The NFL's Washington Football Team have announced that they will be called the Commanders on a permanent basis, following a lengthy review on how best to replace their original Redskins moniker.

The team, amid calls for racial justice and a threatened loss of sponsors, dropped its longstanding previous name in mid-2020 after a years-long campaign from critics, who viewed it as a racial slur against Native Americans.

The Commanders name was the end result of an 18-month rebrand process that the team said included more than 40,000 fan submissions, countless surveys, focus groups and meetings.

Team co-owner Dan Snyder, who bought the franchise in 1999, had long fought off public pressure in the past to rebrand and went as far to say the team would never change their name.

However, Snyder eventually softened his stance after FedEx Corp, which owns the naming rights to the team's suburban stadium in Landover, Maryland, urged the club to rebrand.

PepsiCo and Nike both followed FedEx's lead and said they welcomed the call for a review of the team's name.

The team that became the Redskins was founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves. Their name was changed to Redskins the following year and they moved to Washington in 1937.

The team have won three Super Bowls and are one of the NFL's marquee franchises, ranked by Forbes last August as the league's fifth most valuable franchise at $4.2bn.

Many American professional and collegiate sports teams have Native American-themed nicknames.

Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves and the the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks have both defended keeping their names.

MLB's Cleveland franchise said last July that they would change their name to the Guardians from the Indians after the 2021 season.