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Everton, Aston Villa, West Brom: Which club has the oldest Premier League name?

With Hull City's owner keen to change the clubs name to 'Hull Tigers', we've had a little look to see which current Premier League club has the oldest name.

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The majority of Premier League sides have changed their name since they were founded including Manchester United and Newcastle United who were Newton Heath and Stanley respectively.

However, a small handful have kept their founding name.

See our alternative Premier League table with the original club names below:

The Premier League table with original team names

And here is a timeline of club names from newest to oldest:

1969 Swansea City have the youngest name. They changed from Swansea Town in 1969, to celebrate Swansea earning city status.

1928 Stoke City are next. They also added city to their name having originally been founded as Stoke Ramblers.

1914 It is 100 years since Arsenal became, well, Arsenal. Before that they'd been Woolwich Arsenal. And before that they'd been Dial Square.

1908 Cardiff City are next. They have been Cardiff City since 1908. Before that they were Riverside AFC.

1905 Chelsea have always been Chelsea. Crystal Palace have always been Crystal Palace. They are the youngest clubs in the Premier League never to have changed their names, and they were both founded in 1905. They've had the same names for 109 years.

1904 Ironically, Hull City, the cause of all this, are one of only five teams in the Premier League never to have changed their name. They've been Hull City for 110 years, but possibly not for many longer.

1902 Norwich City have had their name since 1902, and it has remained unchanged since then.

1902 Manchester United started life as Newton Heath. Rumours that Ryan Giggs has been playing for so long he actually appeared for them are unconfirmed. United became Manchester United in 1902.

1900 West Ham United started life as Thames Ironworks, hence the "Irons" nickname which has stuck to this day. They've been the Hammers for 114 years.

1897 Southampton began their existence as the St. Mary's Young Men's Association FC, then became St. Mary's FC, then became Southampton St. Mary's. They settled on the simple Southampton in 1897, 117 years ago

1894 Manchester City rejoiced in the name St Mark's (West Gorton) when they started. Then they became Gorton Association FC followed by Ardwick AFC. 120 years ago they changed it to Manchester City.

1892 Newcastle United started out as Stanley. We'd rather like a Premier League club simply called Stanley, but it wasn't to be. The morphed into Newcastle East End, and a merger with Newcastle West End led to the formation of Newcastle United in 1892.

1892 It must surely be to the endless amusement of Evertonians that their nearest neighbours started with a name similar to their own. Liverpool grew out of a split in the Everton club, and they began life as Everton FC and Athletic Grounds Ltd. The FA at the time decided two teams called Everton was too confusing, and so after a couple of months Liverpool became Liverpool.

1888 Fulham were originally called Fulham St Andrew's Church Sunday School FC, and also dabbled for a while with being called Fulham Excelsior. It was in 1888 that the current name was adopted.

1884 Tottenham Hotspur played their first matches under the name Hotspur FC. The Tottenham was added in 1884 to avoid confusion with another club of the same name.

1881 Sunderland's original name was Sunderland & District Teachers AFC. The club adopted the shorter version of the name in 1881.

1880 West Bromwich Strollers was the first name of the club that became West Bromwich Albion.

1879 Everton nearly have the oldest name in the Premier League. They started out as St Domingo's FC, but changed to Everton in 1879, because they were recruiting players from outside of the parish. That's 135 years ago.

1874 Aston Villa are the undisputed Premier League kings of the long-standing name. They were founded as Aston Villa in 1874, and have never changed it. 140 years and counting.

Statistics via ampp3d (Daily Mirror)

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