The Cleveland Browns are named after their first head coach and co-founder, Paul Brown, following a fan-driven naming process in the mid-1940s.

Quick origin story

  • In 1944–45, Cleveland’s new AAFC franchise held a “name the team” contest, and fans strongly favored “Browns” in honor of popular coach Paul Brown.
  • Owner Arthur “Mickey” McBride eventually accepted the public push and officially adopted “Cleveland Browns” in 1946, despite Paul Brown’s initial discomfort with having the team named after him.

The Joe Louis myth

  • For years, an alternate story claimed the team was really named for heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis, nicknamed “The Brown Bomber,” shortened to “Browns.”
  • Paul Brown later admitted this Joe Louis angle was mostly a deflection because he felt awkward about a team being named after himself, and the franchise now recognizes him as the true namesake.

Why not the “Panthers”?

  • Early on, Paul Brown preferred “Cleveland Panthers,” but that name already belonged to a previous failed local team, and he wanted no association with that history.
  • With “Panthers” off the table and fan sentiment firmly behind “Browns,” the franchise locked in the name that has stuck ever since.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.