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Brian Lehrer: For our last 15 minutes today on the Brian Lehrer Show, we're going to invite you to make up or propose an existing team name for some schools in New York State. Why? On the show earlier this week, as some of you know, we covered the New York State Board of Regents' unanimous decision to ban public schools from using Native American references in sports team names anymore.

We're not going to get into the politics of that decision again, we already did that on Tuesday, but something occurred to us. There's going to be a lot of school sports teams in New York that will need new names and mascots. Now, we're going to host a group brainstorming session, the Brian Lehrer Show think tank, if you will, on the very serious question of who can come up with a fun new team name for the Massapequa Chiefs, the Syosset Braves, and all the other schools that will be looking for new mascots and team names. Who's got one? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

Now, a common route to go down would be to take up an animal name. Many professional sports teams have done this. Lots of them. In baseball, there's the St. Louis Cardinals, football has the Miami Dolphins, et cetera, but the real fun is when the animal is kind of weird or unexpected. One of the Miami Marlins' Minor League teams is the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. Did you know that the Mets Minor League team in Binghamton is called the Rumble Ponies?

I don't know if that's a car or a horse, but there's something out there called Rumble Ponies. Maybe it's neither a car nor a horse. I have no idea. Maybe you have an unexpected or particularly specific kind of animal in mind for a new school mascot. Call us at 212-433-WNYC. Help out all these schools who aren't going to be called the Indians or the Chiefs or the Braves or any of those things anymore. 212-433-9692.

How about the sugar gliders? They're definitely an athletic and agile specimen, or on the opposite scale of size, you could go to prehistoric with a woolly mammoth. Wouldn't it be fun to see a humongous mammoth running around the football field between plays? I'd love to see the sugar gliders play the mammoths. Give us some good animal mascots and team names. 212-433-WNYC. Some others that we looked up unique team names that could help spark your creativity, NYU's teams go by the Violets which is just lovely, although not particularly fear-inducing. What are some plants that would work for team names?

The Montgomery Biscuits are a Minor League Baseball team out in Alabama. If you look up their logo, it's a cute little cartoon biscuit. That would make for great team merch anyway. Food obviously is something that sparks regional pride. Maybe there's some good Long Island food in that category. Minor League Baseball already has long island ducks. Last one. Seattle's Legends football team is called the Seattle Mist.

Just perfect for the great weather out there in the Pacific Northwest light of the year and follows the trend of weather events for some sports teams' names in the National Hockey League, the Carolina Hurricanes, just as an example. Make it fun. Don't make it reminiscent of centuries of oppression. Recommend some team names for all these schools that have to change their name under New York State law now. 212-433-WNYC. We will take your suggestions right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, to your possible team names for all the schools in New York State that have to drop their Native American nicknames under new rules from the State Board of Regents. Christy in Sparta New Jersey has one. Hi, Christy, you're on WNYC.

Christy: Oh, hello. My suggestion is the red-spotted newts. It's a salamander that, again, is somewhat toxic and should not be eaten.

Brian Lehrer: Yet it would work for a sports team because you can't eat us?

Christy: Yes. [chuckles] Just be careful if you're touching it.

Brian Lehrer: Christy, thank you very much. Here's Bob in Brewster. You're on WNYC. Hi, Bob.

Bob: Hi, how are you doing? I went to Ramapo High School in Rockland County and their mascot was a mythical beast called The Griffins. I think that that's probably, even though that's being used, I think that offers a wide path of possible names. For instance, your last quote was from Sparta. Well, Spartans, they come out of Greek history.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. Yes, that's a category. Mythical beasts, right? Things that weren't real. That's very interesting. The fact that it's used at Ramapo High doesn't rule it out, I guess, because if you look at how many teams are called the Indians and the Chiefs and the Warriors, is another common one, all these have to be replaced. Yes, there could be more than one school that uses The Griffins or anything else. Don in Mattawan has another category for us. Hey, Don, thanks for calling in. Oh, Dan, I'm sorry. Hi.

Dan: Hey, Brian. How are you doing?

Brian Lehrer: Good.

Dan: I was thinking about a group of things. These are students, these are academics, so you're talking about maybe periodic table elements, or if you want to do groups of animals, you could do maybe the monotremes. How about that?

