I was thinking about this last night, so figure I'll put it here so I don't forget and/or so I get it out of my system.
Established teams don't change their names often nowadays. The name change we're anticipating for Cleveland will be the first since the Colt .45s became the Astros over 50 years ago, and before that they'd happen every decade or so since the 20's. 1916 was near the end of a period of pretty frequent name changes, though, even if many of them were from one informal name to another one that ended up becoming formalized. So, if I were to change any team names, this would be a reasonably historical time for me to do so. The reason this might be of more than trivial interest is because of uniforms and caps, which is part of the fun (for me, anyhow).
In real 1916, only one team didn't have their current name: The Brooklyn Robins. I don't see any particular reason to diverge from their historical path, where they adopted the Dodgers name in the 30's. On the other hand, they were already occasionally known as the Dodgers informally anyhow.
The four Federal League teams are mixed group. The Buffalo Blues is a fine name, and I don't see any reason to change it. I prefer it to the historical "Bisons" name that the AAA team used, for what that's worth. The Kansas City AAA team was historically called the Blues, so uniforms exist with that name. Relatedly, I think I'll also keep the Kansas City Packers name--there have been various minor league teams called the Packers, and of course there's the NFL team so it's not a completely random name. If I decide to move away from the Packers name, Kansas City could become the Monarchs but I'd like to reserve the Royals for Montreal. I think Baltimore is another straightforward case--they'll become the Orioles before too long. That's the traditional Baltimore team name over the centuries, they can start using the historical Orioles jerseys/caps, the Terrapins name hasn't been used by other teams, and would only have been in use here for 3-4 years. Newark is a bit trickier--if I knew they'd be staying in Newark I'd have their name change to the Bears, a traditional Newark AAA team name and one that's not otherwise taken. The Eagles could also work. So, we'll see how it looks in the mid-20's and whether it makes more sense for Newark to move or change their name or what.
That leaves the Boston Rustlers and Cleveland Spiders. In both cases, the real uniforms only had a city name or a plain pattern for years--Cleveland doesn't get to be a problem until the late 20's and not really unworkable until the mid-40's. Boston is workable from 1920-1926 and then 1936-1944, and changed their uniforms often enough that I can probably bridge various gaps. The Spiders is a great name, but there's no minor league team uniforms I can find for it. I can plausibly get something online or ask folks to make them for me, though? Boston became the Bees for a few years in the 30's, but never put that name on their uniforms. So, they could remain the Rustlers through that period. Or maybe they'll have changed their name to some other thing. If they go through a serious dynasty as the Rustlers, though, it may be hard to imagine them changing their name even if they relocate... So that might be another homebrew/request for the modders.
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