NHL Team Names 1

It's s Stanley Cup time, so let us look at some NHL team name origins. The NHL divides the 31 teams into two conferences: the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Each conference is split into two divisions: the Eastern Conference contains 16 teams (eight per division), while the Western Conference has 15 teams (seven in the Central Division and eight in the Pacific Division).

Founded in 1993 by The Walt Disney Company as the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, the team's name comes from the 1992 Disney film The Mighty Ducks. Disney sold the franchise in 2005 and the name of the team was changed to the Anaheim Ducks before the 2006–07 season.

The Boston Bruins were owned by businessman Charles Adams and he wanted his new franchise to have brown and yellow team colors to match his stores. Bruins (bears) have long been used for team names and to suggest strength and power.

The Buffalo Sabres is just a name that was chosen in a contest, though the team's management did want to avoid the the buffalo and bison team names that were attached to area teams in the past.

The Calgary Flames picked up that name when the team was in Atlanta. It commemorated the burning of the city in the Civil War - which seems like an odd thing to commemorate. When the team moved to Calgary, management held a contest and the fans wanted to maintain the name. The story is that the flames now represent Alberta's petroleum industry.

The Chicago Blackhawks' original owner, Frederic McLaughlin, named the team in honor of the Black Hawk Battalion, the U.S. 86th Infantry Division, which he served with in WWI. The unit was named after a Chief Black Hawk. The name used as a single word for the hockey team and later for the Blackhawk helicopter, are examples of designating certain Native Americans as "worthy adversaries" though the name has been part of the controversy over the use of Native American names and symbols for sports teams.

eBay

In 1995, Pierre Omidyar, age 28, began to write the original computer code for an online site that allowed the listing of a direct person-to-person auction for collectible items.

He made a simple prototype and put it on his personal web page. On Labor Day 1995, he launched the service as Auction Web.

The name "eBay" was his second choice for a name. He originally wanted Echo Bay, but it was already used by a Canadian mining company, Echo Bay Mines. Echo Bay Technology Group was Omidyar's consulting firm, but when he tried to register the domain name echobay.com, he found that the mining company owned it. So, he shortened the idea to eBay which was adopted in 1997.

A story that was often told was that he made the site so that his fiancée could trade Pez candy dispensers that she collected. The story was a public relations fabrication. But a true story is that the first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer that was listed as a test but surprisingly sold.

The logo introduced in 2012 does not capitalize the letter "B"

Epithets

An epithet comes from the Greek word epitheton, meaning "attributed or added." It is a byname, or a descriptive term used in place of a name.

Epithets have been applied to real and fictitious people, divinities and objects. There are many epithets for the royals.

Examples have a wide range including Alexander the Great, Richard the Lionheart,  Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as "star-cross'd lovers," Superman is the "The Man of Steel", "The Dynamic Duo" is Batman and Robin and New York City is "The Big Apple." 

But not all epithets are so complimentary. Ivan the Terrible may have actually liked having a reputation as being terrible. Racial epithets and ethnic slurs are the ugly side of this language usage.

I'm not sure I completely agree, but one poster says that "If you know a word is either a racial slur or a racial epithet, but can’t decide which, then focus on the primary definition of the word. If the primary definition of the word has to do with racial prejudice, then it’s a racial slur. For example, the “n-word” is a racial slur. By contrast, if the primary definition of the word has little to do with racial prejudice, then it’s a racial epithet. For example, words like ape, brownie, coconut, oreo, crow, eight ball, shine, spade, spook, teapot, and, presumably, cracker, and mayo are racial epithets; not slurs."

Literary epithets are common going back to the classics. Virgil systematically called his main hero "pius Aeneas" (pius meaning religiously observant and humble) but the epithetis not always attached to the character. James Joyce uses the phrase "the snot-green sea" which is a play on Homer's epithet "the wine-dark sea."

Religious epithets are also common. Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, and other Christians use epithets in the veneration of Jesus (e.g., "Christ"; "Prince of Peace"; "The Good Shepherd"), of Mary, Mother of Jesus (e.g. "Mother of God"; "Panagia").