CLEVELAND (AP) â The Cleveland Indians are narrowing a final list of new names and vetting them for legal purposes after months of research and discussions with fans. The team announced in December that it is changing its name for the first time since 1915, a decision that came as part of a national movement to remove and replace prejudicial names and symbols. The team began meeting with groups of fans in February, and on Thursday it revealed that after several brainstorming sessions that also included community leaders, local influencers and staff members, nearly 1,200 potential names were aggregated. After further conversations, that list was whittled down to extract the top choices.