Hornets Fans Swarm Twitter to Swat New Orleans Nickname Change to Pelicans

The New Orleans Hornets basketball franchise, formerly the Charlotte Hornets, announced on Tuesday evening that it was changing its name.

The NBA team will start playing under the Pelicans nickname starting as soon as the 2013-14 season, according to many sources. The team’s owner told Fox Sports the team also was considering a change of team colors to navy, red and gold, from the electric blue and bright purple the players currently sport.

The brown pelican is the Louisiana state bird and it appears on the state flag and seal, and Louisiana is known as The Pelican State.

The Hornets franchise left Charlotte, N.C., in 2002 and was replaced there two years later by an expansion team named the Bobcats. Some fans in Charlotte are hoping the Hornets will return to Carolina.

In the age of social media, fans are instantly able to weigh in on such things. Most Twitter users completely disagreed with the name change. In fact, it was hard to find any Twitter users in favor.

I am a sports writer and the headline is: "That Stings: NBA team New Orleans Hornets expected to change name to Pelicans..."

— Jacob Dreyer (@Jacob9er) December 5, 2012

Are they changing the New Orleans Hornets to the Pelicans because Anthony Davis' unibrow looks like a bird? twitter.com/Arty_McFly45/s…

— Arturo Gonzalez (@Arty_McFly45) December 5, 2012

Hornets to change name to New Orleans Pelicans. How about the Po' Boys? The Cash Money?

— James Sullivan (@sullivanjames) December 5, 2012

The New Orleans Hornets are changing their name to the New Orleans Pelicans? That's not intimidating or anything....

— Joseph Fiore (@Joey_Fi_136) December 5, 2012

The Hornets already suck as it is, so why embarrass them more with a brutal name like the Pelicans?

— A. Douse (@douser1114) December 5, 2012

If I procure a time machine, I'm going back to '94 and making sure we get the New Jersey Swamp Dragons: netsdaily.com/2012/12/5/3730…

— Tom Ziller (@teamziller) December 5, 2012

By changing there name to the Pelicans the hornets can pretty much kiss resigning Anthony Davis goodbye once his contract is up

— Rocco Donatiello (@RoccoDonatiello) December 5, 2012

The New Orleans Pelicans...yep, sounds just as bad when you say it out loud. Sorry Hornets fans.

— Corey Garrison (@corey_garrison) December 5, 2012

If New Orleans becomes the Pelicans, the Charlotte franchise should reclaim the Hornets' name. I've never gotten used to Charlotte Bobcats.

— Eddie Timanus (@EddieTimanus) December 5, 2012

And one of the few favorable tweets:

Count me in the kinda-pro-Pelicans camp. To those who have turned their noses up: Why pretend like "Hornets" is such a great team name?

— Rob Mahoney (@RobMahoney) December 5, 2012