During its short 25 years in the NBA, the Hornets moniker has proven to be the league's Johnny Cash — it's been everywhere, man. Born in Charlotte, transplanted to New Orleans in 2001, bivouacked in Oklahoma City for two post-Katrina seasons, back to New Orleans for the past six seasons, then banished to the Island of…

When news leaked out that the New Orleans Hornets would be changing their name to the Pelicans, each person online seemed to have an opinion. We at Deadspin endorsed it. Yahoo Answers did not. But everyone trying to think through the symbolism of the team's new name missed a more essential concern: What would the team…

We've been on board the Pelicans bandwagon from the very beginning, but the team made it official this afternoon. Starting next season, the Hornets are no more (unless the Bobcats become the Hornets. Even then the Pelicans will keep the Hornets' pre-2002 history. It's all very confusing.)

In honor of NOLA becoming the Pelicans—not official, still awesome—designers drew up some logos. Here are the best.

It is, by now, established that if and when the New Orleans Hornets change their name to the Pelicans, they'll have one of the best mascots in the league. Feisty, local, unique—its got everything you'd want in a mascot, and the Pelicans will rocket to the top of the standings based on their team name alone. New Orleans …

So it looks like the New Orleans Hornets are going to change their name to become the Pelicans. You look around, and there are a bunch of smartasses making fun of this new name. Oh, a pelican, that's intimidating, they sneer. Well, here's what's up. These people don't know anything about good team names, and they sure…

Marc J. Spears says it, so it must be so: The New Orleans Hornets will soon become the New Orleans Pelicans. It's a nice little name, and it's battle-tested—the New Orleans baseball Pelicans existed most every season from 1887 until 1959—so it won't soon reek of turn-of-the-century-futurespeak like "Heat," "Thunder,"…