It’s been a long time coming, and some would say it’s long overdue. After much prodding and pushing by certain members of the community and a few public officials, the name of our city’s legislative body is about to be changed from Board of Alderman to City Council.

What’s in a name, one might ask? Plenty, if you happen to be neither an “alder” (aka “elder”) nor a “man.” In other words, the archaic honorific harkens back to a time when not only did (mostly old) men run things in city government, but women didn’t even legally have the right to vote.

This move to change the name to City Council was championed by Alderman At-Large William A. White Jr., who recently reminded us that when Somerville became a city in 1872, it established a Board of Aldermen because all cities in the state at that time did so, and it had nothing to do with Somerville in particular. In 1889, Somerville decided to abolish the Common Council but kept the name Board of Aldermen for its legislative body. Other neighboring cities, including Cambridge and Boston, took the name City Council after they abolished their common councils. England, where the term “board of aldermen” originated, abolished theirs in 1972, with the exception of London. In 2011, Everett took the name City Council and Newton followed suit in 2016.

Somerville has emerged as a forward-thinking, progressive force in the region. It only stands to reason that we should update our principal institutions as we forge ahead into the future.