# When the GOP Became the GOP? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 4, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-gop-became-the-gop/545528 "2010-07-04T15:49:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-gop-became-the-gop/545528/1 "2010-07-04T15:49:48Z")
When did the GOP become known as the GOP? They must have been too young at one point to be known as the GOP, and then there was some break-even point where GOP was a household name. When did that occur? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-gop-became-the-gop/545528/2 "2010-07-04T16:06:02Z")
Considering that the roots of the Democratic Party seem to go back much further. I too have wondered how the Republicans have managed to become known as the Grand Old Party. What is so old (or, come to that, grand) about them? ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-gop-became-the-gop/545528/3 "2010-07-04T16:11:31Z")
> [@](#): > > The nickname of the Republican Party didn’t get attached to it until 1888. Previously, the nickname had been used by Southern Democrats. After the Republicans won back the Presidency and Congress for the first time since the Grant administration, the Chicago Tribune proclaimed: “Let us be thankful that under the rule of the Grand Old Party … these United States will resume the onward and upward march which the election of Grover Cleveland in 1884 partially arrested.” [GOP Origins](http://www.ushistory.org/gop/origins.htm) ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-gop-became-the-gop/545528/4 "2010-07-04T16:19:19Z")
According to wiki, citing the OED: > [@](#): > > The term “Grand Old Party” is a traditional nickname for the Republican Party, and the initialism “G.O.P.” (or “GOP”) is a commonly used designation. According to the Republican Party, the term “gallant old party” was used in 1875.[11] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known reference to the Republican Party as the “grand old party” came in 1876. The first use of the abbreviation GOP is dated 1884. Admittedly “Grand Old” being applied to a party which was then around twenty years old seems a bit presumptuous, but it doesn’t surprise me. Since the party name was intended to be evocative of Thomas Jefferson’s original intentions, perhaps the reference was intended to underline this. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-gop-became-the-gop/545528/5 "2010-07-04T16:31:18Z")
I would guess that the Chicago Tribune was using a label which had been applied at times to both the Southern Democrats and the Republicans, as per the OED 1876 cite, helping to cement modern usage. One might also note that they were enthusing about the election of Benjamin Harrison, and that Grover Cleveland would be back in 1892. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-the-gop-became-the-gop/545528/6 "2010-07-06T16:15:35Z")
My personal theory is that it is a reference to the Grand Army of the Republic. The GAR was very active in politics in the post war era and a reliable ally of the Repulbican party. The Democrat party was very southern at that time and was seen as the party of the rebellion. Grover Cleveland took on the GAR by taking a harder line on fraudulent pension claims by union veterans.