Cocky represents a cartoon version of a gamecock after the term, "cock of the game", which was used by Welshman George Wilson.
 He represents a cartoon version of a gamecock (a fighting rooster). 
 The first documented use of the "word" gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or entertainment, was recorded in 1634, after the term "cock of the game" used by George Wilson, in the earliest known book on the sport of cockfighting in "The Commendation of Cocks and Cock Fighting" in 1607. 
