The original name of volleyball was "mintonette." It was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan, a YMCA physical education director in Holyoke, Massachusetts, who designed the game as a less strenuous alternative to basketball. Morgan initially named the sport mintonette because it shared some characteristics with badminton

. The name "volleyball" was suggested a year later in 1896 by Alfred Halstead, a professor who observed the first exhibition match and noted the volleying nature of the game. The name "volley ball" was originally two words before being combined into the single word "volleyball" in 1952