Why is Australia women’s national team called Matildas? Where does the name come from and when was it adopted?

The Wallabies. The kangaroos. The Socceroos. Chances are if a nickname can be traced to the marsupial that adorns the Australian coat of arms, it will be used by one of Australia’s national teams.

However, the Matildas are going against the trend.

The women’s football team is one of the most recognizable teams in the country, but most believe the nickname pays homage to one of Australia’s most famous songs.

In fact, the Matildas bond with a kangaroo, albeit one that is much more surprising than their counterparts.

Here, Daily Mail Australia takes a look at where Australian women’s football got its nickname from.

Where Does The Last Name Matildas Come From?

Matildas certainly pays homage to Waltzing Matilda, right? Wrong actually.

Banjo Paterson’s ballad may be Australia’s unofficial national anthem, but that’s where its connections to the women’s soccer team begin and end.

The song is a staple of Australia’s major sporting events – who can forget Slim Dusty’s performance at the opening ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics – but not the source of Matildas’ nickname.

That would instead be Matilda, the giant kangaroo that served as the mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane – more on that later.

Talking to the The Sydney Morning Herald last month, former Australian international Sharon Young recalled bringing up the name as a suggestion for a nickname.

“I said, ‘Well, what about Matilda? You know, the kangaroo that went around the stadium?” That seemed like a great name to me.’

Australia opens the 2023 World Cup in Sydney against Ireland on Thursday evening

So, who was Matilda?

As mentioned above, Matilda was the mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane.

With a height of 13 meters and a weight of six tons, the animatronic kangaroo was literally an imposing figure.

Built on top of a forklift, Matilda could move her ears, turn her head, blink her eyelashes, and even open her “pouch.”

She battled high winds to lap the track at the opening ceremony at Queen Elizabeth II Stadium – now QSAC – and even winked at Prince Philip.

By the time Brisbane hosted the Commonwealth Games, the Australian men’s team had been referred to as the Socceroos for a decade.

Matilda the kangaroo was the mascot for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane

When did the name Matildas become official?

According to Football Australia, the 1995 Women’s World Cup was the first tournament in which the team was named the Matildas.

Or, to put it another way, for the first 16 years since their first international game against New Zealand in October 1979, the Australian women’s team had no nickname.

Leading up to the World Cup, the team did not have a nickname like most of its Australian sport counterparts and was referred to informally and even officially as the ‘Female Socceroos’.

Before the 1995 World Cup, the Australian Women’s Soccer Association – which ran women’s soccer in Australia until 2003 – and SBS held a TV vote to determine a new name for the women’s national team.

Matildas was one of the candidates, along with the Soccertoos – a portmanteau of ‘Cockatoos’ meant to suggest that women played soccer and also loved soccer – and the Lorikeets.

The Blue Flyers somehow also made the shortlist, as did the Waratahs, who presumably would have been rejected by anyone living outside New South Wales.

The 1995 Women’s World Cup was the first tournament in which the Australian women’s soccer team was named the Matildas.

Did AWSA have a say in the name?

Yes, reportedly at least.

While unaware of Young’s suggestion, former AWSA chief executive Peter Hugg came to the same conclusion when he searched for a viable name and suggested taking inspiration from the 1982 Commonwealth Games mascot.

“We were clear about that Waltzing Matildaso it was a word we knew,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Roald Dahl had written his book, Matilda, [published in 1988] about a girl with magical powers. And so these little fragments […] you kind of think, “This is getting a little bit of legs. Let’s keep pushing this.”

‘Sometimes you’re lucky. It just fit.’