What's a Matilda, and how did it become the Australian women's football team name?

The poem Waltzing Matilda isn't about a dancing girl and may be much darker than people realise.

The Australian 1995 Women's World Cup squad - they lost every match in the first tournament they played as the Matildas. Source: Instagram / matildasalumni

Key Points

• The word Matilda has a long history in Australia but was only chosen as the national women's team name in 1995.
• Matildas was chosen via an SBS poll, and it beat other options - such as Soccertoos - by a fair margin.
• At the time, the team didn't have an official nickname and hoped that getting one would boost their profile.

When the Australian women's football team was formed in 1978, they didn't have a nickname.

At some point, they became known as the 'female Socceroos,' an unimaginative reference to the men's team.

They barely had any money or national support and things stayed that way for the team until the late 1990s.

When they qualified for their first World Cup in 1995, a plan was hatched to give them a proper nickname and brand identity, to boost fan engagement and secure sponsorship.

SBS was aware of the cause and conducted a poll through its On the Ball football segment, inviting listeners to call in and vote for a new name, for a 25-cent fee.

The options were the Soccertoos, Waratahs, Matildas, Lorikeets and Blue Flyers.

"Matildas was the popular one from the get-go, bizarrely," On The Ball host Kyle Patterson told SBS in July.

"No one knew how big the Matildas were going to become at the time; this whole poll was about trying to give them some profile.

"The players were paying out of their pocket to play for Australia and the association had no money."

Matildas fever has well and truly infected Australia. They've come a long way from their first Women's World Cup in 1995 when they had little recognition and no sponsors. Source: AAP / Sports Press Photo

They went to the 1995 World Cup held in Sweden with the winning name, but didn't manage to win any matches - they were defeated by Denmark, China and the United States in the group stage and sent home.

This wasn't the first time the name Matilda had been used in an Australian sporting environment; in 1982 Matilda the winking kangaroo was the official mascot for the Brisbane Commonwealth Games.

What does the name Matildas mean?

The name comes from the 1895 poem Waltzing Matilda by AB 'Banjo' Paterson.

It tells the ballad of a waltzing man - an itinerant worker travelling on foot - carrying his belongings in a matilda - a swag carried over the back.

In the ballad, the man makes a cup of billy tea by a fire and eats a sheep stolen from a nearby property.

The man then dives into a billabong after he is caught by the grazier and three policemen for stealing the sheep.

"You'll never catch me alive!" he shouts before drowning himself.

The poem was written with musical accompaniment by Christina Macpherson and is usually performed as a song.

Matildas captain Sam Kerr poses with fans. Source: AAP / Darren England

In 1903, Marie Cowan changed some of the lyrics and wrote a new variation of the tune, which was published as an advertising jingle for a brand of tea.

Cowan's arrangement remains the best-known version of Waltzing Matilda, which has become greatly popular over time and firmly established in folklore.

There are different interpretations of the story, with some trying to extrapolate political messages about shearer's strikes and whether the matilda is a metaphor for love.

Some have labelled it the unofficial national anthem and speculated that it resonates with Australians' rebellious larrikin spirit, in a similar way to the story of bush ranger and bank robber Ned Kelly.