This Is How The Washington Nationals Got Their Name

In order to trace the origins of the Washington Nationals' team name, one has to go back to 1859, well before the birth of Major League Baseball as we know it. In November of that year, the Washington Nationals Baseball Club was established, though it wouldn't be another 10 years before they played their first game. That team was among those that made up the National League when it was founded in 1885, but when the National League reduced its membership from 12 teams to eight in 1900, the Nationals were one of the casualties.

Just one year later, the American League formed with another Washington team — the Senators — among its inaugural clubs. Officially, the team became known as the Nationals in 1904 and would retain that name until the 1955 MLB season. This may come as a surprise to some — after all, this team, which featured the likes of Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Walter "Big Train" Johnson (pictured above) and won the 1924 World Series, was still widely known as the Senators during that timeframe. Their Baseball-Reference history page also refers to them as the Senators from 1901 to 1960. However, the MLB's website explained that from 1904 to 1955, newspapers "interchangeably" called Washington, D.C.'s MLB team the Nationals, Nats, or Senators. This does sort of make sense — "Nats" can be short-hand for either Nationals or Senators.

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