Naming your fantasy football dream team

If you’ve signed up to Starling’s UEFA Women’s EURO Fantasy Football 2022 game, you’ll know that the first challenge lies in naming your dream team.

Lots of people find choosing a name as important as choosing which footballers to add to their team - especially if they’re competing in leagues with family, friends and colleagues.

For inspiration for your Fantasy team name, look no further.

Historical names

One option is to choose a team name that celebrates pioneering Women’s teams and players.

You could try ‘Mrs Graham's XI’, who are thought to be the first women’s football team in Britain’s history. Founded by Helen Matthews, a goalkeeper who played under the name Mrs Graham, the team was based in Stirling in Scotland. Legend has it that their 3-1 defeat of England in 1881, which sparked riots, was what led Women’s football to be banned in Scotland until 1971.

You’re on to a winner if you name your team after ‘Dick Kerr Ladies’, considered to be one of the most successful women’s football teams in history. Named after the munitions factory where many of the players worked, Dick Kerr Ladies won more than 90% of their 828 games between 1917 and 1965. They were the first women’s team to tour overseas and to wear shorts instead of knickerbockers or skirts.

You could also look to some individual historical names for inspiration. Emma Clarke, born in Liverpool in 1875, is Britain’s first black woman footballer. The team she played for, Britain Ladies’ Football Club, was founded by Mary Hutson, who played under the name Nettie Honeyball. Another legend is Lily Parr, who notched up more than 900 goals in her 32 year football career, and is seen as one of the top goal scorers in the history of football.

Pick a date

If your chosen team name has already been taken, you may want to add some numbers to the end of it. But instead of going for ‘12345’ or the year that you were born, why not add some notable dates from the rise of Women’s football?

1895, the year that Britain Ladies’ Football Club was founded, is a good place to start. Or how about 1971, the year the ban on Women’s football matches playing on official grounds was lifted?

2022 is another winner. Afterall, it’s the year when the record for the most watched women’s sporting event in European history is set to be broken (yes, by the UEFA Women’s EUROs).

Pun-intentional

For many, a Fantasy team isn’t a dream team until its name includes a footballer related pun. ‘Britain’s Scott Talent’ is a good example, which nods to England midfielder and Starling Bank ambassador Jill Scott, one of few England Lionesses to surpass 150 caps.

A full list of players across the 16 teams can be found on the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 website, which will give you lots of names to work with. For further inspiration, read on for a round up of pun-ny names from Team Starling.

• Toone-army (Ella Toone - England)
• Britain’s Scott Talent (Jill Scott - England)
• Earps I Did It Again (Mary Earps - England)
• Running on Hempty (Lauren Hemp - England)
• I'm a Maciver (Sandy Maciver - England)
• Stanway to Heaven (Georgia Stanway - England)
• Houghton Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Steph Houghton - England)
• Kirby your enthusiasm (Fran Kirby - England)
• Give us Aluko that goal (Eniola Aluko - England)
• Mead for speed (Beth Mead - England)
• Fly me to the Toone (Ella Toone - England)
• Bright, Left and Centre (Millie Bright - England)
• We’ll Always Have Parris (Nikita Parris - England)
• All White on the Night (Ellen White - England)
• Things are Houghton Up (Steph Houghton - England)
• Going for Bronze (Lucy Bronze - England)
• Great Scott! (Jill Scott - England)
• Count on Mead (Beth Mead - England)
• Sing it for England (Bethany England - England)
• Sweet Caro-Klein (Jennifer Klein - Austria)
• Foot Deloose (Laura Deloose - Belgium)
• Kiwic as lightning (Rahel Kiwic - Switzerland)
• Here to Gwinn (Giulia Gwinn - Germany)
• Losada goals (Vicky Losada - Spain)
• Saved by the Bell (Megan Bell - Northern Ireland)
• Reach for the Sarrs (Ouleymata Sarr - France)
• Sarri not Sarri (Veatriki Sarri - Greece)
• Svava voom (Svava Gudmundsdóttir - Iceland)
• What a wonderful Wold (Ingrid Wold - Norway)
• Silva linings (Dolores Silva - Portugal)
• Smashing Glas ceilings (Hanna Glas - Sweden)
• Pinther is coming (Viktoria Pinther - Austria)
• They see me Öling (Ria Öling - Finland)
• Football Bonansea (Barbara Bonansea - Italy)
• Chavas be havin’ ya! (Mylene Chavas - France)
• Top of the Popps (Alexandra Popp - Germany)
• Go Holdaway (Freya Holdaway - Northern Ireland)
• Der Most goals (Liza van der Most - Netherlands)
• Cimini Bon Boulash (Linda Tucceri Cimini - Italy)
• Costa fortune (Carole Costa - Portugal)
• Hell of a Zerva (Thenia Zerva - Greece)
• Just Larsen about (Kathrine Larsen - Denmark)
• Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Pernille Harder - Denmark)
• Please, please, please, Lemey get what I want (Diedey Lemey - Belgium)
• Collin all players (Kaisa Collin - Finland)