The Roker End is back – by popular demand.

Sunderland have announced the new name for the Stadium of Light's South Stand, which will take the moniker held by the steep bank of terracing where generations of Wearsiders grew up watching their team at the club's former home at Roker Park.

And, in a quirk of history, the name change echoes that at Roker Park more than a century ago, where the Roker End was originally known as the South End when the ground opened in 1898.

The club has been working with fan group Red and White Army to improve the matchday experience at the Stadium of Light, which started with the Big Seat Change.

And a survey suggested fans were keen to give the ground a greater sense of identity by renaming the stands, which are currently named after the points on the compass.

A shortlist of four names was drawn up – the Roker End, the Wearside End, the Colliery End, or the Raich Carter End – and more than 13,000 fans voted, with 70 percent picking the Roker End.

The Black Cats will hold an official renaming ceremony ahead of the Boxing Day fixture against Bradford City, with the unveiling a specially-commissioned 'captain's mural' within the main concourse.

RAWA chairman Andrew Hird said: "This was a fantastic opportunity for supporters to come together and help give our stadium a greater sense of identity, and they answered the call with thousands participating.

"The Roker Roar is synonymous throughout football for being loud and representative of our city, and we want the Stadium of Light's Roker End to carry on that tradition and recapture Roker Park's stirring atmosphere.

The original Roker End, at Sunderland's former home Roker Park in the 1960s

"The club have been open and honest in their communication with supporters from Day One, and they too are passionate about restoring the Stadium of Light to its former glory, as we saw with the Big Seat Change.

"This is the first of many projects RAWA are working on with the club and other supporters' groups, and there is much more to come."

Sunderland executive director Charlie Methven added: "This has been a fantastic exercise to go through with RAWA and the rest of the supporters’ groups.

"To have over 13,000 vote, in such a short space of time, is almost unprecedented and demonstrates Sunderland fans' passion for their club and its history.

"As away fans, Stewart [Donald, Sunderland owner] and I were always very aware of Roker Park and its reputation, and it’s good that a new generation of Sunderland supporters will now be able to feel that direct link with that famous past."

The Roker End was an iconic part of Roker Park, the ground which was the club's home for 99 years from until the move to the Stadium of Light in 1997.

The concrete terrace was significantly expanded in 1912 at a cost of £20,000, which increased Roker Park's capacity to 50,000.

At its peak the Roker End held 23,000 supporters but new safety regulations saw that capacity slashed to around 7,000 in 1982.