The origin of Cardiff City’s nickname, ‘The Bluebirds’ is truly fascinating. It had started being used, along with ‘The Cardiffians’, ‘The City’ and ‘The Citizens’, after the club changed from their first colours of chocolate and amber to royal blue and white, sometime around 1910.
There is a connection with a classic children’s play, called The Blue Bird, written by the Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck in 1909. The bird, a symbol of happiness, is pursued by children who want to imprison it in a cage and the play’s theme urges us not to try to hoard happiness for ourselves.
This play had come to the New Theatre in Cardiff in late October 1911. It received good reviews during its six-night run and a week after the production had left town, Maeterlinck was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his symbolist plays including The Blue Bird and Pelleas and Mesilande. The publicity surrounding the play’s arrival in the Welsh capital and then Maeterlinck’s honour led to an unknown Cardiff City supporter deciding to call the team, resplendent in their blue strip, ‘The Blue Birds’. Gradually, it emerged as the favoured nickname before being adopted officially by the club.
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