When traced back even further, football was first called association football, which is the original name of soccer. They have the same original name because football derives from soccer.

The first recorded use of the word to refer to the ball was in 1486, and the first use as a verb in 1599. The word "soccer" originated as an Oxford "-er" slang abbreviation of "association", and is credited to late nineteenth century English footballer, Charles Wreford-Brown.

While the term “soccer” is a British coinage, Americans were the first to use the term in full effect to distinguish it from football. The English rarely used the term “soccer,” preferring to call it football.

In Great Britain—and many other parts of the world—"soccer" came simply to be known as football. But in the United States, the term soccer was given preference over time as a result of the growing popularity of a sport that emerged in the late 19th century which mixed elements of both rugby and association football.