Football club nicknames, and where they actually come from

The club was founded in 1886 by workers at the Royal Arsenal armaments factory in Woolwich, south-east London. The cannon has been on the badge ever since, and it long pre-dates the move north to Highbury.

From the sweet shops beside the club’s early home — Ye Anciente Everton Toffee House and Mother Noblett’s. A "Toffee Lady" still throws sweets to the crowd before kick-off at Goodison.

Adopted in the early 1960s. Matt Busby liked the nickname of Salford’s rugby league side, who had toured France as "Les Diables Rouges", and pushed for United to take it on; the devil joined the badge later that decade.

The club is named after Sir Henry Percy — Shakespeare’s Harry Hotspur — whose family held land in the area. The fighting cock on the badge is a nod to the spurs fitted to gamecocks.

The club began in 1895 as Thames Ironworks FC, the works team of a shipbuilder. The crossed rivet hammers on the badge are shipyard tools, not a pun on the name.

From the black-and-white stripes adopted in 1894. Club lore has it a pair of magpies nested in the stand at St James’ Park around the same time.

Founded in 1885 as St Mary’s Church of England Young Men’s Association — a church side. The club still plays at a ground called St Mary’s.

From Owlerton, the district the club moved to in 1899. The name stuck so firmly that an owl was put on the badge, and the club’s original nickname — The Blades — passed to their neighbours.

Norwich was a centre of canary breeding, brought over by Flemish weavers who settled in the city. The club switched to yellow-and-green in 1907 to match.

Straightforwardly the kit: Burnley adopted claret and blue in 1910 in imitation of Aston Villa, then the dominant force in English football.

From the club’s founding in 1874 by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Handsworth. Villa’s claret and blue is the kit Burnley and West Ham both borrowed.

They were The Glaziers for eighty years, after the Crystal Palace glasshouse the club took its name from. Manager Malcolm Allison rebranded them The Eagles in 1973, borrowing the swagger of Benfica.

A terrace invention of the 1970s: fans answered Crystal Palace’s "Eagles" chant with "Seagulls", and the seaside bird replaced the club’s old dolphin nickname.

Two explanations survive and neither is settled — the cherry-red shirts, or the cherry orchards said to have surrounded Dean Court. The club uses both.

Not the stripes. A student relative of a player led a chant of "buck up Bs" at an early match, the local press heard "Bees", and it stuck.

From Craven Cottage — a real cottage built on the site in 1780 and burnt down in 1888. The current pavilion in the corner of the ground keeps the name alive.

Leicestershire is historic fox-hunting country, and the club adopted the fox in the 1940s. It is the rare English nickname that comes from the county rather than the kit or the trade.

A contraction of Wolverhampton rather than an invention — but the club leaned in, putting a wolf’s head on the badge in 1970 in one of the earliest modern club rebrands.

The tree comes from the Forest name and the city’s Sherwood associations. Forest’s red is called Garibaldi red — the club adopted it in 1865 in tribute to the Italian revolutionary, whose redshirts were then a popular cause.

Culés is Catalan for "backsides". At the old Camp de la Indústria, spectators sat on the top of the wall, so passers-by in the street below saw a row of behinds. Blaugrana is simply blue-and-claret.

Both from the all-white kit, worn since 1902 — merengue for the meringue-white look. The "Real" itself is a royal title granted by Alfonso XIII in 1920, which is why the crown sits on the crest.

"The mattress makers." Spanish mattresses were traditionally covered in red-and-white striped ticking, exactly like Atlético’s shirts, and the terraces named the club after them.

The Lions, after San Mamés — the stadium is named for Saint Mamas, an early Christian thrown to lions who was said to have tamed them.

"The Old Lady" — a pun. Juventus means "youth" in Latin, so the nickname is affectionate irony aimed at a club that had become the establishment.

Rossoneri is the red and black of the shirts; founder Herbert Kilpin said the red was for the devil in his players and the black to frighten opponents.

The biscione is the great serpent of the Visconti family, rulers of Milan, and appears on the city’s heraldry. Nerazzurri is the black and blue of the kit.

From Parthenope, the siren of Greek myth who founded the settlement that became Naples. It is a name for the city itself as much as the club.

La Lupa is the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus — Rome’s founding myth, on the badge. Giallorossi is the yellow and red of the city’s own colours.

"The miners." Schalke is in Gelsenkirchen, in the coal heart of the Ruhr, and the club was built by mining families — Knappe is the old German word for a young pitman.

The black-and-yellows. "Borussia" is simply the Latin for Prussia, borrowed from a local brewery of that name when the club was founded in 1909.

A press nickname from the 1990s, when the dressing room produced more headlines than the football. It was an insult that the club has largely absorbed with good humour.

"The Sons of the Gods" — the club is named after Ajax, the Greek hero of the Trojan War, whose head has been on the badge since 1928 in a design of eleven lines.

"Farmers" — originally a jibe from fans of city clubs at rural Brabant, worn with pride since. PSV stands for Philips Sport Vereniging: it began as the electronics company’s works team.

"The Eagles." A live eagle, Vitória, is flown over the Estádio da Luz before matches — the bird stands for independence and nobility in the club’s founding symbolism.

"The Dragons", from the dragon in the coat of arms of the city of Porto, added to the club crest in 1922.

Founded in 1887 by an Irish Marist brother to feed poor immigrants in Glasgow’s East End. The "bh" is an Irish spelling convention, used on an early club postcard and kept ever since.

"The Genoese", in local dialect. La Boca was the dockside barrio of Buenos Aires settled by immigrants from Genoa, and the club came out of that community.

"The Millionaires" — from the transfer fees River paid in the 1930s, unheard-of sums at the time, starting with Bernabé Ferreyra in 1932.