The new Boston NWSL name is boring. That's the point.

Boston's NWSL team finally has its name, albeit a pretty forgettable one. And that's probably a good thing.

After a comically poor first unveiling of the team as BOS NATION FC -- one that included an obviously ill-advised ad campaign centered around the slogan "too many balls" -- the club announced Thursday that it would begin play in 2026 as Boston Legacy FC.

Officially, the new name is supposed to hearken to Boston's history as one of the nation's foundational cities, as well as one of its modern leaders in education and commerce. Unofficially, it's as sleepy a nickname as exists in North American sports. And that's kind of the point.

If nothing else, Legacy succeeds because it guarantees that the discourse around Boston's new NWSL team will be about pretty much anything other than its name, which connotes such fascinating subjects as higher education admissions practices and family inheritance laws.

If you think that's a losing strategy, perhaps you haven't been looking at team rebrands recently. Among the most famous are the NFL's the Washington Commanders and the NHL's Utah Hockey Club, both ponderous but completely uncontroversial monikers.

Over in MLS, here's the list of the names of the last 12 clubs that have entered the league:

• New York City FC
• Orlando City SC
• Atlanta United
• Minnesota United
• Los Angeles FC
• FC Cincinnati
• Inter Miami
• Nashville SC
• Austin FC
• Charlotte FC
• St. Louis City
• San Diego FC
  

Just like all of those ideas, Boston Legacy FC won't win any awards for innovative marketing. But in an era when so much of pro sports decision making is corporate, the fear to take a stand on any sort of dynamic name actually returns some power to fans.

Of those previously mentioned MLS teams, more than half have seen their fanbases arrive informally at unofficial nicknames for their clubs: The Verde, the Cityzens, the Loons, the Lions and so on. Legacy fans now have the same opportunity.