190 Best Team Names for the Ultimate Team Building at Work

Team names matter, and that’s actually been scientifically proven. In fact, a 2021 study found that in competition, your team name can affect not only how your team performs, but also how opposing teams perform against you. In the workplace, one study on understanding team development found that the very act of team naming can be integral to team building. And that’s true regardless of the context, according to team-building and company culture expert Joe Frodsham.

But coming up with the right team name can be a challenge. Whether you’re looking for names for your work team, an office sports league, work trivia team names or a team-building project, the best names can seem elusive in the moment. Fortunately, we’ve collected a whole bunch of options for you.

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What’s the best way to come up with a team name?

“We all need, even yearn for, identity,” Frodsham says, and team names help foster a group identity among the individuals within the group. Since that’s critical to team building, Frodsham suggests getting the ball rolling with a team-naming exercise—one that includes all team members.

In the interest of facilitating intra-team trust, Frodsham recommends ensuring that all team members are equipped with “at least high-level information” as to the group’s mission and purpose. And all should be encouraged to participate. “You want everyone to feel heard,” he emphasizes. This is crucial for buy-in as well as an opportunity for individuals to showcase their creativity.

At the same time, however, and particularly in the workplace, Frodsham advises that whoever is facilitating the process gently direct it by providing examples of the sort of team names that will be considered appropriate in tenor and subject matter. Whether your own team naming is to be based on inside jokes, sports fandom, pop-culture references or teamwork quotes, you’ll find hundreds of choices below.

Funny team names

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Like funny Wi-Fi names, the following funny team names come packed with the power of humor. And that can go a long way toward breaking the proverbial ice that can sometimes inhibit creativity among newly grouped teammates. Frodsham suggests planting a few funny team names as suggestions (to the extent appropriate in the context).

• Smells Like Team Spirit
• Force with No Name
• The Participation Trophies
• Constellation Prize
• Never Say Never
• The Good Sports
• The Leftovers
• Run Like the Winded
• Our Best Shot
• Dark Night of the Goal
• The Underdogs
• The Wishful Thinkers
• TBD
• Watch This Space
• Captain Generica
• Most Improved
• The Underestimated
• Outside Chance
• Sleeper Hits
• Talk to the Handball

Clever team names

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It might seem hard to distinguish these clever team names from the funny team names above. But the latter rely more on irony. The clever options below rely more on actual context. Similar to funny usernames, funny team names tend to err on the side of the humorously self-effacing, but these clever team names are intended to dovetail with realities about the teams themselves, such as the number of individuals and the occupations of those (hypothetically) comprising it.

• Three’s Company
• Connect 4
• Party of Five
• Eight Is Enough
• The Crazy Eights
• Dramatic Tension
• 12 Angry Men
• Baker’s Dozen
• The Just Desserts
• Too Many Chefs
• Legal Ease
• The Florist Grumps
• The Green Bay Hackers
• The Cereal Monopolists
• The Cereal Killers
• The Fowl Ballers
• The Yes We Canners
• The Just Us League
• Amateur Ours
• The Write Stuff
• Avis (for the team that distinguishes itself by trying harder)

Winning team names

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The following team names engage in a bit of friendly showboating. Accordingly, they’re best used in team settings that are intended to stir feelings of healthy competition.

• The Closers
• Finishing School
• The Dream Team
• The Winning Team
• First Place
• Trifecta
• Triple Threat
• EGOT
• The Pantheon
• The Olympians
• The Make My Days
• Great Expectations
• Fortune
• Super Group
• The Wrecking Crew
• The Three Comma Club
• The Big Shorts
• The Showstoppers
• The Victory Snatchers
• The Rock Stars

Business team names

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As you may have noted already, team names for work can be funny, clever or highly competitive, among other things. But the following, in particular, are focused on inspiring what Frodsham refers to as that unifying “sense of identity” that all of us yearn for.

• The Quarterly Results
• The Spread Sheeters
• The Crunchers
• The Abacussers
• The Coffee Breaks
• Cousin IT
• The Water Coolers
• Office Despots
• The Office Party
• The Swingliners (fans of Office Space will laugh)
• Strictly Overhead
• Unpaid Overtime
• The Best Practices
• Clockwatchers
• The Circlebackers
• The Reply-Alls
• The Quick Questions
• The Unpack This
• Collegial Atmosphere
• Humane Resources
• Sponsored Content
• Joint Venture
• Limited Partnership

Girl-boss team names

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Is your task to think up team names for your female-dominated work squad? Whether you’re looking for something warm or adorably self-referential, think about what your team has in common. Here are some empowering team names to get you started.

