Clubs That Have Changed Their Names

 It has been well documented by Pete Goringe (club statistician and historian) that, Cray Wanderers were involved with at least three name changes during the 20th century. Firstly, there came Cray Old Boys after the First World War, after which they reverted to Cray Wanderers again a couple of seasons later. This was followed by a works team called Vegpardel blending with Cray Wanderers after World War Two. One final name change came at Grassmeade in 1972, when 279 Chislehurst was absorbed into the existing Cray Wanderers club.

But there's been plenty of occasions of football clubs changing their names since the commencement of organised football back in days of yore. Keen football fanatics will already know that Manchester United started life as Newton Heath, while West Ham supporters may know that their club was originally called Thames Ironworks. The elephant in the room, Wimbledon, moved to Milton Keynes and changed their name to Milton Keynes Dons. And Woolwich Arsenal became just Arsenal when they moved across London.

Birmingham City started out as Small Heath Alliance, while Coventry City were originally known as Singers FC. Gravesend and Northfleet became Ebbsfleet United and Gillingham were originally called New Brompton. In Scotland, Meadowbank Thistle moved to Livingston New Town and became Livingston FC, while Inverness Thistle merged with Caledonian FC to become Inverness Caledonian Thistle... and promptly claimed one of the longest names in British football (Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch FC on the island of Anglesey in Wales being the longest).

In Northern Ireland, Distillery FC, who were based in Belfast, were homeless for a while before they upped anchor and moved to a new ground in Lisburn. They became Lisburn Distillery. Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales became Merthyr Town after the former club was liquidated and, Llansantffraid F.C. became Total Network Solutions Llansantffraid, after merging with a local computer company, changing to Total Network Solutions and finally to The New Saints following the takeover of Oswestry Town FC.

I am sure there have been many more football name changes through mergers and takeovers than I have illustrated here and, no doubt, there will be many more in the years to come.

For your free copy of 'My Grassmeade Years', a prequel to my book 'After Grassmeade', simply click on the image below: