why is portsmouth club called POMPEY??

Answer 1

Portsmouth
Founded: 1898
Nickname: Pompey

Located on the Southern coast of England, Portsmouth is England's major naval base on the English Channel. The nickname Pompey is not exactly well-defined. Some claim it relates to the French warship Le Pompee captured in 1793 which became guardship of Portsmouth Harbor. Other tales have it coming from General Pompey from the Roman Empire. While still others believe the name descends from English sailors in 1781 in Egypt scaling Pompey's Pillar near Alexandria. Their feat earned them the Fleet's tribute as 'The Pompey Boys'. Either way, Pompey and Portsmouth are interchangeable.

http://www.ussoccerplayers.com/resource_center/questions_answers/393380.html

Answer 2

Pompey is originally a naval term.

There are a couple of theories on why this name came about:

"Some claim it lies in an 80-gun French warship Le Pompee captured in 1793 which later fought with distinction in the battle of Algeciras in 1801 and then became guardship of Portsmouth Harbour. Others maintain it was the product of a far from sober sailor's interruption of a talk by AgnesWeston, the naval temperance worker. He surfaced from a beery slumber during her lecture on the Roman Empire to hear that the general Pompey had been killed. 'Poor old Pompey' he is said to have shouted . . . . such are the roots of legend. But there is another more authenticated potential root in Naval folk-lore. In 1781 some Portsmouth-based English sailors scaled Pompey's Pillar near Alexandria and 98 feet up above Egypt, toasted their ascent in punch. Their feat earned them the Fleet's tribute as 'The Pompey Boys'."

Answer 3

It is possible to trace the probable origin of the name back to 1797, at the time of the famous Spithead mutiny.

Some of the vessels implicated were:

Terrible, Queen Charlotte, Glory, Duke, Defiance, Ramilles and Pompee. Of these "Pompee" was the most actively concerned in the whole proceedings.

One story goes that two delegates from each ship were invited to assemble on board Pompee at Portsmouth.

Two drunken seamen were arrested in London, evidently delegates from the Nore.

They were capable of asserting little else than that they were going to Pompey -- and it is probable that all mutinous seamen at that time referred to their delegates as being at Pompey and possibly therefore the entire nation came to think in terms of Pompey rather than of Portsmouth and sailors, with their innate love of nicknames, were disinclined to cease the practice.

If you are wondering how come 'pompee' became 'pompey', at the time of the sailors arrest, who ever arrested them, wrote 'pompey', I am sort of glad they did that, just think what Saints and Swindon supporters would do with 'pomPEE'.

In this way the two names became synonymous.

Answer 4

Nothing to do with football, the local name for Portsmouth is Pompey.

Answer 5

what is Portsmouth?

Answer 6

It is their nickname.