What Is the Longest NFL Team Name?
The NFL has 32 teams, and their names vary quite a bit in length. Some team nicknames are only four letters long, while others reach 10 characters. You can check any name yourself with our Character Counter, which counts characters instantly as you type.
Below, we compare NFL team names by character count, including the longest and shortest team nicknames, full team names, and location names.
Quick answer: The Buccaneers and Commanders are tied for the longest NFL team nickname at 10 characters each. The Washington Commanders have the longest full NFL team name at 21 characters, including the space.
What Is the Longest NFL Team Name?
The Buccaneers and Commanders are tied for the longest NFL team nickname at 10 characters each.
| Team Nickname | Characters |
|---|---|
| Buccaneers | 10 |
| Commanders | 10 |
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1976. The team is based in the Tampa Bay area of Florida and is commonly shortened to the Bucs.
While "Bucs" is only four characters long, the full nickname Buccaneers contains 10 characters, tying it for the longest NFL team nickname. If you only want to count alphabetic letters rather than every character, our Letter Counter can be useful for comparisons like this.
Washington Commanders
The Washington Commanders also have a 10-character nickname.
The franchise was founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves and has changed names several times during its history. After temporarily using the name Washington Football Team beginning in 2020, the franchise adopted Washington Commanders in 2022.
Because Commanders contains 10 characters, it is tied with Buccaneers for the longest current NFL team nickname.
What Is the Longest Full NFL Team Name?
When the location and team nickname are counted together, the Washington Commanders have the longest NFL team name at 21 characters, including the space between the two words.
Washington Commanders breaks down like this:
- Washington: 10 characters
- Space: 1 character
- Commanders: 10 characters
- Total: 21 characters
Want to verify the count yourself? Paste Washington Commanders into our Character Counter to see the total character count instantly.
Several teams are close behind at 20 characters.
| Full Team Name | Characters |
|---|---|
| Washington Commanders | 21 |
| Jacksonville Jaguars | 20 |
| Los Angeles Chargers | 20 |
| New England Patriots | 20 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 20 |
These character counts include spaces. Our Whitespace Counter can also show how many spaces, tabs, line breaks, and other whitespace characters appear in text.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Jacksonville Jaguars contains 20 characters when the space is included.
Jacksonville is one of the NFL's newer franchises. The Jaguars began play in the 1990s and are commonly known as the Jags.
Los Angeles Chargers
Los Angeles Chargers also contains 20 characters.
The Chargers originally played in Los Angeles before relocating to San Diego and later returning to Los Angeles.
New England Patriots
New England Patriots contains 20 characters, including both spaces.
Unlike most NFL teams, the Patriots use a regional name rather than the name of a specific city. The franchise was originally known as the Boston Patriots before becoming the New England Patriots.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers is another 20-character NFL team name.
Although Tampa Bay is a two-word location name, the 10-character Buccaneers nickname is what pushes the full name into a tie for the second-longest in the league.
What Is the Shortest Full NFL Team Name?
At the other end of the list, several NFL teams have full names containing only 13 characters.
They are:
- Buffalo Bills
- Chicago Bears
- Detroit Lions
- New York Jets
Each name contains 13 characters when spaces are included.
Buffalo Bills
Buffalo Bills contains 13 characters: seven letters in Buffalo, one space, and five letters in Bills.
Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears also contains 13 characters.
The Bears are one of the NFL's oldest franchises and have used the Chicago Bears name since the early 1920s.
Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions contains 13 characters, placing it among the shortest full team names in the NFL.
New York Jets
Despite having a two-word location name, New York Jets still contains only 13 characters because Jets is one of the shortest nicknames in the league.
What Is the Shortest NFL Team Name?
The Jets and Rams are tied for the shortest NFL team nickname at only 4 characters each.
| Team Nickname | Characters |
|---|---|
| Jets | 4 |
| Rams | 4 |
New York Jets
The New York Jets were founded as the Titans of New York before adopting the Jets name in 1963.
At only four letters, Jets is tied for the shortest nickname in the NFL.
Los Angeles Rams
The Rams also have a four-character nickname.
The franchise has played in several cities during its history, including Cleveland, Los Angeles, and St. Louis, before returning to Los Angeles.
What Is the Longest NFL Location Name?
Among the location names used by NFL teams, San Francisco contains 13 characters when the space is included.
| Location | Characters |
|---|---|
| San Francisco | 13 |
| Jacksonville | 12 |
| Philadelphia | 12 |
| Indianapolis | 12 |
| New England | 11 |
| Los Angeles | 11 |
| Washington | 10 |
Spaces are included in these totals.
San Francisco
The San Francisco 49ers have one of the most distinctive names in professional sports. The location portion, San Francisco, contains 13 characters including the space.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia contains 12 characters and is home to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Jacksonville
Jacksonville also contains 12 characters, making it one of the longest single-word location names used by an NFL franchise.
Indianapolis
Indianapolis contains 12 characters. The Colts have used the Indianapolis name since the franchise relocated from Baltimore in 1984.
What Is the Shortest NFL Location Name?
Miami is the shortest location name used by an NFL team at only 5 characters.
The Miami Dolphins began play in the 1960s and have used the Miami name throughout their history.
How Are the NFL Team Name Characters Counted?
For team nicknames such as Buccaneers or Jets, we count each letter as one character. For full names such as Washington Commanders, spaces are also included in the total.
This is the same basic approach used by our Character Counter. Paste a team name into the tool and it will immediately show the number of characters in the text.
If you need more specific text statistics, you can also use our Letter Counter to count letters, Word Counter to count words, or Specific Character Counter to see how many times a particular character appears.
NFL Team Name Length Summary
- Longest NFL team nickname: Buccaneers and Commanders — 10 characters
- Shortest NFL team nickname: Jets and Rams — 4 characters
- Longest full NFL team name: Washington Commanders — 21 characters
- Shortest full NFL team names: Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, and New York Jets — 13 characters
- Longest NFL location name: San Francisco — 13 characters including the space
- Shortest NFL location name: Miami — 5 characters
These totals count spaces as characters when comparing full team or location names.
Want to check another sports team, player name, username, title, or piece of text? Use our free Character Counter to get the character count instantly.