Meet Houston Dynamo

Houston's MLS team announced its new name today: the Houston Dynamo.

Oh.

The name change, as you'll recall, is the result of controversy over Houston 1836, the original name, which offended some local Hispanics who are still sensitive about the Texas Revolution 170 years ago. "Dynamo," team officials say, represents the energy of Houston:

"Dynamo is a word to describe someone who never fatigues, never gives up," team president Oliver Luck said today. "The new name is symbolic of Houston as an energetic, hard-working, risk-taking kind of town."

"To me, Dynamo has a blue-collar feel to it, as well as an association with the energy business, which is one of the things Houston is known for. We think this is a great name that Greater Houston can rally around."

Yes, everyone can rally around it except blue-collar workers and power plant employees, who will undoubtedly get offended and threaten to boycott the team. Turns out there is precedent for the new name, though: The soccer teams in Moscow and Kiev are both named Dynamo. Add Soviet expatriates to the list of people likely to get offended by the new name. The new logo features the team name across a shield, with a star and soccer ball. The 1836 colors — black, white, orange and light blue — haven't changed.

The comments have just started coming in on the Chronicle's soccer forum, and KHOU has an online poll about the name. There's more on the Chron's soccer blog, and Lopez liked 1836 better [audio].