We Looked Into How Pickleball Got Its Name. It Is Not What You Think. It Is Worse.

The most popular story about how pickleball got its name is that it was named after a dog. A cocker spaniel named Pickles, belonging to the Pritchard family of Bainbridge Island, Washington, who allegedly chased the ball during early games in 1965 and thus lent his name to the sport for all eternity.

This story is wrong. We want to be very clear about this, because the correct version of events is, if anything, more troubling.

The dog was named after the sport. Pickles the cocker spaniel came along after the game was already named. Joan Pritchard — wife of co-founder Joel Pritchard, and the person who actually named the sport — confirmed this. Her children confirmed this. The timeline confirms this. The dog did not name pickleball. Pickleball named the dog.

"A family looked at their new cocker spaniel and said: this animal will be called Pickles, after the sport we invented. This is the correct sequence of events."

The Actual Origin, Which Is Also Concerning

Joan Pritchard named the sport after a "pickle boat" — a rowing term for the last boat to finish a race, typically crewed by leftover oarsmen who were not selected for the primary boats. The pickle boat is, in the vocabulary of competitive rowing, the vessel of the unchosen. The boat assembled from whoever was left over after the real selections were made.

Joan Pritchard looked at the game her husband and his friends had assembled — borrowing a badminton court, a tennis net lowered by two inches, ping-pong paddles, and a perforated plastic ball — and thought: this reminds me of a pickle boat. A collection of leftovers. A mismatched crew of elements that nobody else wanted, pressed into service together. She named the sport after the boat of leftovers.

The Competing Theory, Which Does Not Help

Co-founder Bill Bell offered an alternative origin story: he claimed the name came from his desire to put opponents "in a pickle" — a common English idiom meaning to place someone in a difficult or uncomfortable situation. We appreciate the competitive framing. We note, however, that "putting someone in a pickle" is an idiom typically used to describe mild inconvenience. It is not the language of elite competition.

Bill Bell wanted the sport's name to mean "I will place you in a mildly uncomfortable situation." Joan Pritchard named it after a boat full of people who didn't make the cut. These are the two origin stories. Pickleball chose both of them.

Our Conclusion

Pickleball was created in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington. It was assembled from the leftover equipment of other sports. It was named after a rowing term for a boat of leftover athletes. A dog was subsequently named after it, and the dog became the myth, and the myth became the story, and the story was wrong. The pickle boat finished first. We are still processing this.