Where did football gets its name from?

Answer 1

American Football is a sport derived from a long tradition of sports known as Football which are native to Northern Europe.

The progenitor, Camp ball, was a medieval sport that by the 19th Century had evolved into two separate traditions both of which were known at the time as Football. One tradition was to become Football as it is known to the almost all of the modern world; ie Soccer. The other is Rugby, which, in it's Australian and American variants is still known as Football to this day.

American Football, to be clear, is merely highly codified and intricately ruled form of Rugby. And Rugby is simply the tradition of Football in which the player may touch the ball with his hands.

So American Football is simply the American variant of the overarching and widespread international Football tradition.