While this is a terrible opening which gives up a pawn for nothing I would like to know if it has a name.
Wikibooks state that it is called O'Neill Gambit but its citations lead nowhere. The only citation it has is a 365chess page which just says B00: King's Pawn Opening
Is there a reliable source which verifies this? Any idea how it got the name?
There's no name in Oxford Companion to Chess, so there was probably no name in general usage up to 1990 or so. It would be classified as a 'Royal Opening' by 1. e4.
There may be later names, but I know of no equally authoritative source. There's a certain cachet in opening names, so unless there are multiple sightings of a name, preferably independent, any finds should be taken with a grain of salt. (I find it unlikely that anyone would be in need of a name of this opening.) Of course, additional moves may produce a position that can also be reached in another opening, in which case its name may be more appropriate.
As the purpose of using a name presumably is telling someone what the opening is ... but unless the name is already accepted and well-known it obviously doesn't work. If there is a useful ECO code, it may be better than names. In this case, it would be a B00 opening, but I have to leave any further refinements to someone with an up-to-date ECO code table.
