A sports team name is one of the most durable and socially bonded names in any category of naming. Professional sports teams that change their names face years of community backlash. Youth sports teams that rename force parents and players to discard merchandise, update registrations, and explain the change to every person who asks about the team. The name becomes property of the fan community almost immediately, and the fans' ownership claim over it is stronger than the organization's own claim in many ways. A poorly chosen team name is a problem that compounds over time rather than resolving.
Team naming is distinct from brand naming in a fundamental way: the team name is not just a brand identifier -- it is the core of a competitive identity. "We are the [Name]" is a collective self-description. The name is shouted in victory, whispered in defeat, chanted in unison. It appears on jerseys that players wear with pride and fans wear with loyalty. It appears in rivalries, in press coverage, and in the cultural memory of everyone who grew up watching the team. The naming decision carries weight that most brand naming decisions do not.
This creates specific structural requirements. The name must be chantable. It must work with a mascot. It must hold through decades of cultural change. It must survive rivalry appropriation -- the attempt by opposing fans to use the name against you. It must make sense in the context of the league or conference it competes in. And increasingly, it must work in digital contexts: searchable, social-media-usable, merchandise-displayable in digital formats. Most team names are chosen without evaluating any of these requirements systematically. This guide covers each one.
Note on scope: This guide covers naming the competitive athletic organization itself -- the Warriors, the Patriots, the Yankees, the Thunder. It does not cover naming sports equipment manufacturers, activewear brands, or fitness facilities. Those are addressed in the adjacent guides linked at the bottom of this page.
The most structurally important naming decision for a sports team is whether the mascot is encoded in the name or separate from it. This single decision determines the differentiation ceiling of the name, the flexibility of the visual identity, and whether the team's competitive identity is anchored to an animal or to an aspiration.
In this architecture, the mascot is the team identity. Bears, Eagles, Lions, Tigers, Wolves, Panthers, Hawks -- the team is named after the mascot animal, the mascot is a literal representation, and the two are inseparable. This is the dominant model in professional and amateur sports across every level.
Advantages: immediate visual identity, easy merchandise iconography, clear chant and rally word. The fan knows exactly what the mascot looks like before they ever see it. The visual brand team has a concrete subject to work with. The jersey iconography has an obvious anchor.
Disadvantages: animal vocabulary in team naming is almost fully saturated at every level of competition. Choosing a common animal -- Bears, Eagles, Lions, Tigers -- puts the team in extremely competitive overlap with dozens of teams at various levels of youth, collegiate, and professional play. The mascot cannot be meaningfully evolved without changing the team name. And the animal itself carries whatever cultural connotations exist around that animal, connotations the team did not choose and cannot easily modify.
In this architecture, the team identity is a concept, a value, or an aspiration that is logically separate from any specific mascot. The mascot is a visual character that represents the concept, but the name does not describe the mascot. Patriots (concept: patriotism, American national identity), Warriors (concept: combat spirit, resilience), Thunder (natural phenomenon, raw energy), Heat (environmental sensation, intensity).
Advantages: far less saturated at every level of competition; more distinctive in any league's standings; allows creative mascot development separate from the name -- the visual identity team can interpret the concept with greater artistic latitude; the name encodes a value or aspiration that players and fans can claim as identity rather than simply sharing a name with a specific animal.
Disadvantages: requires more creative work in identity formation; fans must build the association between the name and the competitive identity rather than receiving it automatically through the direct animal reference; the concept must genuinely connect to the team's community or geography to avoid feeling arbitrary.
Many of the most successful team names in professional sports combine a geographic reference with either an animal or an abstract concept. Golden State Warriors (state reference + abstract concept), New England Patriots (regional reference + abstract concept), New York Yankees (city reference + cultural slang identity). The geographic component anchors the community identity; the noun component carries the competitive identity. This two-part structure is the most common framework for professional naming because it serves both functions simultaneously.
| Architecture | Saturation level | Differentiation ceiling | Mascot flexibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mascot-in-name (animal) | Very high -- Bears, Eagles, Lions, Tigers, Hawks, Panthers all have hundreds of existing teams at various levels | Low -- constrained by what the animal means culturally | None -- changing the mascot requires changing the name |
| Abstract concept | Moderate -- fewer teams use concept names; available vocabulary is larger than animal vocabulary | High -- concept can be interpreted visually in distinctive ways | High -- the concept can be expressed through many different visual characters |
| Cultural / heritage term | Low -- cultural vocabulary is largely untapped; carries higher sensitivity considerations | High -- unique when executed well, but irreversible if it becomes problematic | Moderate -- constrained by cultural context of the term |
Most sports teams use a city, region, state, or geographic reference as the first component of their name. This creates both benefits and risks that must be understood at the moment of naming, because the geographic anchor is one of the hardest naming elements to change after the fact.
