Word of the week: Valkyrie

How well does the new team's name score?

On May 14 the newest team in the WNBA, the Golden State Valkyries, revealed its brand identity, developed by the Los Angeles–based Cartwright design agency.¹

Golden State Valkyries logo

The announcement came with a detailed breakdown of the new logo.

WNBA Valkyries logo breakdown via Anthony Shore, who borrowed it from Ben Blumenrose. I’m still searching for the source of this image; a horizontal image on Valkyries.com contains the same information. Read a detailed description of the logo in Fast Company.

And with a lavender-tinged short video — the color’s official name is “Valkyries Violet” — shot by swooping drone cameras and narrated by the singer Kehlani, who intones that (something) is “gilded in gold” — as opposed to gilded in molybdenum? There’s no subject in that sentence, and not a single mention of the team name.

The announcement also came with a short brand story, which is where I put on my skeptic’s hat:

Originating from Norse mythology, Valkyries are a host of warrior women who are fearless and unwavering – flying through air and sea alike.

Yes, the Valkyries — Die Walküre in German — have Norse-myth origins. Yes, the myth includes flying on horseback (and occasionally on wolf- or boarback) through the sky, but no, not through water. (One Old Norse narrative has them flying through “airy sea,” which has been interpreted as mist, not water.)

As for wings being “the strong, telegraphic symbol of Valkyries”: nope. They fly without wings.

“Valkyrie,” by Peter Nicolai Arbo (Norwegian, 1831–1892). No wings.

My primary quibble, though, is with calling Valkyries “a host of warrior women.” In none of the myths are they warriors; rather, they select fallen male warriors — the word Valkyrie means “chooser of the slain” — and guide them to Valhalla, the “hall of the slain,” where the god Odin presides. They may be fierce, but they’re essentially escorts.

Of course, there was an incentive to associate the hoops-shooting Valkyries with warriordom: the WNBA team is affiliated with “the seven-time NBA Champion Golden State Warriors,” as the press release puts it.²

I follow professional sports just enough to avoid making a complete fool of myself and as an excuse to talk about names and branding. (See, for example, my 2020 discussion of another myth-inspired team name, the Seattle Kraken.) But I do enjoy opera, which is where I, and maybe some of you, first encountered Valkyries. Even if you haven’t sat through Wagner’s Ring Cycle, or hummed along with “The Ride of the Valkyries,” you may have heard Elmer Fudd’s cover, “Kill the Wabbit!”

But there’s another popular-culture association with Valkyries that I suspect is the one that a lot of people are making. That’s the Marvel Comics connection,

Valkyrie on the cover of Secret Avengers #3 (July 2010). Art by Mike Deodato.

There have been various Marvel Valkyries since 1966, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the Valkyrior, a fictional organization led by Brunnhilde, aka Valkyrie, who rides a winged horse (but doesn’t have wings herself!). Liberties were taken: This Valkyrie is a warrior, not merely an attendant of warriors. The character has made appearances in four films in the Thor franchise, where she has been portrayed by Tessa Thompson, an interesting choice for a Nordic heroine.

Also interesting: “Valkyries” is the team name for all of the sports, men’s and women’s, at Converse University in Spartanburg, South Carolina. These Valkyries also use a shade of purple as their official color, and no, I don’t know the story behind the team-name choice. There’s also a women’s tackle-football team in East Tennessee called the Valkyrie.

Beyond the wide world of sports, Valkyries is a surprisingly popular trademark. I found hundreds of live VALKYRIE trademarks in the USPTO database, including marks for computer games (naturally), a defense contractor (naturally), an air-charter service (logical if a little frightening), a whole-blood-transfusion training program (what?), coffee (OK), and parachutes (wings?). There’s also a VALLKREE electric bike.

Despite the widespread use of the word, the Golden State Valkyries may have some work to do in familiarizing their brand. Over the weekend I chatted with a group of well-educated women — a potential fan base — about the team name. One made the leap to Wagner, several others had no idea what I was talking about, and one — a lawyer — said she’d seen the name but couldn’t figure out how to pronounce it.

1. On the Valkyries website, the credit goes to “Cartwright.” When I searched for a link, I found four design/branding agencies with Cartwright in their names: CartwrightStudio.com, CartwrightDesign.net, PaulCartwrightBreanding.co.uk, and, finally, the right (wright) one, Cartwright.co. There’s also a Doubleday & Cartwright design agency, in New York. Is there something about the Cartwright surname that predisposes its owner to go into graphic design?

2. And speaking of surnames, the Warriors’ head coach is Steve Kerr (pronounced “cur”) and one of their star players is Steph Curry. It may be a coincidence, but I couldn’t help wondering whether those surnames influenced Valkyries president Jess Smith’s pronunciation of the team name: “Val-curries.”