Ah the wonderful vagaries of fashion terms. Here's what I believe the evolution is:
18th and early 19th century: the general term for pants that end at the knee is knee breeches--or just plain breeches (let's not go back to Elizabethan trunk hose, etc. now!)
1809: Washington Irving publishes his satirical take on history and politics titled A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. The frontispiece sports an image of a patrician-looking elder gentleman wearing knee breeches. (Irving also begins an amusing hoax related to the whereabouts of Mr. Knickerbocker that has the effect of boosting sales of the book.)
1810-1840: the name is picked up by the public to refer to New Yorkers, particularly gentleman of the old school variety.
1840s: the New York Knickerbockers baseball team is formed. They adopt the uniform of a white flannel shirt and blue wool (long!) pants. No knickers yet.
mid-19th century: boys wear short pants - not shaped quite like knee breeches, but not as baggy as later knickerbockers either. The OED dates the use of knickerbocker for the baggy variety dates to 1859. And then there's the gentleman's country wear, the knickerbocker suit, of the late 1860s-1870s. Let's also throw in the baggy pants developed by Amelia Bloomer for the women's dress reform movement which were baggy but originally ankle length. They got shorter at the end of the century and were especially popular for women bicyclists, in fact the OED cites "knickerbocker ladies" as meaning women cyclists. And when do baseball uniforms move to shorter baggy pants that are called knickerbockers...hmmm...
1872: reference to women's under drawers as knickerbockers, followed by 1895 reference to satin knickerbockers. Other references also refer to the younger girls drawers as knickers at about this time.
Here's where it gets fuzzy: by WWI the uniform was characterized by what we would term knickerbockers. At about the same time, boys by the early 20th century boys pants were short and baggy. By the 1920s golfers adopted the short baggy look but there's were 4 inches longer than knickerbockers, hence the label "plus fours." Knickers were also the staple of baseball and football uniforms. And by 1926 we have a reference to "French knickers" a British/American term for ladies "tap pants" or short, elastic waist, baggy open leg drawers. (Think Busby Berkley dancers or 30s film stars underwear.)
They made a come-back in the 1960s after 1950s ankle pants shortened to pedal pushers. Knickers were always characterized as baggier and drawn in at the knee.
Whew! There you have it--what a fun look at this garment. Oh, but back to your original question: it looks like knickers would not be the correct term for any knee-length garment before the late 1850s.
- Hope
War days. Is knickers the correct term for men's knee breeches in
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