The benefits are genuine. The geographic anchor creates immediate community identity. "We are the [City] [Name]" is a statement of civic pride. Local media use the geographic marker naturally in headlines and broadcasts. The community identifies with the team as theirs. Youth teams that carry a neighborhood or school geographic marker create a specific sense of local belonging that abstract names alone cannot replicate as quickly.
The relocation risk is real and expensive. Teams that move cities face a naming crisis whose cost is determined entirely by how specifically the geographic anchor was encoded. The Oakland Raiders became the Las Vegas Raiders -- the geographic anchor changed, but the Raiders identity name survived the transition because the competitive identity was not geographically embedded. The Seattle SuperSonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder because the name was too deeply anchored in the Pacific Northwest identity (sonic as in Boeing aircraft, Pacific Northwest tech culture) to transfer to Oklahoma. The organization chose a complete renaming rather than carry a name that would create permanent cognitive dissonance. The Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Ravens -- but the franchise identity and the name "Browns" were returned to Cleveland for a future expansion team, because the Browns name belonged to Cleveland in a way that could not be uprooted without community damage.
Regional vs. city specificity creates different risk profiles. Using a state or multi-state region rather than a specific city (New England Patriots, Golden State Warriors, Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Wild) provides geographic flexibility that a city anchor does not. A "New England" franchise can be physically located anywhere in six states without the geographic anchor becoming false. A "Boston" franchise cannot relocate to Providence without the geographic anchor becoming a permanent lie. For any organization that has any reasonable prospect of venue change, ownership transition, or market expansion, regional anchoring is structurally safer than city anchoring.
Youth and amateur team consideration: Youth teams often use neighborhood, school, or local geographic markers as their first identifier. These hyperlocal anchors create strong belonging within the community but can become awkward when the team enters regional or national competition where the geographic marker is unfamiliar to opponents. A team called the Riverside Falcons from a specific neighborhood plays fine locally, but when they enter a state tournament, the geographic marker must be explained to every new opponent. Teams that aspire to compete beyond their local geography are better served by a name that travels cleanly.
The dominant convention in team naming across every level of competitive sports is the plural noun: Bears, Eagles, Patriots, Warriors, Lakers, Yankees, Celtics, Mavericks, Raptors, Buccaneers. The team as a collection of individual athletes forms a collective plural noun that describes them all. This convention is so thoroughly established that departures from it require specific justification to work.
Why plural works at a structural level: a team is literally multiple people. The plural implies a unified collective -- "we are Warriors, all of us." It chants cleanly in the dominant chant pattern. The plural is versatile for merchandise in a way that singular nouns are not: a player's jersey says "BEARS," a fan's jersey says "BEARS," and they match because the noun applies equally to an individual on the team and to the team as a whole.
The singular exception: some teams use singular or collective nouns that function grammatically as singular but conceptually as collective forces. Heat (singular/collective), Thunder (singular/collective), Magic (collective), Crew, Pack, Corps. These work because the singular noun implies a unified force rather than a collection of individuals. "Heat" is not multiple heats -- it is one thing: the heat itself, an environmental force that everything is subject to. The team adopts the identity of a singular powerful phenomenon. This works when the noun is genuinely more powerful in its singular form than in any plural construction. "Heats" would be weaker; "Thunders" would be absurd. The singular convention requires that the noun actually works better as a force or phenomenon than as a counted collection.
Article-based team names: some teams are known with a definite article: The Lightning, The Blues, The Sound. The "The" signals a unique collective identity -- not lightning in general, but the one specific lightning that this team is. It works best when the noun itself is singular and unusual enough to carry the article without sounding like a generic description. "The Bears" works as casual speech but the official team name does not typically include "The." When the article is truly part of the official identity, it creates distinctiveness that most team names do not have.
