Badminton was originally called Poona when the game was developed in British India.
The name came from the city of Poona, now known as Pune, where British army officers played a competitive net game during the nineteenth century. The game adapted older battledore-and-shuttlecock activities by adding a net and formal court play.
British officers later brought the game to England. In the 1870s, it became associated with Badminton House, the Gloucestershire estate of the Duke of Beaufort. That association gave the sport the name used internationally today.
Poona is often confused with the name of the older recreational game, battledore and shuttlecock. Battledore games generally involved keeping a shuttlecock in the air without a net, whereas Poona developed into the net-and-racket sport that became badminton.