User:Wiggy!/naming conventions

Commonly used conventions have emerged over time in the naming of German football clubs. While there is no hard and fast set of rules, the name of a German football club will typically include an acronym describing the type of organization it is, the name of the district, city or region the team is from and the year of the foundation of the club. It is not uncommon for a club that was formed out of a merger of two or more clubs to carry multiple acronyms or dates in its name.

Organizational Acronyms

Acronymn	German	English	Notes	Example
1.	Erster	First	often used by the first club established in a city	1. FC Nuremberg
II	Zwei	Second	Reserve teams, placed behind the clubs name	VfB Stuttgart II
Am.	Amateure	Amateur	Reserve teams of professional clubs, since the mid-2000's supersided by the use of II behind the clubs name	Bayern Munich Amateure
AK	Athletik Klub	Athletic Club		Grazer AK
ASV	Allgemeiner Sportverein	General Sports Association		ASV Durlach
ASV	Arbeiter Sportverein	Worker's Sports Association	common in the 1920s until worker's clubs were banned for political reasons in 1933 under the Nazi regime
ATSV	Arbeiter Turn- und Sportverein	Worker's Gymnastics and Sports Association	common in the 1920s until worker's clubs were banned for political reasons in 1933 under the Nazi regime ||
BC	Ballspiel-Club	Ballgame Club
BSC	Ballspiel-Club	Ballgame Club
BSG	Betriebssportemeinschaft	Company Sports Community	used in the former East Germany by sports clubs associated with a workplace
BV	Ballspielverein	Ballgame Association		BV Borussia Dortmund
Club		Club	commonly used in place of the German term Klub in imitation of teams in England where modern football originated
DFC	Deutscher Fußball-Club	German Football Club	historically, to denote an ethnically German club in regions of mixed population
DJK	Deutscher Jugend Kraft	German Youth Agency	a Catholic sports association in Germany
DSV	Deutscher Sportverein	German Sports Association	historically, to denote an ethnically German club in regions of mixed population
ESV	Eisenbahner Sport Verein	Railworker's Sports Association
e.V.	eingetragener Verein	registered association	a standard legal designation that follows a club's name, typically used to identify an amateur (i.e non-professional) club
FC	Fußball-Club	Football Club		FC Bayern München
FK	Fußball-Klub	Football Club
FSC	Fussball Sport-Club	Football Sport Club
FSV	Fussball Spielverein	Football Game Association
FSV	Fussball Sportverein	Football Sport Association
FT	Frei Turnerschaft	Free Gymnastics	common in the 1920s until worker's clubs were banned for political reasons in 1933 under the Nazi regime
FV	Fußballverein	Football Association
GmBH	Gesellschaft mit beschräntker Haftung	limited company or incorporation	a standard legal designation that follows a club's name, typically used to identify a professional club
KSG	Kriegsspielgemeinschaft	Wartime Games Community	in use during WWI and WWII
KV	Kriegsvereinigung	Wartime Association	in use during WWI and WWII
LSV	Luftwaffe Sportverein	Air Force Sports Association	in use during WWII
MTV	Männer Turn-Verein	Men's Gymnastics Association	many German football clubs originated as gymnastics clubs
NSTG	Nationalsozialistische Turngemeinde	National Socialist Gymnastics Community	A designation commonly used under the Nazi regime in occupied territories during World War II.
OSC	Olympischer Sport-Club	Olympic Sports Club
RSV	Rasensportverein	Field Sport Association
SB	Sport Bund	Sports Federation
SC	Sport-Club	Sports Club		SC Freiburg
SG	Sportgemeinschaft	Sports Community
SK	Sport-Klub	Sports Club
SF	Sportfreunde	Sportfriends	sometimes also abbreviated as Spfr.
Spfr.	Sportfreunde	Sportfriends	sometimes also abbreviated as SF
SGV	Sport- und Gesangsverein	Sport and Singing Association
SpVgg	Spielvereinigung	Game Union		SpVgg Greuther Fürth
SSV	Spiel- und Sportverein	Game and Sports Association
STC	Sport- und Turn-Club	Sport and Gymnastics Club
SuS	Spiel- und Sport	Game and Sport
SV	Sportverein	Sports Association		Hamburger SV
Thorball	Thorball	Cricket	a term created as a German-language replacement for the English word Cricket, although never widely adopted, it was used by some of the country's earliest clubs	Berliner TuFC Elf
TBV	Turn- und Ballspielverein	Gymnastics and Ballgame Association
TSC	Turn- und Sport-Club	Gymnastics and Sports Club
TSF	Turn- und Sportfreunde	Gymnastics and Sportfriends
TSG	Turn- und Sportgemeinde	Gymnastics and Sports Community
TSG	Turn- und Sportgemeinschaft	Gymnastics and Sports Community		TSG Hoffenheim
TSV	Turn- und Sportverein	Gymnastics and Sports Association		TSV 1860 München
TuFC	Thor- und Fussball Club	Cricket and Football Club	in use by early Berlin-based clubs
TuRa	Turn- und Rasensport	Gymnastics and Field Sports
Turn-		Gymnastics	many German football clubs originated as gymnastics clubs
TuS	Turn- und Sportclub	Gymnastics and Sports Club		TuS Koblenz
TuSpo	Turn- und Sportclub	Gymnastics and Sports Club
TV	Turnverein	Gymnastics Association
VfB	Verein für Bewegungsspiele	Association for Movement Games		VfB Stuttgart
Vgg	Vereinigung	Union
VfL	Verein für Leibesübungen	Association for Physical Exercise		VfL Wolfsburg
VfR	Verein für Rasensport	Association for Field Sports
VfR	Verein für Rasenspiele	Association for Field Games		VfR Mannheim
VSG	Volkssport Gemeinschaft	People's Sports Community
ZSG	Zentrale Sportgemeinschaft	Central Sports Community

