MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: North Carolina high school mascots

Just as important as a school's name and its location is its mascot. Options abound, and some teams go with the commonplace while others go with the truly unique.

In North Carolina, there are 496 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 15 most popular mascot names in North Carolina, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

PHARAOHS OF THE FIGHTING VARIETY
There are two schools that should use the Fighting Pharaohs mascot name: The best team in all of Egypt and Quality Education Academy (Winston-Salem). Pharaohs, a term used to describe ancient Egyptian rulers, is used by three schools in America, but nobody else adds the "fighting" part. There aren't too many connections between ancient Egyptian life and Winston-Salem, but the school's website does offer one small explanation of why the mascot name was chosen: "The Way of the Fighting Pharaoh is to be respectful, attentive, and prepared. It takes courage to model the Way of the Fighting Pharaoh when others don’t. We must cooperate (dependability) to help each other persevere and if we make a mistake, be honest (integrity) and do better the next time!"

IMPS: NOT SHORT FOR ANYTHING, AND NOT A TYPO
The mascot name for Cary, reported as the state's first public school, looks like it's a shortened version of another mascot name or maybe some type of typo. Nope. An imp is in fact a word, and it's a mascot name that Cary (and only Cary) can root for. It's not short for shrimps, we know that. The dictionary definition of an imp is either a mischievous child or a small, mischievous devil or sprite. Take one look at the logo and you can guess which definition Cary went with.

A PACK OF PAMS
A Pam-Pack is a pack of Pamlicos. And the next question about the Washington mascot is obviously "What are Pamlicos?" The Pamlico are Native American people who inhabited the eastern shore of North Carolina along the Pamlico River, some of the most southerly Algonquian Tribe members. Pamlico County High is not the Pam-Pack, interestingly. You won't find any other Pam-Pack in the database. If you were looking for other types of "pack-themed" mascots you won't get much: There are Packers, Wolf Pack and wolfpack mascot names.

EVOLVING INTO WHIRLIES
They are the Whirlies at Grimsley (Greensboro), but it wasn't that way all along. The evolution of the school's mascot name is explained on the school's website, listing the different titles. At first, it was the Purple Whirlwinds (the school was Greensboro High then) and that stuck from around 1920 to 1951. Then a vote came to change the school colors to blue and white, so the "purple" part was dropped. Eventually, it became Whirlies.

THEY'RE ALWAYS THE BAD GUYS
The players and coaches at Bishop McGuinness (Kernersville) are really good people. But the mascot name doesn't say that at all. The Villains didn't get their name because they're bad people or because they do bad things. They got it because of some history. The school's website states that the mascot name comes from the school's early roots as the Villa Marie Anna Academy. It's a textbook example of how you shouldn't judge an athlete by their mascot name.

TOP 15 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Eagles 38 (There are 3 Golden Eagles and 1 War Eagles)
# Warriors 25
# Vikings 22
# Cougars 21
# Wildcats 19
# Bulldogs 18
# Knights 17 (There is 1 Black Knights)
# Panthers 14
# Tigers 14
Patriots 14 (There is 1 Running Patriots)
# Trojans 13
Rams 13
# Falcons 12 (There is 1 Golden Falcons)
Spartans 10
# Lions 10 (There is 1 Golden Lions)
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

Aces Bison Black Hawks Black Knights Blackhawks Blue Comets Blues Braves Bucks Bullets Cadets Capitals *Cardinal Catamounts Centurions Conquerors Cowboys Cyclones *Dark Horses

*Devil Pups Dolphins Dragons Elks *Fighting Christians *Fighting Deacons Fighting Hornets *Fighting Pharaohs *Fighting Red Wolves Fighting Scots Firebirds *Furies *Golden Bulls Golden Falcons Golden Griffins Golden Hawks Golden Lions Golden Tornadoes Green Wave Greenies

Highlanders Hilltoppers *Imps Indians Ironmen Kings Lakers Leopards Mariners *Maroon Devils Mavericks Monarchs Nighthawks *Pam-Pack Phoenix Pioneers Quakers *Ragin' Bulls *Rampants

Rangers *Red Barons Red Tornadoes Redhawks Redskins *Rowdy Rebel Bulls Royals *Running Patriots Sabres *Sauras Scorpions *Spiders Unicorns *Villains War Eagles Warhorses *Whirlies Wolfpack *Wonders

* Denotes that no other school in America has that mascot name

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 7.7 percent of schools.
There are 134 different mascot names for 496 schools.
22 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
North Carolina's Top 15 features 12 of America's Top 15 mascot names.