Football is called “football” because it originally referred to a broad family of ball games played on foot (not on horseback), many of which mainly used the feet to kick the ball. Over time, specific codes like association football (soccer), rugby football, and American football kept the inherited name even as their rules and use of hands and feet diverged.
Origins of the word
Historically, “football” described any ball game played by ordinary people on the ground, as opposed to mounted games like polo. Many of these early games involved advancing a ball chiefly by kicking, so the name also fit their heavy reliance on the feet.
Soccer vs rugby vs American football
In 19th‑century England, one set of rules became “association football,” which most of the world simply calls football today, while another became “rugby football.” When a hybrid of these codes developed in North America, it kept the generic family name “football” even though handling the ball became more important than kicking in the modern American game.
Why the name persists
Names of sports tend to stick once they are culturally established, even if rules change. Early American football still involved more kicking (for example, more heavily weighted field goals), so the name felt natural at the time and remained as the sport evolved. Today, “football” in different countries points to different branches of that original football family, but they all trace back to those early on‑foot ball games.
