Prior to being named the Johnnies, the team played as the Huntington Miamis in the short-lived Indiana-Ohio League in 1908.
The team changed its name for a final time, in 1911, to the Huntington Indians before folding.
The "Miamis" name was in reference to the Miami people, a Native-American tribe that inhabited parts of Indiana, Michigan and western Ohio, while the Johnnies name holds various meanings.
The first being John Hunt Morgan, a Confederate general who raided southern Indiana in 1863.
However the name can also be a reference to the team's manager from 1909-1911, John Lawrence "Larry" "Johnny" Strands.