Photo by Minda Haas via Wikimedia Commons.

New Orleans Zephyrs Rebranding: Which Proposed Name is the Worst?

You can be forgiven for thinking there was nothing wrong with the New Orleans Zephyrs’ name.

After all, the moniker has been in use since the minor league baseball team set up shop in the city in 1993. It was the name of the Denver-based team that relocated to New Orleans that year, but it worked just fine here as a reference the old Pontchartrain Beach amusement park’s popular Zephyr Roller Coaster.

But alas, all things must pass. The New Orleans Hornets eventually became the more Louisiana-centric New Orleans Pelicans, and so a similar fate awaits the Zephyrs next season.

The good news is that the decision will be left to the fans, who have the next two weeks to vote for their favorite option out of seven nominees. The bad news is that the choices are, well, a little uninspired.

And the nominees are: Baby Cakes, Crawfish, King Cakes, Night Owls, Po’boys, Red Eyes and Tailgators.

According to the New Orleans Advocate, the seven finalists were selected from 2,539 fan submissions, which were whittled down by San Diego-based firm Brandiose. Evidently, representatives from the company really got to know the region when they came down to New Orleans for a lengthy two-day visit last month.

Let’s take a look at their selections.

Three of them–Crawfish, King Cakes and Po’boys–are just the names of popular local food items.

Make that four of them, as Red Eyes appears to be a reference to crawfish. It could be argued that crawfish are an animal instead of a food item, but it should be noted that they walk backwards and are best known for being boiled alive. Not really the kind of thing that strikes fear into the hearts of one’s opponents, is it?

Then there’s Baby Cakes, another less-than-intimidating name that pays “tribute to the Mardi Gras king cakes where small plastic babies are sought after.” Alright then, it looks like five of these names are just food items.

Rounding out the list are Night Owls and Tailgators. The former deserves points for alliteration–New Orleans Night Owls does have a ring to it–but still manages to fall flat. The latter combines “alligators” and the regional pastime of “tailgating” into a single silly word that would make a great name for a college bar cover band.

So there you have it. There are seven awful names to choose from, but only one can be the worst. Let us know which one you dislike the most in the comments.

And if you happen to actually like one of them, make sure to vote for it over at zephyrsbaseball.com. After all, we hope someone from the region gives some input now that the San Diego branding specialists have had their say.