Actually, it is fairly common for German soccer teams to use the year they were formed in their name (the best known examples are Schalke '04 and TSV Munich 1860), so Houston 1836 would be an interesting variation. Since Salt Lake City's franchise went with "Real Salt Lake" for their name (many Spanish teams use "Real" in their name, including the world famous Real Madrid), so FC/SC (depending on whether they want a traditional or Americanized name) Houston 1836 would be an interesting variation, since it refers to the year the city was founded.

From the list Rob provides, I'd also go with Houston 1836, but I get the funny feeling Lonestars will win.

How about CD (Club Deportivo) as the prefix, as it too could appeal to the large Hispanic base in the area.

Sergio,

CD would work just as well as a prefix. CD Houston 1836 has a nice sound to it as a team name.

I dont know, this name seems kind of...well, weird. I mean, yes its original, but this is soccer we're talking about, the whole sport is basically brand new to most houstonians. i think colt .45's would have been better, but alas no one asked me

Houston 1836 is a stupid name. It is obvious that the Houston 1836 management team know very little about Marketing and nothing about Texas history. To market anything you must know and understand your target audience. The commissioner of the MLS stated that one of the reasons for the move to Houston from San Jose was the HUGE Hispanic population in Houston that likes soccer. This is true, but the majority of this Hispanic population is of Mexican descent. Quick history lesson folks, 1836 is not a very popular year among Mexican descendants. That is the year that Texas declared its independence from Mexico, which although it may be popular among Texans is NOT popular among Mexicans or Mexican Americans, which again is a BIG part of the ?supposed? target audience that Houston 1836 "would like to attract". This decision to name the team 1836 will work AGAINST the team and will alienate the target audience of Mexican American soccer fans. This is a HUGE mistake by the Houston soccer team and they will see the results by small attendance at their games. Might as well of called the team the ?Houston Wall? after the proposed wall to be built between Mexico and the US. It is hard to believe that a "professional" sports team would commit such a HUGE public relations error, but then again that is what you get when you put someone who knows little to nothing about soccer to run you team. To sum it up, Houston 1836 is a BAD decision both PR wise and economically speaking. I sure hope someone gets fired for this decision, and they should once the team sees the attendance numbers this season.

Everyone's whining about this, if this many people didn't want this team name then why didn't they vote for another one? If they did vote then too bad the majority wanted Houston 1836 and that's what'll be. And those that didn't bother to vote obviously didn't care about the team which means they weren't gonna be fans of the team anyways.