The Cleveland Browns are named after their first head coach and co-founder, Paul Brown.
Name origin
When Cleveland received a franchise in the All-America Football Conference in the mid‑1940s, owner Arthur “Mickey” McBride hired Paul Brown, who was already a famous Ohio coach, to run the new team. A naming contest and local usage led fans and media to favor “Browns” in his honor, and the choice was eventually made official despite Brown’s initial reluctance to have the team named after himself.
Alternative stories
There is a long-circulated story that the team might have been named after boxer Joe Louis, the “Brown Bomber,” but historians and later comments from Paul Brown himself indicate this was more deflection than fact. Official league and reference histories consistently state that the franchise is named for Paul Brown, and that explanation is accepted as the team’s true naming origin.
