Albion have always enjoyed loyal and passionate support. Most fans come from the Black Country, though many also hail from nearby Birmingham. The club also has many Scottish fans. The official West Bromwich Albion Supporters Club has branches throughout the United Kingdom, as well as in Ireland, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Malta and Thailand. Albion's "club anthem" is The Lord's my Shepherd, a setting of Psalm 23. Supporters of the team celebrate goals by bouncing up and down and chanting "Boing Boing". This dates back to the 1992–93 season, when the team was promoted from the new Second Division. In recent years fans of the team have celebrated the end of each season by adopting a fancy dress theme for the final away match, including dressing as vikings in 2004 in honour of Player of the Season Thomas Gaardsøe. In 2002–03 Albion's fans were voted the best in the Premier League by their peers, while in the BBC's 2002 "national intelligence test" Test the Nation, they were found to be "more likely to be smarter than any other football supporters, registering an average score of 138".
The club has published an official matchday programme for supporters since 1905. The publication was entitled Albion News for many years, but was renamed Albion from the 2002–03 season onwards. It won Premier League Programme of the Year in 2002–03 and Third Division Programme of the Year in 1991–92. In 2007–08 it was awarded Championship Programme of the Year by both Programme Monthly and the Football Programme Directory. The programme has a circulation in excess of 8,000 copies. The first West Bromwich Albion fanzine, Fingerpost, was published from 1983 until 1992, and was followed by several others, most notably Grorty Dick (1989–2005) and Last Train To Rolfe Street (1992–1995). Since Grorty Dick ceased publication in 2005, the club now only has one fanzine dedicated to it; 'Baggie Shorts' which is produced by the West Bromwich Albion Supporters Club London Branch.
Although known in their early days as "The Throstles", the club's more popular nickname among supporters came to be The Baggies, a term which the club itself looked down upon for many years but later embraced. The phrase was first heard at The Hawthorns in the 1900s, but its exact origins are uncertain. One suggestion is that the name was bestowed on Albion supporters by their rivals at Aston Villa, because of the large baggy trousers that many Albion fans wore at work to protect themselves from molten iron in the factories and foundries of the Black Country. Club historian Tony Matthews however suggests that it derives from the "bagmen", who carried the club's matchday takings in big leather bags from the turnstiles to the cash office on the halfway line. Other theories relate to the baggy shorts worn by various players during the club's early years. The official club mascots are named Baggie Bird and Baggie Bird Junior; both are based on the throstle depicted on the club crest.
Historically, Albion's greatest rivals have always been Aston Villa from nearby Birmingham.
The two clubs contested three FA Cup Finals between 1887 and 1895 (Villa winning two and Albion one).
More recently however, most Albion fans have seen Wolverhampton Wanderers as their main rivals - particularly between 1988 and 2002 when Albion and Villa were never in the same division but Albion were in the same division as Wolves for 11 out of 14 seasons.
Albion and Wolves have contested the Black Country derby more than 150 times; their first major clash was an FA Cup tie in 1886.
The rivalry came to prominence when the two clubs contested the league title in 1953–54, and during the 1990s it intensified to new heights among supporters, with both clubs languishing in Division One for much of the decade and only local pride at stake.
Moreover, in 2002 Albion came from being 11 points adrift to overhaul Wolves to gain promotion.
The rivalry was further hightened after the sides met in the play-offs in 2007.
A 2004 survey by Planetfootball.com confirmed that the majority of both Albion and Wolves supporters consider the other to be their main rival.
A less-heated rivalry also exists with Birmingham City, with whom Albion contested the 1931 FA Cup final, as well as a semi-final in 1968.
Walsall are seen as lesser rivals, having played in a lower division than Albion for most of their history.
In more recent times a lesser rivalry has also developed with Stoke City, following many years in the same divisions and the fact that Stoke have become Albion's bogey team.
The largest hooligan firm who associate themselves with Albion are known as Section Five, and a small history of violence exists between them and Albion's local rivals, as well as other clubs, most notably Manchester United and Leeds United.
Albion fans often refer to Wolves fans as "Dingles" as a comparison with the Dingle family from the ITV soap opera Emmerdale.
They also refer to Villa fans as "Seals" in reference to a habit that many Villa fans have of clapping at arm's length during matches.
Villa are also known simply as the "Vile" or as "Veela" - to mock their high-pitched chants. Stoke fans are known as "Clayheads".
Meanwhile, Albion fans are known as 'Yam Yams' by supporters of Birmingham City - mocking the Black Country accent.