[EricH]

Originally Posted by ace94x

go with J.E.W.S! its the funnest team name I have seen yet!

and if anything at least you'll get laughs out of it

But would any Jews who happened to see the name think it was funny? Somehow I doubt it. And with the number of Israeli teams in FRC, I would guess that at least one Jew would see the name.

If you *think* that a name and/or acronym may be offensive to someone, or some group, then there are at least two ways to go about resolving the issue. You can put the name out of consideration, as some have suggested... OR, and this is a little riskier, you can approach representatives of that particular group (or approach that particular person) and say something to the effect of, "We were thinking of calling our robot team _____. However, we realize that you may not approve of this, and so we would like to ask for your permission to do so."

Naturally, if the group refused permission, then you would find another name. On the other hand, if they granted permission (or possibly even if they refuse), then you may have a new community partnership. If nothing else, they will most likely be pleased that you asked.

This is something that the NCAA had a number of colleges do--as I understand it, any college that used a Native American name for their athletic teams had to get permission from the tribe to use the name, or change their name. Some tribes granted permission, others did not.