The fan nickname implication: fans create shortened nicknames from team names organically. Patriots become "The Pats." Warriors become "The Dubs" (from the W for Warriors, which developed through Golden State's championship run). Yankees become "The Yanks." Mavericks become "The Mavs." These nicknames develop without the team's control. The naming should be robust enough that the natural nickname is either the same as the name (Bears remains Bears in casual speech) or is an affectionate contraction (Warriors to Dubs) rather than a mockery. Rival fan communities will attempt to develop derogatory nicknames from the team name -- the original name should not be obviously vulnerable to this.
Team names are chanted. In stadiums, on fields, in hallways before games, in cars on the way to the venue. The chant is often the purest test of whether a team name has the right phoneme structure for competitive identity. A name that reads well in a headline but falls apart in a chant will underperform its potential every time the crowd tries to rally around it.
Chant optimization properties: the best chant names have one to three syllables with strong stress on the first syllable, clean consonant-vowel transitions, and a sound that rises or stays level rather than trailing off at the end. "BEARS" (one syllable, strong B stop, short powerful vowel, R consonant closure) chants cleanly and powerfully. "PATRIOTS" (three syllables: PAT-ri-ots) has the stress on the first syllable and truncates naturally to a two-syllable form ("Pats") in casual use. "WARRIORS" (three syllables: WAR-ri-ors) has clear first-syllable dominance and works well at full chant volume.
The "Go [Name]!" test: speak the following sentences aloud and evaluate the landing: "Go Bears!" "Go Patriots!" "Go Warriors!" "Go Thunder!" All work because the name lands cleanly after "Go" with sufficient phonetic weight. "Go [Name]!" should feel natural in a single exclamation. If it requires multiple syllables to build up energy before landing, or if the vowel pattern dissipates after the first syllable, the chant will underperform in a stadium context where crowd energy is the variable being maximized.
The "Let's Go [Name]!" stadium chant: the three-beat "Let's Go [Name]!" with the clap-clap-clap-clap-clap rhythm is one of the most common stadium chants in North American professional and collegiate sports. The team name must fit naturally at the end of this pattern. Short names (one to two syllables: Bulls, Heat, Bears) fit with clarity and force. Long names (four or more syllables: Buccaneers, Supersonics, Mavericks) require either truncation or a longer chant variation that is harder for crowds to coordinate. The natural chant length of a name is a genuine practical constraint that matters at every level from youth sports to professional franchises.
The jersey nameplate test: team names appear on the back of jerseys in uppercase letters, typically in a condensed or display typeface fitted to the nameplate. Short, strong names (Bulls, Heat, Bears, Knicks) dominate the nameplate visually with large letterforms that can be read from a distance. Long names (SuperSonics, Buccaneers, Mavericks) require smaller type to fit within the nameplate width, reducing the visual impact per letter. The physical presence of the team name on a jersey is a brand touchpoint that is experienced hundreds of times per game by thousands of fans in attendance, and the strongest visual presence belongs to names that fill the nameplate with power rather than fitting into it with compromise.
The chant test and the jersey test are not separate evaluations -- they are both measuring the same underlying property: whether the name has sufficient phonetic and visual density to carry competitive identity at high volume and high speed. Names that pass both tests are working in the two most demanding physical environments a team name encounters.
One of the least-examined naming risks for sports teams is rivalry appropriation: the ability of opposing fans to take the team name and use it as an insult or mockery tool. Unlike most naming risks, rivalry appropriation is not a risk that diminishes over time -- it intensifies as the rivalry ages and as more creative opponents have more time to develop and refine their mockery vocabulary.
How rival appropriation works: opposing fans take the team name and either modify it slightly to create a derogatory variant, or find a latent meaning in the name that can be used mockingly. "Patriots" has been modified to "Cheatriots" by opponents who felt the franchise had integrity issues. "Cowboys" implies a Wild West bumbling and amateurism that rivals invoke in sustained mockery. Names that carry animal identity are particularly vulnerable to mocking the animal's stereotyped weaknesses -- "Ducks" invites jokes about quacking and vulnerability; "Pelicans" invites jokes about awkwardness; "Nuggets" (originally Colorado Nuggets, now Denver Nuggets) had to overcome years of jokes about chicken nuggets from opposing fan bases in the early years.
