Where did the name arsenal football club come from?

The team was formed by workers in the Royal Arsenal ordinance factory in Woolwich. Originally called Royal Arsenal, they changed their name to Woolwich Arsenal when they turned professional in 1891 and then dropped 'Woolwich' from the name when they re-located to North London in 1914.

Actually Arsenal moved to Highbury in North London in 1913 not 1914. The reason for the move was that Henry Norris had bought the club in 1910 with the aim of merging the club with Fulham FC. When that was turned down by the League, he looked for a site where the club would flourish more readily - a site with good transport links (Plumstead where the club played was notoriously difficult to get to) and with a big urban population (in those days the club was effectively playing in a small town in Kent).

The club however did not change its name to Arsenal, but to "The Arsenal". The final name change came in 1925 when following Herbert Chapman's suggestion the club dropped the definite article, "in order to be top of the alphabet even if we are not top of the league."

The story of the opening stages of this saga - the 1910 take over of the club by Norris, which led directly to the move to Highbury, the name change, promotion to the first division in 1919 and the recruitment of Chapman, is described in the novel "Making the Arsenal" by Tony Attwood. The book is available through Amazon.co.uk and through www.woolwicharsenal.co.uk