About half the 14,500 fans who voted on the team name wrote in Sounders. That was about 20% more than the choices offered by the club: Alliance, Republic or Seattle FC.
Club officials didn't want the traditional Sounders name, but fans had the write-in option for the team, which will begin play in March 2009 at Qwest Field.
The Sounders name has been identified with soccer in Seattle since 1974, when the city was awarded a franchise in the old North American Soccer League. That franchise folded after the 1983 season, but the brand was revived in 1994 when a team began playing in the then-American Professional Soccer League.
The APSL morphed into what is now the United Soccer Leagues First Division, one notch below MLS. The current Sounders begin their 15th and final minor league season in the USL on April 19.
"We had a good debate about whether to use the to use the Sounders name or not use the Sounders name," majority owner Joe Roth said. "Part of our 'democracy in sports' (philosophy) was to give fans a voice.
"It's a great start for the owners to trust the fans and set up a situation where fans have rights."
The team also unveiled its logo Monday, a badge shape in blue and green with "Seattle Sounders FC" bannered across the Space Needle.
General manager Adrian Hanauer and other team officials plan to head for Argentina and Uruguay later this week to begin their search for players, then will return home briefly before a trip to Nigeria and Ghana for more scouting.
"Luckily, we have time" to sign players, he said. "The bulk of our players will come toward the end of the year. The franchise will be built internationally, but also domestically."
The Seattle franchise also will take part in an expansion draft after the current MLS season concludes this fall, and in the college draft early next year.
The team also will be allowed to sign players from the current Sounders, who won last year's USL First Division title and also won in 2005.
A head coach is expected to be on board by late summer or early fall, Hanauer said.
The Seattle MLS team already has deposits for nearly 14,000 season tickets.
