What is going on?! NHL fans are only now realizing how the hockey puck got its name
- One theory for how the hockey puck got its name is from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream’s character Robin Goodfellow, who went by Puck
- The character’s quick and unexpected movements may have inspired the hockey puck’s name
- Another theory – perhaps more believable to sports fans – is that the puck got its name from hurling – an ancient Irish sport
If you’re a fan of the NHL, you may have wondered: why is it called a hockey puck?
The unusual name has many origin stories, but fans might be surprised to learn that it rests on classic literature dating all the way back to the 1590s.
When you think of a puck, they probably envision men in lots of padding with long, skinny sticks hitting the black puck around an ice rink, and they’d be right.
However, fans of classic literature might think of another puck: Shakespeare’s fairytale character, formally known as Robin Goodfellow, in A Midsummer’s Night Dream.
Robin Goodfellow was a fairy with a talent for jokes in the popular Shakespeare play and known among friends as Puck. The character’s quick and unexpected movements may have inspired the hockey puck’s name Encyclopedia. com.
When you think of a puck, they probably envision men in lots of padding with long, skinny sticks hitting the black puck around an ice rink, and they’d be right. However, fans of classic literature might think of another puck: Shakespeare’s Puck, formally known as Robin Goodfellow, in A Midsummer’s Night Dream (left)
Robin Goodfellow was a fairy with a knack for jokes in the popular Shakespeare play and known to friends as Puck (played by Stanley Tucci, left, in the 1999 film). The character’s quick and unexpected movements may have inspired the hockey puck’s name
However, Shakespeare’s character isn’t the only supposed origin story for the hockey puck.
Another theory – perhaps more believable to sports fans – is that the puck gets its name from hurling – an ancient Irish sport played with wooden sticks and a small ball.
The players would poke the sliotar ball. The word poke comes from the Irish word ‘poc’, which resembles puck according to the English language BBC.
What’s more, hockey itself was invented after a group of immigrant boys in Nova Scotia were swinging on a frozen pond around 1800, the BBC reported. The boys were instructed to put the ball on the ground instead of balancing it on their sticks and hockey was born.
Another theory – perhaps more believable to sports fans – is that the puck gets its name from hurling – an ancient Irish sport played with wooden sticks and a small ball. The players would poke the sliotar ball. The word poke comes from the Irish word ‘poc’, which resembles puck
At one point, hockey pucks were made from lacrosse balls that were cut in thirds and left the middle, according to Hockey world.
Other forms of pucks were made from wood cut from branches of a tree, according to the outlet.
In the early 1900s, pucks were made by gluing together used worn-out rubber, Hockey World reported, but the puck often split in two.
By 1940, the puck would be made of synthetic rubber.