Use of Dates

German football clubs commonly include their date of establishment as part of their name, as in Hannover 96, which was established in 1896. This practice is considered an important part of a club's identity for several reasons. Sides established prior to World War II are referred to as Traditionsvereins (en:traditional clubs), a term which carries some prestige and recognizes the long history of a club and its connections to the roots of football or other sport in Germany or within a particular city or region.

The cachet associated with an early founding date and the desire to preserve the heritage of a club leads to the practice of using the earliest or multiple dates where two or more clubs are merged.

The use of a date may also distinguish between similarly named clubs within a city, such as a successor to an earlier failed side.

Many German football clubs claim founding dates that precede the 1863 date accepted for the historical origin of the modern game in England. Football came to Germany from England and spread quickly throughout the country in the 1880s and 1890s, eventually leading to the formation of the Deutscher Fussball Bund (DFB, en:German Football Association) in 1901. At that time sport in Germany was dominated by gymnastics (de: Turnen) and a myriad of gymnastics clubs already existed. As football grew in popularity many of these Turnverein formed football departments and the dates that are part of the names of their current day successors, which include football clubs and multi-sport clubs, simply reflect these pre-football origins. This is further illustrated in the frequent appearance of the term Turn in names of many German clubs: Turn- und Sportverein München von 1860 (commonly TSV 1860 Munich) was founded as a gymnastics and fitness club in 1860, but did not play football until 1899.

Villages, Cities, Regions

Wuppertaler SV, St. Pauli, Bayern Munich

Common Nicknames

Eintracht, Borussia/Preussen, Viktoria, Britannia, Alemannia/Germania colours, Kickers, Britannia, Thor

Club Mergers

Wuppertaler SV

Wartime Naming Conventions

Kriegspielgemeinschaft, NTSG, Luftwaffe

Political and Religious Affiliations

Arbeiter, DJK, Rot-Sport

Ethnic Identity

English FC Dresden, Turkish clubs, Jewish clubs, Germans outside of Germany, former German territories, Germany/France