It's difficult to imagine Charles Schulz's trademark band of bambinos as anything other than Peanuts. But did you know they were this close to being known as the (arguably) much less catchy Li'l Folks?

When Schulz debuted his Charlie Brown-headlining strip in the December 7, 1947 edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, it appeared in the Sunday women's section under the "L'il Folks" title.

But three years later, after United Features Syndicated adopted the strip, editor Jim Freeman expeditiously changed the name of the strip to Peanuts to avoid any legal snafus or confusion. A strip called Little Folks already existed, as did L'il Abner--and both were popular with regular comics section readers at the time.

Though the decision proved to be best for all involved, and the legacy of Peanuts has long outlived Little Folks and has left a just as strong (if not stronger) societal impression as L'il Abner, Schulz never cared for the Peanuts title. He was said to have found it trite and griped that peanuts imply insignificance.

Which would you have chosen and why?

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