For the first time since 1915, Cleveland’s professional baseball team will go by a name other than the “Indians.”
Citing concerns over offending members of Native American and indigenous peoples, the team announced in December that they’d be choosing a new name.
On Thursday, it was announced that the team has narrowed the possible name choices down to a final list after months of research and conversations with fans, and is now going through a vetting process due to legal purposes before making a final decision.
“We’ve engaged our fans and community on many aspects of our team name process,” said Curtis Danburg, the team’s vice president of communications and community impact. “We felt it was important to share our research journey and what we’ve learned so far.”
Indians CEO and part-owner Paul Dolan discussed the process in April while on WAKR radio and mentioned that the name change could occur before the 2022 season.
“We went through the process and made the decision to change our name, and now we are going through that part of the process where we are trying to determine what the next name would be,” Dolan told WAKR.
“When we made the announcement we said that certainly through the 2021 season we would continue to be the Indians and possibly as soon as the 2022 season the name change would be in place. That continues to be our goal — the 2022 season — but we are going to take the time necessary to do this right, and if that means pushing beyond 2022 to 2023, that’s what it will have to be,” Dolan said. “But we’re still hopeful that we can get something done beforehand, meaning effective 2022.”
Cleveland announced that after several brainstorming sessions with fans, nearly 1,200 potential names were chosen, and they have finally narrowed down the list. While the list of potential names is unknown, some of the popular names on social media are the Spiders, Guardians, and Avengers.
“We have a list of names, we’re talking to people about it. We’re talking to fans,” Dolan said in April. “We are also doing the important work of securing the names so we can use them commercially because it doesn’t make much sense if we can’t use the name, and so we’re in the midst of that.”
The Indians will become the second professional team to change their name in recent years, after the Washington Redskins changed their name to the Washington Football Team for the 2021 season. Both decisions have caused controversy, as there are many who prefer the old names remain and many others who feel that the nicknames and mascots are offensive to people of Native descent. At the Indians 2021 home opener, protesters continued their annual tradition of demonstrating outside of Progressive Field in Cleveland.
The team will draft options for logos, word marks, and other brand elements once they have their final name choices, according to USA Today.