The story behind the New York Yankees name
Posted on February 16, 2020
Jean Dion explains that this club, born in Manhattan in 1903, was first called the Highlanders, both because it played at Hilltop Park, in the heights of Manhattan, and because its president, Joseph Gordon, had Scottish origins.
The name “Highlanders” was problematic, however: it was too long and almost impossible to abbreviate; too long, therefore, to be used in newspaper headlines. From 1904 the newspaper New York Press has therefore made a habit of referring to the team as the “Yankees” (or “Yanks”). The appellation took hold and became the official name of the team in 1913.
But what does the word “Yankees” mean? The first settlers to arrive in the Hudson River Valley were Dutch. “Jan” is a common name among these people, and its colloquial version is “Janke”. Over time, the name began to refer to all inhabitants of the Northeastern United States, and then all Americans.
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