The nickname was first used for a baseball team by the Cincinnati Red Stockings, who were members of the pioneering National Association of Base Ball Players.

Managed by Harry Wright, Cincinnati adopted a uniform with white knickers and red stockings, and earned the famous nickname, a year or two before hiring the first fully professional team in 1869.

When the club folded after the 1870 season, Wright was hired by Boston businessman, Ivers Whitney Adams to organize a new team in Boston, and he did, bringing three teammates and the " Red Stockings " nickname along ( Most nicknames were then only nicknames, neither club names nor registered trademarks, so the migration was informal ).

When a new Cincinnati club was formed as a charter member of the National League in 1876, the " Red Stockings " nickname was commonly reserved for them once again, and the Boston team was referred to as the " Red Caps ".

) For seven seasons, the AL team wore dark blue stockings and had no official nickname.

This nickname was commonly used during that season, perhaps because the team had a new manager and several rookie players.

For 1908, the National League club returned to wearing red trim, but the American League team finally had an official nickname, and would remain the " Red Sox " for good.

* Buffaloes, nickname of the South Africa national Australian rules football team

The club's historic nickname is gialloblu ( from the club colors of yellow and blue ) although throughout Italian football the team recognised by most fans as " Gialloblu " are the original team from Verona – " Hellas Verona ".

Owner Bob McNair did have to make a deal with Chiefs ' owner Lamar Hunt to use the Texans nickname for his new team.

Hannover 96 ( nickname Die Roten or ' The Reds ') is the local football team that plays in the Bundesliga top division.

It was named after the nickname of the 1938 Duke football team, one of only three NCAA football teams to go the entire season unbeaten, untied, and not scored upon

The King Protea is the National Flower of South Africa and as such lends its name to the national Cricket team, whose nickname is the Proteas.

The devil stems from the club's nickname " The Red Devils "; it was included on club programmes and scarves in the 1960s, and incorporated into the club crest in 1970, although the crest was not included on the chest of the shirt until 1971 ( unless the team was playing in a Cup Final ).

The team continued to dominate in and, reaching the playoffs due to the effort of a stubborn defense that gave the team the nickname " The Purple People Eaters.

The team immediately excelled under Kuenn's low-key managerial style and gained a new nickname as Harvey's Wallbangers, a play on the drink Harvey Wallbanger and the team's manager's name.

Giants ' logos include several incarnations of a giant quarterback preparing to throw a football, a lowercase " ny ", and stylized versions of the team nickname.

During their dynasty years in the 1970s, the A's had dozens of uniform combinations with jerseys and pants in all three team colors, and in fact did not wear the traditional gray on the road, instead wearing green or gold, which helped to contribute to their nickname of " The Swingin ' A's.

From 1972 through 1980, the team nickname was officially " Oakland A's ," although, during that time, the Commissioner's Trophy, given out annually to the winner of baseball's World Series, still listed the team's name as the " Oakland Athletics " on the gold-plated pennant representing the Oakland franchise.

It was adopted as a nickname or mascot by a number of South African sports teams, most famously by the national rugby union team.

" Washington quickly became the oldest team in the NFL and earned the nickname " The Over the Hill Gang.

The team also returned to the AA in 1890, as the Toledo Maumees ( some sources say their nickname was the Black Pirates ).

The Fed disbanded after that year, and when the team returned from Cleveland to Toledo in 1916, they had acquired a new nickname, the " Iron Men ".

Olgivanna -- in her country the nickname was a respectful form of address -- was not only attractive but shrewd, durable, sensible, and smart.

Now and then, the President would call for `` Little Jack, Master of the Hounds '', which was his nickname for a messenger who had worked in the White House since Teddy Roosevelt's administration, and discuss the welfare of some one of the animals.

The younger men, Vere, and Pembroke, who was also Edward's cousin and whose Lusignan blood gave him the swarthy complexion that caused Edward of Carnarvon's irreverent friend, Piers Gaveston, to nickname him `` Joseph the Jew '', were relatively new to the game of diplomacy, but Pontissara had been on missions to Rome before, and Hotham, a man of great learning, `` jocund in speech, agreeable to meet, of honest religion, and pleasing in the eyes of all '', and an archbishop to boot, was as reliable and experienced as Othon himself.

Because of this he was known as Gimpy ( but, as with Capone and his nickname of Scarface, never in his presence ).

Lou Gehrig was given the nickname Buster, and he ran Ruth a close race in home runs.

But the nickname never stuck and Gehrig was no match for Ruth in `` color '' -- which is sometimes a polite word for delinquent behavior on and off the field.

" The Abbot " was a nickname of RZA from the Wu Tang Clan.

* Molly Pitcher was a nickname given to a woman said to have fought in the American Battle of Monmouth, who is generally believed to have been Mary Ludwig Hays McCauly.

