
Bolton are the Trotters
Charlton are the Addicks
Chelsea are The Blues [Chelski has become popular]
Crystal Palace are the Eagles
Everton are the Toffees
Fulham are the Cottagers
Liverpool are the Reds
Manchester City are The Citizens [not sure about this one]
Manchester Utd are the Red Devils
Middlesborough are plain old Boro
Newcastle are the Magpies
Norwich are the Canaries
Portsmouth are Pompey
Southampton are the Saints
Tottenham are Spurs
WBA are the Baggies.
How many points this all worth?
Google produces many answers, including two which seem reasonable possibilities:
But basically, nobody knows.
I’ve read in more than one biography of The Beatles that the city was named for the liver bird. What kind of bird that is, or how true it is, is something I don’t know, but there’s another explanation.
According to this page, the liver bird is the cormorant:
Now, how much of that is truth and how much of that is the heavy, clinging stink of legend that surrounds so much in Britain that’s older than about 150 years I don’t know…
I don’t know about the name of the city itself, but the bird on the Liverpool FC club badge is referred to as the Liver bird.
Man City aren’t really referred to as the Citizens except in reference books–more commonly it’s the Blues (in contrast to the Reds of Man Utd). However, it’s never the Sky Blues, even though that’s the colour they play in–Coventry City are the Sky Blues but they aren’t in the Premiership at the present.
Most of the others are accurate. ‘Chelski’ is really new, it’s because of Chelsea’s new Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovitch.
Oh, and ShibbOleth–that’d be ‘handball’. Referees aren’t very good at spotting handballs in the penalty box in general!
The Liver Bird is nonexistent. Nobody outside Liverpool takes that story seriously. Even the attempts to claim it’s another name for another bird are suspect. In short - never trust a Liverpudlian 
Continuing the parade of team names, I’ve had an insufficient attempt at the next level…in league order, for partisan reasons …
Ipswich - Tractor Boys
Wigan - ?
Sunderland - ?
Reading - Royals
Sheffield Utd - Blades
West Ham - Hammers
Millwall - Lions
Derby - Rams
Preston - ?
Crewe - Railwaymen
Burnley - Clarets
Stoke - Potters
QPR - ?
Leeds - ?
Leicester - ?
Watford - Hornets
Plymouth - Pilgrims
Brighton - Seagulls
Wolves - Wolves?!
Coventry - ?
Cardiff - Bluebirds
Gillingham - ?
Notts Forest - Forest (ffffft)
Rotherham - ?
I think most of the ones you’ve missed out are dull ones, like the teams’ strip colours (Preston are the Whites IIRC. Coventry are definitely the Sky Blues).
Leicester are the Foxes. Gillingham are (surprise surprise) the Gills. Sunderland are officially the Black Cats but we call them the Mackems.
That was my 900th post.
Just to add: Wolves are really Wolverhampton Wanderers, but everyone calls them Wolves.
I was omitting ‘nickname = colour of strip’, because they’re boring and repetitive (how many blues are there?). I guess that frees up Birmingham and Liverpool as newly-nicknameless, and at a push Burnley and even Norwich, although that’s a bit harsh. Especially for Norwich - they’re anonymous enough as it is 
You’re not an Ipswich fan are you?
Thanks for the add, I’d been wondering about that one. I recalled “Wanderers” from way back when, but lately just hear them called Wolves.
For extra bonus points, what were a couple of the “team names” used in a Monty Python skit where one was something like “the East Hampton Catholic River-wideners”? I don’t recall whether or not this referred to football. Probably not, unless philosophers and Beckenbauer were involved.
I thought Norwich were named the canaries because that City was famous for canary breeding. Nothing to do with the colour of the strip.
Please, after all the dodgy calls that went Liverpool’s way in the 80’s I am delighted to see them get jobbed as often as possible. Boot room my arse
Love FSW though.
My my my…you’re right! (Thanks, Google, thanks-for-nothing )…on the other hand, they were apparently known as the Citizens until they took on those colours. So maybe that name is as predictable as ‘reds’ or ‘blues’. I’ve certainly never heard it in Manchester - normally it’s just “Cit-ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy”.
Possibly worth mentioning that(I think), unlilke all(most of?) the others, ‘Pompey’ is the slang name for the city itself - I think the name has some nautical/naval origin.
I have never been to Liverpool (seen it from a plane window though). That not withstanding, ‘scouse’ is a shotened form of ‘lobscouse’ - a type of stew eaten on board ship and presumably also in Liverpool (it being an important sea port). Hence a scouser is someone from Liverpool.
QPR = The R’s