Latent negative test: before finalizing a team name, identify every secondary meaning, derogatory modification, or unflattering connotation that opponents might exploit. This is not about selecting only names that are perfectly immune -- no name is, and even the most powerful names (Patriots, Warriors) have been subjected to creative opponent mockery. It is about avoiding names that are obviously exploitable from day one, names whose primary or secondary meaning provides opponents with ready-made ammunition without any creative effort required.
Names that resist appropriation: abstract concept names (Warriors, Patriots, Thunder, Heat, Magic) are harder to mock because they name aspirations and forces rather than specific things. There is no obvious way to turn "Thunder" into an insult because the word has no vulnerable secondary meaning. Animal names vary dramatically: bears, lions, eagles, and bulls are powerful and culturally associated with strength, and rival mockery of them requires genuine creative effort. More vulnerable animals -- ducks, pelicans, hornets, gnats -- provide opponents with material that requires no creativity to weaponize. Geographic-plus-abstract-concept combinations (Golden State Warriors, New England Patriots) resist mockery particularly well because both components are straightforwardly positive in their cultural registers.
The longevity consideration: team rivalries in professional sports last decades, and in regional or conference competition can last a century or more. A name that has a mockery vulnerability will have that vulnerability exploited continuously for the entire duration of the rivalry. The naming decision is not a one-time evaluation -- it is a commitment to living with the vulnerability for the entire competitive life of the organization. Youth teams that become established programs carry their names across generations of players and opponent programs. The rivalry appropriability test is worth running with the same rigor as any other dimension of the naming evaluation.
Team names do not exist in isolation -- they exist in the context of every other team in the same league, conference, or division. The name must differentiate within that competitive context while also fitting within it. A name that is too far outside the register of the other teams in the league creates a different kind of problem than a name that blends into the undifferentiated middle.
Distinctiveness in context: when a list of team names is read in a standings table, a schedule, or a tournament bracket, your team name must be distinguishable from and more memorable than the other names in the list. In a conference with Bears, Eagles, and Lions already occupying the animal identity, adding a fourth animal name makes the new team the fourth entry in an undifferentiated animal list rather than a distinctive competitive identity. The differentiator in that conference is a team with a concept name, a cultural name, or a geographic identity that stands apart from the animal vocabulary cluster.
Competitive naming in youth leagues: in founding or formal recreation leagues, team names are chosen by the team organization or assigned for the season. A league where half the teams are named after animals benefits structurally from a team with an abstract concept name -- the concept team stands out in standings, in communication, and in the memory of opponents. The differentiation work the name does in a crowded category is real value, both for community identity and for practical competitive recognition.
The "sounds like an established team" problem: new teams should specifically avoid names that sound like established professional or collegiate teams in the same sport. The problem is not only potential legal conflict -- it is also inherited reputation. A new youth basketball team in a major market that names itself the "Thunder" or the "Warriors" is immediately identified as a derivative of the established professional franchise rather than as its own competitive identity. This undermines the sense of distinct competitive pride that team naming is supposed to create. The name should be original within its competitive context.
The league color territory problem: team names carry implicit color associations that are reflected in team branding. In a conference where multiple teams already use navy and gold, a name like "Golden Knights" or "Gold" creates direct brand overlap beyond just color. Names that have strong intrinsic color associations reduce the flexibility of the visual branding and increase the probability of color territory conflict with established teams in the same competitive pool.
The phoneme structure of the strongest professional team names encodes information about competitive identity, community aspiration, and psychological positioning that operates below the level of conscious awareness in both casual fans and dedicated supporters. Analyzing these names reveals the specific phoneme choices that have proven durable across decades of use, relocation, championship cycles, and cultural change.
A concept name rooted in patriotism and American national identity. Three syllables with strong first stress (PAY-tree-uts). The PAY opening uses the long-A vowel, which in English phoneme psychology is associated with expansiveness and openness -- appropriate for a national identity aspiration. The name chants cleanly and truncates naturally to "Pats" in casual use. Almost no American has a negative primary association with the word "patriots," which gives the name very high aspirational clarity and very low rivalry appropriation risk at the word level (opponents must create modifications rather than exploit the base meaning). The New England regional anchor is deliberately non-city-specific, spanning six states and providing geographic flexibility that no city anchor could provide.
