It's the first question almost everyone asks when they hear the name for the first time. Pickleball sounds like something involving a jar of gherkins, a garden, or possibly a very specific type of bet. It sounds, frankly, ridiculous — which is part of why the sport tends to stick in people's minds.
The actual origin of the name is more interesting than most people expect. And depending on who you ask, there are two completely different answers.
The Short Version
Pickleball was invented in the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, Washington. Three men — Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum — cobbled together a game for their bored families using ping pong paddles, a wiffle ball, and a badminton court with a lowered net.
Within days, Joel's wife Joan came up with a name. The sport has been called pickleball ever since.
Why that name, though? That's where the story splits.
The Boat Story
Joan Pritchard — the woman who named the sport — said the name came from rowing.
In college crew racing, a "pickle boat" is the vessel made up of leftover rowers who didn't make the starting lineups of the main teams. It's a thrown-together crew of non-starters from various boats — a mishmash of whoever was available.
Joan had followed rowing since her college years and was familiar with the term. When she watched the new game — which borrowed elements from badminton, tennis, and table tennis and was essentially cobbled together from whatever equipment was lying around — the pickle boat analogy felt right. A sport made from the leftovers of other sports.
She later wrote: "The combination of different sports reminded me of the pickle boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats."
This is the version accepted by USA Pickleball and supported by the Pritchard family.
The Dog Story
Barney McCallum, one of the three co-founders, told a different story entirely.
According to McCallum, the sport was named after the Pritchard family dog — a cockapoo called Pickles. The dog had a habit of chasing the wiffle ball during games and running off with it. The name Pickleball stuck as a nod to their enthusiastic, ball-stealing pet.
It's a better story. It's more charming, easier to remember, and spread widely as pickleball grew in popularity over the decades.
The problem is that it's almost certainly not true.
What Actually Happened
In 2021, journalist Wayne Dollard investigated the name's origins for Pickleball Magazine and concluded that the dog story doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
Pickles the dog didn't join the Pritchard family until roughly two years after the sport was invented and named. Multiple members of the Pritchard family have confirmed this on record — including Joan herself, who wrote that "Pickles wasn't on the scene for two more years. The dog was named for the game, not the other way around."
The most likely explanation is that the pickle boat story is accurate, the dog story grew up around it as a more entertaining version, and by the time anyone checked the timeline, the dog tale had already become accepted as fact.
Why It Matters Less Than You'd Think
Both stories capture something true about what pickleball is — a sport thrown together from the spare parts of other games, played by people who weren't the starters, on an island on a slow summer afternoon.
Whether Joan named it after a rowing term or a runaway dog, the name fits. Pickleball is a sport that borrowed its court from badminton, its side-out scoring system, its paddle from table tennis, and its ball from children's garden toys. It's a pickle boat of a sport — and it's now one of the fastest growing games in the world.
Pickleball in Nottingham
The sport invented on that Bainbridge Island driveway in 1965 now has sessions running across Nottingham. Let's Dink runs dedicated outdoor courts in Caunton, Chilwell Olympia runs weekly sessions, and venues including David Ross Sports Village, Portland Centre, Carlton Forum, and Harvey Hadden are among the local sports halls where pickleball has been introduced. Our Where to Play page has the full list.
First time hearing about pickleball? Our Beginners Guide covers everything you need to know before your first session.
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