The Edmonton Football Team unveiled its new name Tuesday, having decided on the Elks (Photo: Edmonton Elks / YouTube)

By Shane Clausing

Edmonton Elks

Edmonton CFL team goes with Elks as new name

Jun 1, 2021 | 10:08 AM

The Edmonton Football Team announced on Tuesday that they will be known as the Edmonton Elks going forward.

The club made the announcement via a live stream today from Commonwealth Stadium.

Edmonton dropped its longtime name, Eskimos, last year following a similar decision by the NFL’s Washington team amid pressure on franchises to eliminate racist or stereotypical names.

In November 2020, the club asked the public to join in a name the team contest. The process resulted in 14,833 submissions with 2,047 unique name entries from all over the world.

After discussions with stakeholders, season ticket holders, alumni, players, partners, coaches and the public, the club says it became clear that the name “Elk” was highly favoured throughout all demographic categories.

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Initially, the team was going to be called the Edmonton Elk. However, after a lengthy debate, consultation with linguistics experts from the Oxford Dictionary and the University of Alberta’s linguistics department, the name “Elks” was finally chosen, adding the “s” to the original choice “Elk”.

The team adds the new name reflects the speed, strength, and resilience of the Green and Gold and Northern Alberta.

The CFL season is expected to start in August of 2021.

With files from Canadian Press