Strictly speaking, the ' Accrington Pals ' battalion is properly known as the ' 11th East Lancashire Regiment ': the nickname is a little misleading, since of the four 250-strong companies that made up the original battalion only one was actually composed of men from Accrington.

The movie's title is from the nickname for the 41st Police Precinct in the South Bronx which was nicknamed " Fort Apache ".

" Opponents sometimes referred to him as " Slick Willie ", a nickname first applied while he was governor of Arkansas and lasting throughout his presidency.

The city was referred to as " Hüdavendigar " ( meaning " God's Gift ") during the Ottoman period, while a more recent nickname is " Yeşil Bursa " ( meaning " Green Bursa ") in reference to the parks and gardens located across its urban tissue, as well as to the vast forests in rich variety that extend in the surrounding region.

So powerful was the attribution of " the Lions " nickname that three heraldic versions of the animal returned as the jersey badge in 1930.

For years many sources have listed " Pilgrims " as the early Boston AL team's official nickname, but researcher Bill Nowlin has demonstrated that the name was barely used, if at all, during the team's early years.

The origin of the nickname appears to be a poem entitled “ The Pilgrims At Home ” written by Edwin Fitzwilliam that was sung at the 1907 home opener (“ Rory O ’ More ” melody ).

The journalistic nickname was inspired by the millions of lights on theater marquees and billboard advertisements that illuminate the area.

The poem was originally published anonymously ( under the pen name " Phin ", based on Thayer's college nickname, " Phineas ").

The progression of the nickname can be seen in the book The Addicks Cartoons: An Affectionate Look into the Early History of Charlton Athletic, which covers the pre-First World War history of Charlton through a narrative based on 56 cartoons which appeared in the now defunct Kentish Independent.

The " classic " Datsun logo, based on the Flag of Japan and Japan's Names of Japan | nickname as the " Land of the Rising Sun ".

The nickname " The Big Green ," originating in the 1860s, is based on students ' adoption of a shade of forest green (" Dartmouth Green ") as the school's official color in 1866.

The following year, his squadron was based on the as a member of Air Group 51, where his lanky physique earned him the nickname ' Skin '.

The most valuable evidence, if relevant, are the treaties and letters mentioned in Hittite cuneiform texts of the same approximate era, which mention an unruly Western Anatolian warlord named Piyama-Radu ( possibly Priam ) and his successor Alaksandu ( possibly Alexander, the nickname of Paris ) both based in Wilusa ( possibly Ilion / Ilios ), as well as the god Apaliunas ( possibly Apollo ).

A Scandinavian origin has been proposed ( compare, for example, Norwegian slengenamn, which means " nickname "), but is discounted by the Oxford English Dictionary based on " date and early associations ".

His nickname, the " Gangbuster ", became the name of a popular radio serial based on his fight against the mob.

His nickname is based on the citycode of his hometown.

* From the video game Metro 2033 and the novel upon which it is based, " Hansa " is the commonly used nickname of " The Commonwealth of the Stations of the Ring Line ".

In Anglo-American culture, a nickname is often based on a shortening of a person's proper name, a diminutive.

Attributes upon which a nickname may be based include:

Azaria based Comic Book Guy's voice on a student who went by the nickname " F ", short for " Flounder " from the movie National Lampoon's Animal House, and lived in the room next door at his college.

These include names, also known as eke-names, based on appearance such as " Schwartzkopf ", " Short ", and probably " Caesar ", and names based on temperament and personality such as " Daft ", " Gutman ", and " Maiden ", which according to a number of sources was an English nickname meaning " effeminate ".

Although he was still known as David Jackson while in Arms & Legs, it was around this time that Jackson picked up the nickname " Joe ", based on his perceived resemblance to the puppet character Joe 90.

* In Team Fortress 2 there is a miscellaneous item for the Demoman, called The Bird-Man of Aberdeen, based on Robert Stroud's nickname.

A high-school friend named Roger gave him his nickname based on his " funky " approach to life.

A small force of submarines based in Western Australian sank more Japanese ships in the first weeks of the war than the entire British and American navies together, an exploit which earned Admiral Helfrich the nickname " Ship-a-day Helfrich ".

Allen based the character of Annie Hall loosely on Keaton (" Annie " is a nickname of hers, and " Hall " is her original surname ).

Morrison's nickname, " The Duke ," is based on disputed claims that he is a grandnephew of Hollywood star John Wayne.

In his espionage novels, author John Le Carré placed the headquarters of the fictionalised British intelligence service based on MI6 in buildings on Shaftesbury Avenue and Cambridge Circus ; it is from this that Le Carré's nickname for MI6, " The Circus ", derives.

Nicknames fell into several categories: names based on an event, names based on a physical characteristic, names based on a pun, and names listing a characteristic that was the opposite of the character of the person given that name, in essence, a joke nickname.