Athletic nickname

In the United States and Canada, multiple recurring themes have appeared over time for choosing a school's athletic nickname.

Examples: Cornell Big Red, Stanford Cardinal, UIC Flames, Tulane Green Wave.

Examples: Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Oklahoma Sooners, Purdue Boilermakers, Illinois Fighting Illini, Texas A&M Aggies A small number of schools choose an archetypical heroic person as their official athletic nickname.

Likenesses to Native Americans were at one time widely popular athletic monikers, especially for schools that adopted them in the 19th or early 20th century.

Because of protests from some Native American organizations, some schools have changed their athletic moniker and mascot and cheering practices without significant objection once the issue was raised, especially if such offense toward a group of people was viewed as incompatible with that school's stated mission or if the threat of legal action was too burdensome.