# "United" in soccer teams
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-in-soccer-teams/462324
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 6, 2008, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-in-soccer-teams/462324 "2008-09-06T11:32:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jkirkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jkirkman)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2008, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-in-soccer-teams/462324/1 "2008-09-06T11:32:27Z")
Can anyone tell me what “united” means in soccer team names?
I understand what the word means–I’m curious as to its soccer provenance.
My google-fu fails me, and the Man U page doesn’t help. Wiki on Man U just says they decided to call it that on a whim.
Can anyone point me to a source explaining the origins of the term “united” in soccer team names?
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2008, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-in-soccer-teams/462324/2 "2008-09-06T11:53:29Z")
Sometimes it’s a club which formed as a merger of others (Newcastle United, for instance), but often it really doesn’t mean anything in particular. Late 19th and early 20th century habits were to give teams names, be it ‘City’, ‘Town’, ‘United’, ‘Albion’, or whatever. Man U, Leeds and West Ham were all just relaunches/rebrandings under new names of previous teams.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2008, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-in-soccer-teams/462324/3 "2008-09-06T13:03:33Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#):
>
> Sometimes it’s a club which formed as a merger of others (Newcastle United, for instance), but often it really doesn’t mean anything in particular. Late 19th and early 20th century habits were to give teams names, be it ‘City’, ‘Town’, ‘United’, ‘Albion’, or whatever. Man U, Leeds and West Ham were all just relaunches/rebrandings under new names of previous teams.
And, to take that further, D.C. United is just an attempt by an American team to sound European, just as they now have Real Salt Lake, despite the fact that America has no king to grant the team a royal charter, and we have F.C. Dallas, for no apparent reason. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2008, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-in-soccer-teams/462324/4 "2008-09-06T13:38:50Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#):
>
> AReal Salt Lake, despite the fact that America has no king to grant the team a royal charter
You don’t have the monopoly in pomposity of names, mind. The town of Chelmsford is home to Chelmsford City FC.
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### Author:  [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2008, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/united-in-soccer-teams/462324/5 "2008-09-06T13:52:00Z")
Maybe I’m not understanding the OP, but I take such names simply to mean something like “Manchester is united in supporting this team” (not actually true, of course), or Manchester [comma] united.