# Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 12, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327 "2002-12-12T20:51:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bat\_attack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bat_attack)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327/1 "2002-12-12T20:51:49Z")
Why do they get to be different? Everyone else goes by the standard ‘place’ followed by ‘nickname’ format. Why are they the ‘nickname’ of ‘place’?
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2002, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327/2 "2002-12-12T21:02:54Z")
Why not? It’s wasn’t even invented by them. See the [Spirits of St. Louis](http://www.geocities.com/~arthurh/Spirits-of-St-Louis.html) in the old ABA.
Disney decided to give them that name because they wanted to. Why does that bother you?
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2002, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327/3 "2002-12-12T21:03:27Z")
From a Disney film called “Mighty Ducks” that was came out around the time the team was started.
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### Author:  [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2002, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327/4 "2002-12-12T21:04:38Z")
They are also commonly called the “Anaheim Mighty Ducks”
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### Author:  [@bat\_attack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bat_attack)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2002, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327/5 "2002-12-12T21:17:23Z")
ok, let me clarify. Broadcasters always call them “The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim”. In the newspaper and in every hockey videogame I’ve ever played (many) they are “The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim”. Why be different in this way? I don’t get why they aren’t officially known as “The Anaheim Mighty Ducks”.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2002, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327/6 "2002-12-12T21:19:28Z")
Well, it’s the Anaheim Mighty Ducks for all these links.
[http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/hockey/nhl/kids/teams/ANA.htm](http://cbs.sportsline.com/u/hockey/nhl/kids/teams/ANA.htm)
[http://www.lcshockey.com/issues/114/ana.asp](http://www.lcshockey.com/issues/114/ana.asp)
[http://www.hockeyphreak.com/anaheim.html](http://www.hockeyphreak.com/anaheim.html)
[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/teams/mighty.ducks/](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/hockey/nhl/teams/mighty.ducks/)
And for all these links.
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The official website refers to them as the “Mighty Ducks of Anaheim” only in passing, in an article.
[http://www.mightyducks.com/home.asp](http://www.mightyducks.com/home.asp)
However, the NHL has them as Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
[http://nhl.com/lineups/team/index.html](http://nhl.com/lineups/team/index.html)
I’m guessing that the reason for the back-and-forth has something to do with being a Disney movie first, and then a hockey team. They’ve got no real tradition behind the name, unlike other team names. It’s just an arbitrary screenwriter’s pick for a cute team name, and Disney decided to go with it.
Team history. First season, 1993.
[http://www.canoe.ca/HockeyAnaheim/ana\_history.html](http://www.canoe.ca/HockeyAnaheim/ana_history.html)
The first movie came out in 1992.
[http://us.imdb.com/Title?0104868](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0104868)
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2002, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327/7 "2002-12-12T23:17:15Z")
I think Disney named them that so they’ll sound more “majestic.” As a normal team name, “Mighty Ducks” sounds stupider than “Devil Rays”, and that’s saying something. So the Disney folks jazzed it up.
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### Author:  [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)
#### Post date: [December 12, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mighty-ducks-of-anaheim/142327/8 "2002-12-12T23:18:49Z")
Be that as it may, I still commend Disney for giving their team a proper “plural” name, however stupid-sounding, rather than giving in to the “singular name” pestilence that infected professional sports at the time (Lightning, Heat, Magic).
Chaim Mattis Keller