Brian Lehrer: What's a monotreme?

Dan: That's a great question. [chuckles] I know an example of one would be a platypus. We're talking about animals that are kind of in between mammals and don't really fit the mammal mold. They lay eggs. They have weird beaks.

Brian Lehrer: [chuckles] Interesting. Thank you, Dan. That's a category. A species, a name for-- Species is probably the wrong word, but some kind of groupings of different animals. Mlb.com has a fun article on all the categories of Minor League Baseball team names. Dan made me think of it because he's bringing up another category there just like the last caller brought up another category, which would be mythical animals.

The MLB article, which I have here, has one category. That's abstract concepts. There's the Fort Myers Miracle in Minor League Baseball. There's the West Virginia Power. There's the Greenville Drive. They even have a category-- Okay, it's only got one team in it, but a category that they call Punctuation. It's the Winston-Salem Dash. Why are they named the Dash? Because of the dash between the words Winston and Salem. I saw that from mlb.com. How about Liam in Jersey City who has one specific decisive high school that he wants to recommend, I think? Liam, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Liam: Hey, good morning. For Syosset, because you mentioned Syosset yesterday, I was thinking specifically of local animals, so that would be the Syosset Oysters or the Syosset Blue Points.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. Good North Shore names. Thank you. Ethan in LA, you're WNYC. Hi, Ethan.

Ethan: Hey, Brian. Thanks. My idea is to take this category that was denigrating and that was basically related to a genocide and turn it into something positive and name the teams all after animals that are on the endangered species list like the red panda, the blue whale, the whale shark, the sea otter. I'm just reading the list here, so all endangered species just to uplift and try to do something positive where there was something historically negative [crosstalk].

Brian Lehrer: I like it. I like it. At least one school maybe some principal or coach or somebody out there is hearing Ethan calling all the way from LA and thinking, "Yes, well if we could name our school team after an endangered animal." All right. If Liam had one specifically for Syosset High, Mary in Fairfield County has one for Massapequa. Mary, you're on WNYC. Hi there.

Mary: Hi, Brian. I like alliteration and I like a feeling of energy, so I would love to call it the Massapequa Mavens.

Brian Lehrer: Love it. Massapequa Mavens. Bob in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Bob. What's you got?

Bob: The Gargoyles.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. That's a very-- I don't know. Is it old-world architecture? Is it Manhattan's early 20th-century skyscraper?

Bob: Yes, you could expand it for formal occasions and call them The Great Gargling Gargoyles.

Brian Lehrer: The Gargling Gargoyles. Yes, there you go. Nancy in Little Falls, you're on WNYC. Hi, Nancy.

Nancy: Hi, Brian. Our local high school, we are the Passaic Valley Hornets, and the elementary school they are the Junior Hornets.

Brian Lehrer: Junior Hornets.

Nancy: We have a lot of hornets that are on our field. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Oh, and you're willing to share? That's very nice.

Nancy: [laughs] Yes. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Another category on the MLB, Minor League Baseball name categories roundup is professions. A Biloxi Shucker is a profession as it says an Omaha Storm Chaser. Chattanooga Lookouts aren't really a profession anymore with the advent of modern technology, but it still counts, says mlb.com. There's the Quad Cities River Bandits and the Bradenton Marauders.

They don't reference particularly upstanding lines of work as MLB admits, but those are professions nonetheless, and team names. All right, we have time for one more. Fabiana in Broad Channel in the Rockaways, you're on WNYC. Hi, Fabiana.

Fabiana: Hi, Brian. I think that the rats should definitely be an option. The rat is very resilient. It's a New York City cultural symbol, and I think the kids would actually really enjoy it. I think they'd find it funny. No matter how you feel about it, everyone loves talking about the rats in New York.

Brian Lehrer: Unless you live in a building or a house that actually has a rat problem, but yes, it would certainly be intimidating on the field. The rats. Fabiana, thank you. Thank you all for your suggested team names now that a lot of schools are going to need them. There was the Staten Island Pizza Rats, I am told, but I'm not sure of what.

That's the Brian Lehrer Show for today, produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Zach Gottehrer-Cohen produces our Daily Politics Podcast. We have Juliana Fonda and Matt Marando at the audio controls. Have a great weekend and stay tuned for Alison Stewart.

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