Hooliganism is disruptive or unlawful behavior such as , , and , usually in connection with crowds at  events.

There are several theories regarding the origin of the word hooliganism, which is a derivative of the word . The Compact Oxford English Dictionary states that the word may have originated from the surname of a rowdy  family in a  song of the 1890s.

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 Clarence Rook, in his 1899 book, Hooligan Nights, wrote that the word came from Patrick Hoolihan (or Hooligan), an Irish  and thief who lived in . In 2015, it was said in the BBC Scotland TV programme The Secret Life of Midges

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 that the English commander-in-chief during the , , misheard the local Scots Gaelic word for —meanbh-chuileag—and coined the word hooligan to describe his fury and frustration at the way the tiny biting creatures made the life of his soldiers and himself a misery; this derivation may be apocryphal.

The word first appeared in print in London -court reports in 1894 referring to the name of a gang of youths in the  area of London—the Hooligan Boys,

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and later—the O'Hooligan Boys.

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In August 1898 the murder of Henry Mappin in Lambeth committed by a member of the gang drew further attention to the word which was immediately popularised by the press.

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 The London newspaper 

The Daily Graphic

 wrote in an article on 22 August 1898, "The avalanche of brutality which, under the name of 'Hooliganism' ... has cast such a dire slur on the social records of ."

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The inquest was carried out by  who "remarked that the activity of the gang he referred to was not confined to Lambeth, but extended to numerous other districts. It was composed of young fellows who scorned to do a stroke of work, and obtained a living by blackmailing. It was a common practice for three or four of these men to walk into a shop and offer the shopman the alternative of giving them a dollar for drink or having his shop wrecked. In connection with the Oakley-street tragedy intimidation had reached an unexampled case. Witnesses had been warned that it would be as much as their life was worth to give evidence against John Darcy. On Wednesday plain-clothes men escorted the witnesses from the court singly. He himself had been warned - not by anonymous letter but through a mysterious personal medium - that if seen in certain neighbourhood he would be done for. A magistrate had also told him that he had been the recipient of a like indignity."

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 wrote in his 1904 short story "", "It seemed to be one of those senseless acts of Hooliganism which occur from time to time, and it was reported to the constable on the beat as such."  wrote in his 1909 semi-autobiographical novel 

Tono-Bungay

, "Three energetic young men of the hooligan type, in neck-wraps and caps, were packing wooden cases with papered-up bottles, amidst much straw and confusion."

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According to Life magazine (30 July 1941), the comic strip artist and political cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper introduced a character called  in 1900; "hapless Happy appeared regularly in U.S. newspapers for more than 30 years", a "naive, skinny, baboon-faced tramp who invariably wore a tomato can for a hat." Lifebrought this up by way of criticizing the Soviet U.N. delegate Yakov A. Malik for misusing the word. Malik had indignantly referred to anti-Soviet demonstrators in New York as "hooligans". Happy Hooligan, Life reminded its readers, "became a national hero, not by making trouble, which Mr. Malik understands is the function of a hooligan, but by getting himself help.