Question: How did the Brooklyn Dodgers get their name?
Answer: In the late 19th and early 20th century, Brooklyn was criss-crossed by trolley cars. The team was originally known as "The Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers" and that was later shortened to just "Brooklyn Dodgers". "Trolley Dodger" was a popular Manhattanite nickname for Brooklynites.
The same team went by many different names in its early years, including "The Church City Nines" (one of Brooklyn's early nicknames was "City of Churches"), and the Brooklyn Kings ("Kings" county being the location of Brooklyn). After four players got married in the same year (1888), the team was known as the "Brooklyn Bridgegrooms" -- a name that stuck for quite a long time. They also held the names "Superbas", the "Robins" after manager Wilbert Robinson, and the "Infants".
The name "Dodgers" first appeared on the team's uniforms in 1933 (before that, the uniforms just had a "B" on them, or "Brooklyn"). The famous script version of the word "Brooklyn" appeared on the uniforms for the first time in 1937.
By the way, Ebbets field was named after Charles Ebbets, who became president of the ballclub in 1897 after the death of part-owner Charles Byrne.
While we're on sports team names...you might be wondering about the Knickerbockers, who may eventually move to Brooklyn. The "Knickerbocker" family -- who might actually have been named van Wyekycback but it seems the name got turned into Nyekycback due to a typographical error, and from there it became Knickelbacker or, another variation, Knickerbacker. Washington Irving's 1809 novel Knickerbocker's History of New York transformed the name into the form it's most known in today.
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