The term has certainly been in use since at least the 1890s when it was first used to describe the behaviour of street gangs in London. The first use of the term is unknown, but the word first appeared in print in police-court reports in London in the summer of 1898.

The word was immediately popularized by the press, with other words deriving from it such as "hooliganism" and "hooliganesque". The London based newspaper, the Daily Graphic for instance in a report on 22 August 1898 wrote, "The avalanche of brutality which, under the name of ‘Hooliganism’ ... has cast such a dire slur on the social records of South London".