• The Jenga Belles
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Aunts
• The Marvels
• The Rolling Crones
• The Tightly Knit
• The Taco Belles
• The Girl Bosses
• The Lady Bosses
• Planet of the Grapes (particularly apt for wine lovers)
• The Rockford Peaches
• The Everdeens
• Granger Things
• The Heathers
• The Veronicas
• The Girl Group
• Ladies First
• The Weird Barbies
• Victor Victorious
• Victorious Secret
• The Slice Girls

Music-inspired team names

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According to Frodsham, musical acts make great team names. Most people enjoy music, after all, and many feel aligned with those who share their musical tastes. Some of the following music-inspired names reference musical acts. Others reference musical genres. Still others come from popular lyrics or song titles. The important thing to keep in mind is that the name your team goes with should resonate with all.

• No Doubt
• Motley Crew
• 2 Live Brews
• Writers on the Storm
• The Rolling Drones
• Punk-tuation
• In Synch
• Vampire Weekend
• Yazger’s Farm
• The Impossible Dream Team
• The Traveling Wilburys
• Hey Nineteen
• Running Against the Winded
• We Are the Champions
• Things Can Only Get Better
• The Wrecking Balls
• Fleetwood Track
• The Lob Marleys
• Pumped Up Kicks
• Smash Mouth
• After the Gold Rush
• A Flock of Seagulls
• The Fast Cars

Movie-inspired team names

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As with music-inspired team names, team names inspired by classic movies are meant to unify members with a significant film they each enjoy.

• Rebels Without a Cause
• Top Gun
• The Bravehearts
• The Dirty Dozen
• The Saturday Night Fever
• Outrageous Fortune
• The Wolves of Wall Street
• The Incredibles
• Sky High
• The Talented Mr. Ripleys
• The Talented Ripley (an Alien franchise reference)
• The Magnificent Seven
• The Fantastic Four
• The Waterboys
• Risky Business
• The Goodfellas
• The Squad Fathers
• The Running Men
• The Blade Runners
• There Will Be Blood
• The Towering Inferno

Book-inspired team names

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If you’re looking to start a book club with co-workers, one of the best ways to encourage engagement is a group brainstorming session to decide what you’ll call yourselves. As an added benefit, most book club names work equally well as group chat names, making intra-club communication a cinch. All of these book-inspired team names would work as such.

• The Extremely Loud and Incredible Closers
• The Jane Airs
• The Little Prints
• Life of Pie
• Catchers in the Rye
• The Outsiders
• Don Quixotic
• The Da Vinci Coders
• The Hobbits
• The Ringbearers
• The Confederacy of Dunces
• Slaughterhouse-Five
• Eats Shoots and Leaves
• Pride and Prejudice
• The Greater Gatsbys
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Goodbye Columbus
• Something Wicked This Way Comes
• The Cats in The Hats
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plots

Sports team names

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We’ve saved sports team names for last because sports team-naming brings in the best of all the above. They can happily stir up feelings of healthy competition, or they can be humbly self-effacing. They can reference sports and sports teams, but they can also reference all manner of pop culture. They can be utterly lacking in irony. Or like an American football player, they might be blessed with a knack for pun-ting:

• The South Polo/The North Polo
• No Punt Intended
• The Fortune Punters
• Good Will Punting
• The Whole 9 Yards
• The Whole 10 Yards
• 100 Yards of Solitude
• The Belles of the Bowling Alley
• The Home Runners
• Hoops I Did It Again
• The Right Stuffers
• Five for Finance (this one came from Frodsham himself, who has seen it used by a basketball-loving group of accountants)
• The Hairy Putters
• Band on the Run
• Catchers of the Fly
• The Mighty Pucks
• American Fly
• Footie and the Blowfish
• Badminton Company
• The Checkmates
• Fleetfoot Mac

Sources:

• Joe Frodsham, company culture, author of Don’t Dread Monday: Your Guide to Career Success; interview November 2023
• Journal of the Association for Information Systems: “Understanding Virtual Team Development”
• European Sport Management: “Rebranding: The effect of team name changes on club revenue”
• Osaka Prefecture University: “A Study on the Effect of Team Names on the Team Strategy”

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