Why Derby County are nicknamed the Rams and the story behind iconic badge


There are so many football clubs whose nickname relates to an animal. There are the Magpies of Notts County, the Bulls at Hereford United, the Tigers of Hull City and so on.

And here at Derby County, the club is nicknamed the Rams and is perhaps one of the most iconic nicknames for a football club in the country, but why? Here we delved into our archives to give you the background on how the club became associated with an animal that is said to symbolise strength, determination and leadership.

Read on for the full story behind how the club got their nickname...

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Derby is known for many things – aero-engines, railway manufacturing, fine china to name but three. The city even lays claim to being the true birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. After all, the world's first fully mechanised factory – John Lombe's silk-throwing mill on an island in the River Derwent – was built here.

But a ram? Of course, it is all down to that world-famous English folk song The Derby Ram, or As I Was Going To Derby as some folk prefer to call it. Thanks to that song we call our football club the Rams, the mascot of the local army regiment is a ram – and in East Street we even have a statue of the massive beast.

When in 1867 Llewellyn Jewitt wrote his book The Ballads and Songs of Derbyshire, he claimed that, by then, The Derby Ram had been sung for at least a century. It is claimed that in 1796 the first US president, George Washington, sang The Derby Ram to a friend's children. No one knows where, or why, the song originated.

But in 1855 the first Regiment of Derbyshire Militia adopted a ram as its regimental mascot. Through many re-organisations of the army we still see Lance-corporal Derby XXIX – he was promoted as a reward for his good behaviour – paraded around Pride Park Stadium when the 2 Battalion the Mercian Regiment is in town.

Lance-corporal Derby , a pedigree – of course he is a pedigree – Swaledale ram was presented to the Mercians by the Duke of Devonshire. He is paid £3.75 a day, draws his own rations, and has to have his leave card with him when he takes his annual holiday on the Chatsworth estate.

Talking of Pride Park Stadium, the Rams have been going by that nickname since at least 1900, although even into the 1920s newspapers still often referred to the club as simply "the County". Unlike the Mercians, the Rams haven't got the facilities to look after a live animal, but they do have Rammie, not a wolf in sheep's clothing but a man - sshhh, don't tell very young supporters that he isn't real.

Michael Pegler carved that you-either-love-it-or-you-hate-it statue of a giant ram at the junction of East Street and Albion Street. It cost £30,000 and was gifted to Derby in 1995 by property developers Richardson Cordwell. Two years later the statue featured in White Town's video for the surprise number-one hit Your Woman, which brings us neatly back to that song.

American country and western star Merle Travis once recorded a version entitled Darby's Ram. Identical twins the Kossoy Sisters recorded a version titled The Darby Ram on their 1956 album Bowling Green. And in 1963 the New Christy Minstrels released Down to Darby, an adaptation of the Derby Ram on their album The New Christy Minstrels Tell Tall Tales.

So there we have it: Derby's Ram and all that followed it are based on a tall story.

As I was going to Darby, Sir,

All on a market day,

I met the finest Ram, Sir,

That ever was fed on hay.