Table tennis game, in its initial version, was a very popular after party game in England. Almost all the dinner parties and get togethers concluded with table tennis games. It is actually not known as to who discovered this game and infact, the game did not have a name during the initial years. It was popularly called as ping pong or wiff waff; these names were actually rough imitations of the sound made by the call during game play. The first known record of the game being played was in the early 1880s but it is understood that the game in its rudimentary fashion might have been played, even prior to that time.
The initial version of the table tennis game was played on a dinner table with a stack of books placed in the middle of the table, which served as the net and a golf ball served as the TT ball. The racquets were also books. Later, racquets made out of wooden bases with stretched parchment on the top. Celluloid balls were introduced later, during the early 1900s. The name of the game was trademarked as ping pong by one manufacturer, in early 1900s. The other manufacturers chose to use the generic term of table tennis for their products and this name stuck. The game continued to be played in many versions and different interpretation of rules for the next two decades.