A concept name encoding combat spirit, resilience, and competitive strength. Three syllables with clear first-syllable stress (WAR-ee-erz). The WAR opening uses the back vowel combined with the W approximant, a combination that produces a sound associated with gravitas and power in English phoneme psychology. The word "Warriors" has cross-cultural resonance -- it applies to athletes from any background, any sport, any competitive context. It does not specify a particular form of warfare or a culturally sensitive tradition. The "Dubs" nickname developed organically from the W abbreviation during the Golden State championship era, demonstrating the name's flexibility in casual usage. The Golden State regional anchor operates identically to New England -- it covers the entire Bay Area and surrounding California geography without anchoring to a specific city.
A cultural and historical slang term rooted in Northeast American identity, with complex historical connotations that have been largely absorbed and neutralized by a century of championship association. Two syllables with first-syllable stress. The Y initial consonant is rare as an opener in competitive identity vocabulary -- it creates distinctiveness by occupying an underused phoneme position. The short-A vowel in the first syllable (YANkees) carries the abruptness and confidence of declarative American speech. The K consonant mid-word provides the competitive hardness that sports identity naming benefits from. Despite its original status as a somewhat mocking term applied to New Englanders by British colonial troops, the word has been reclaimed and transformed by association with the franchise's competitive history into one of the most recognizable team identities in any sport globally.
A natural phenomenon name encoding raw energy, power, and unpredictability. Two syllables with first-syllable stress (THUN-der). The TH consonant cluster opening is unusual in team naming vocabulary -- few major professional team names begin with TH -- which creates immediate distinctiveness in any standing or schedule listing. The UH vowel in the first syllable is associated in phoneme psychology with heaviness and physical impact, appropriate for competitive identity. The name has no secondary meanings that opponents can exploit, no animal vulnerability, and no cultural sensitivity considerations. The Oklahoma City geographic anchor connects genuinely to the Oklahoma climate, where severe thunderstorms are a real environmental feature of the region -- giving the abstract concept name a local authenticity that purely invented concept names sometimes lack.
A geographic origin name derived from the Minneapolis Lakes region and the Lake District identity of the original franchise location. Two syllables with first-syllable stress. The long-A vowel opening (LAY-kerz) provides the expansive quality associated with bodies of water and open space. The K consonant mid-word provides competitive hardness. The remarkable property of this name is that it survived a cross-country relocation from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Los Angeles, California -- a move that should have made the name geographically nonsensical in the desert Southwest. The survival is explained by the name's phoneme quality (it works as a competitive identity independent of geography) combined with the championship history and cultural weight that the name had accumulated before the relocation. The Los Angeles Lakers identity has so thoroughly detached from the Minnesota lakes reference that the geographic origin is now trivia rather than active meaning.
A cultural and ethnic heritage name rooted in the Celtic peoples of Ireland and the British Isles, specifically anchored to Boston's Irish immigrant community identity. Two syllables with first-syllable stress. The name carries authentic local resonance: Boston's Irish-American community is one of the most historically significant ethnic communities in the city, and the team name reflects that specific community identity rather than a generic aspiration. After 75-plus years of championship association, the word "Celtics" reads as sports identity rather than as a cultural heritage reference for most American fans -- the brand association has grown strong enough to operate independently of the cultural etymology. The C opening creates a distinctive hard-consonant start that holds well on jersey nameplates and in chant contexts.
A clipped form of Knickerbockers, which is itself a reference to Dutch colonial New York heritage (knickerbocker was a term for Dutch settlers in the New York region). One syllable. The Knicks is among the shortest major professional team names in North American sports. The single-syllable NK cluster (N-IH-KS) occupies a phoneme position that is rare in casual English speech outside of proper names, creating immediate acoustic distinctiveness. The one-syllable form creates perhaps the cleanest chant identity in professional sports -- "KNICKS!" requires one beat, fits any rhythm, and carries an abruptness that is appropriate for New York's cultural identity. The clipped etymology is a model for how heritage names can shed their referential complexity through abbreviation while retaining the community identity anchor.
