Why Is It Called Pickleball? The Two Origin Stories

Cool Pickle Pickleball T-Shirt

Quick answer: There are two origin stories, and the people who were there did not agree. The Pritchard family, who invented the game in 1965, says Joan Pritchard named it after the "pickle boat" in rowing, a crew thrown together from leftover rowers, because the new game was thrown together from leftover pieces of other sports. The other story says it was named after the family dog, Pickles. USA Pickleball sides with the pickle boat: its research found the dog was born in 1968, three years after the game was named. But co-inventor Barney McCallum held to the dog story all his life, and one sport history book says the question cannot be settled for certain.

The two stories side by side

The pickle boat story The dog story
What it says Joan Pritchard named the game after the "pickle boat," the crew made of leftover rowers The game was named after Pickles, the Pritchard family dog, who chased the balls
Who told it Joan Pritchard; her son Frank Pritchard and daughter Peggy Pritchard-Olson; Joel Pritchard in later interviews Neighbors on Bainbridge Island; an early 1970s magazine article; Barney McCallum and his family
Strongest evidence USA Pickleball's research dates the dog's birth to 1968, after the name was in use McCallum, one of the three inventors, held that it was the dog "to his dying day," as Frank Pritchard put it
Weakest point Comes mainly from the family's own memories The dog appears to be younger than the game, and Joel Pritchard later said the dog story was a joke
Backed by USA Pickleball, HistoryLink (Washington's history encyclopedia), Pickleball.com Many older articles; still repeated widely

Story 1: the pickle boat

In rowing, a "pickle boat" is a boat filled with the rowers left over after the main crews were picked. Joan Pritchard, Joel Pritchard's wife, said the new game reminded her of one. It was a mix of badminton, tennis and ping-pong, put together from whatever was lying around, the way a pickle boat is put together from whoever is left.

Joan wrote this account herself in a 2008 newspaper column. In USA Pickleball's 2020 history of the name, her son Frank Pritchard remembers the moment: the families were deciding what to call the game, and his mother "stepped up and said, 'Pickle Ball.'" The Pritchards have said the only other people there were their houseguests, the Bells.

Joel Pritchard gave a slightly different flavor in other interviews. According to HistoryLink, he said they wanted a "nutty name," and a reporter wrote that "tenny pong" had also been considered at one point.

Story 2: Pickles the dog

The more famous version says the Pritchards had a dog named Pickles who chased the ball and ran off with it, so the game became "Pickle's ball." It is the story most people have heard.

According to Frank Pritchard, as told to USA Pickleball, the dog story started as a joke. Sometime between 1969 and the early 1970s, a reporter from a national publication interviewed Joel. He told the pickle boat story, then joked that they could say it was named after the dog. The reporter liked that better, as the article puts it, because it was "cuter and more memorable." Joel told Bainbridge neighbors not to worry: "It will never stick." It stuck.

The evidence: which came first, the dog or the name?

  • The dog's birth year. USA Pickleball says its research found the dog was born in 1968, three years after the game was first played and named. HistoryLink gives the same year.
  • A neighbor's memory. In USA Pickleball's account, a neighbor, Paul Brown, says that in the summer of 1968 he and Jeannie Pritchard, Joel and Joan's daughter, then 10, found a litter of puppies and each brought one home. Paul named his Lulu. "The next day I saw Jeannie and they had named their dog Pickles."
  • Joel Pritchard's own words. HistoryLink reports that Pritchard said the dog "was named after the game," not the other way around.
  • Barney McCallum's view. McCallum, who helped write the first rules, kept telling the dog story. Frank Pritchard says McCallum held to it until he died in 2019, and that Barney and Joel had agreed for years to tell it.
  • The historians' view. Jennifer Lucore and Beverly Youngren, who wrote the 2018 book History of Pickleball, could not determine for certain whether the dog or the game got its name first, according to Wikipedia's summary of the book.

Our read: the written evidence leans clearly toward the pickle boat. The dog's birth year, the family's account and Joel Pritchard's later statements all point the same way. But one of the three inventors disagreed until the end, and the dog's birth year comes from research we could not see for ourselves, so "almost certainly the pickle boat" is fairer than "definitely."

A third, smaller story: "in a pickle"

There is one more version, and it is not even clear who told it. HistoryLink says Barney McCallum explained the name with the line "I've got you in a pickle," the thing you say when an opponent is stuck. Lucore and Youngren's book reports that Bill Bell said he named it for putting an opponent "in a pickle." Few sources take this one seriously as the true origin, but it shows how loosely the story was told, even by the inventors.

What the name does not mean

  • It has nothing to do with eating pickles. No account links the name to the food.
  • It is not named for the ball's color or shape. The first ball was a plain perforated plastic ball, not green.
  • The cartoon pickles came later. Pickle mascots, pickle paddles and pickle shirts are fans having fun with the name, not part of its origin.

Timeline of the name

When What happened
Summer 1965 The game is invented on Bainbridge Island and named "Pickle Ball" by Joan Pritchard, according to the family
1968 Pickles the dog is born, according to USA Pickleball and HistoryLink. Pickle Ball Inc. is incorporated in February.
1969 to early 1970s A reporter prints the dog version after Joel jokes about it, according to Frank Pritchard
1972 "Pickle-ball" is trademarked, according to Lucore and Youngren
2008 Joan Pritchard writes about the pickle boat origin in a newspaper column
2018 Lucore and Youngren's history book calls the question unresolved
2019 Barney McCallum dies, still telling the dog story
October 2020 USA Pickleball publishes its history of the name, siding with the pickle boat

Want the rest of the story, from the first game to the pro tours? Read When Was Pickleball Invented? The History of Pickleball.

Frequently asked questions

Why is it called pickleball?

Most likely because Joan Pritchard, wife of co-inventor Joel Pritchard, thought the game was like a "pickle boat," a rowing crew made of leftover rowers, since it was made from leftover pieces of other sports. That is the inventing family's account and the one USA Pickleball supports.

Was pickleball named after a dog?

Probably not. The family dog, Pickles, was born in 1968, three years after the game was named, according to USA Pickleball. Joel Pritchard said the dog was named after the game. Co-inventor Barney McCallum disagreed and kept telling the dog story.

What is a pickle boat?

In rowing, it is a boat crewed by the rowers left over after the other boats are filled. The term is used loosely, so you will see slightly different definitions, but the idea is always a crew of leftovers.

Who named pickleball?

Joan Pritchard, according to her family and USA Pickleball. She was the wife of Joel Pritchard, one of the three men who invented the game.

What kind of dog was Pickles?

A cockapoo, according to Frank Pritchard in USA Pickleball's history. He says people have often called the dog a cocker spaniel or other breeds by mistake. The dog was real; the debate is only about whether the dog or the game got the name first.

Is it "pickleball" or "pickle ball"?

Today it is one word, "pickleball." The original company was Pickle Ball Inc., and the early trademark was spelled "Pickle-ball."

Does pickleball have anything to do with pickles?

No. The name came from a rowing term (or a dog), not the food. The pickle jokes and cartoon pickles came later, from fans.

The name has nothing to do with pickles. We made pickles anyway.

Sources