A one-syllable environmental concept name encoding the climate intensity of South Florida. The singular collective noun convention operates at its most compressed form here -- one syllable, one word, one concept. The long-EE vowel in Heat is one of the highest-frequency vowels in English phoneme psychology, associated with intensity and brightness. The H-opening creates a breathy onset that is paradoxically gentle and then filled by the EE vowel and the final T stop consonant. The singular form works precisely because heat is not countable -- "Heats" is a different and weaker concept. The environmental authenticity of the name to South Florida climate gives it the local resonance that abstract concept names need to feel genuine rather than arbitrary. At one syllable and four letters, Heat holds the nameplate with total visual authority and requires zero truncation in any chant or stadium context.
Voxa generates 300+ scored candidates calibrated to your team's competitive identity -- mascot architecture, geographic context, league vocabulary, and chant optimization -- and delivers a ranked PDF proposal with phoneme profiles, trademark guidance, and rivalry appropriability analysis within two hours.
Not sure yet? Try the free phoneme analysis first -- no account required.| Name | Architecture | What to learn |
|---|---|---|
| New England Patriots | Regional geographic anchor (six-state, non-city) + abstract concept (patriotism, American national identity) | The gold standard of geographic-plus-concept naming. The regional anchor avoids city-specific relocation debt. The concept (patriotism) has near-universal positive association in the target market. Three syllables with clean first stress, natural truncation to "Pats." Championship history has made the name iconic, but the structural quality was present from naming. |
| Golden State Warriors | State geographic anchor (California, not city-specific) + abstract concept (warrior spirit, competitive resilience) | The "Dubs" nickname developed organically from W-for-Warriors during the championship run -- a sign that the name's phoneme structure was strong enough to generate affectionate evolution rather than mockery. The Golden State anchor covers the entire Bay Area and surrounding California, providing the same geographic flexibility as New England. One of the most successful two-part team name frameworks in professional sports. |
| New York Yankees | City anchor + cultural identity term (Yankee -- Northeast American identity, with complex historical connotations) | Demonstrates that a name with negative historical connotations can be fully neutralized and inverted through championship association. "Yankee" originally carried mild to moderate negative charge in some regional and international contexts; more than a century of competitive success has made those connotations irrelevant for the vast majority of the name's audience. The brand association now overwhelms the etymology. |
| Oklahoma City Thunder | City anchor + environmental concept (severe thunderstorm frequency in Oklahoma is a genuine regional characteristic) | The most successful professional team rebranding from a specific geographic identity (Seattle SuperSonics) to a new market. The concept name (Thunder) transferred because it had no geographic tether. The choice of Thunder connected to the Oklahoma climate rather than being arbitrary, giving the abstract concept local authenticity. Single-syllable concept name with maximum chant efficiency. |
| Miami Heat | City anchor + environmental concept (South Florida climate) | The most phonetically compressed major professional team name in North American sports. One syllable, four letters, singular collective noun. The environmental concept is authentic to South Florida in a way that a cold-climate team using the same name would not be. The singular convention works because heat is a force rather than a collection. Visual brand power at maximum compression. |
| Chicago Bulls | City anchor + animal (bull -- strength, aggressive competitive power) | The animal choice works at a level above generic animal naming because the bull specifically connotes aggression, forward momentum, and physical dominance rather than just generic animal power. The word "Bulls" chants with exceptional force -- the B stop opening and the UH vowel followed by L and S create a sound that rises and closes cleanly. The animal is powerful without geographic incongruity in a Midwestern American context. |
| Los Angeles Lakers | City anchor + geographic origin (Minneapolis Lakes) -- survived relocation | Demonstrates the conditions under which a name can survive relocation: sufficient phoneme quality, sufficient championship history, and sufficient abstraction in the noun component that the geographic reference can become dormant rather than absurd. "Lakers" works as a competitive identity word independent of any lake geography. The name's survival of the Minnesota-to-California relocation is exceptional, not a template to rely on. |
| Boston Celtics | City anchor + cultural heritage (Celtic identity of Boston's Irish-American community) | One of the most locally authentic team names in professional sports -- the name reflects a specific community's identity rather than a generic aspiration. Works because the Irish-American community association with Boston is historically specific and deeply established. The cultural heritage naming convention carries higher sensitivity risk in modern naming contexts but when the cultural connection is genuine and the community embraces it, the resulting name has local resonance that abstract names cannot replicate. |
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