Name Awards

The search for cool names - literally

Clients often ask me for a cool name. A valid request. Sounds logical at first glance, but then when you start to ponder things you may wonder what makes a name cool? And if it is cool for me, is it cool for you? And it is not very practical trying to run them by Paris Hilton or Miley Cirrus (this week’s queens of coolness) to see if it gets their Cool vote.

And then there are those that literally put cool in their names. Medicool is a very interesting one because they are selling assistance products for those of us with special medical equipment needs. Not normally a very cool subject matter - but why not try to jazz it up a little?

As for the Cool Reader folk, I think they are trying too hard. First time I saw the way they wrote the name of their E(lectronic) Reader, I thought they were using the “deleted expletive” symbol in the middle of their name.  Now I look closer it is probably meant to be a snowflake - hey what do us sunshine state folks know. We think snow is cold and not cool anyway. And if it is that cool, why just one snowflake that unbalances the name and not a matching pair?

Gliding on the name peace train with Roadslinger

Many companies want to change their names as their business plans evolve, but not many entertainers once their personal brand is firmly established. Cat Stevens sure was a catchy name.  Yusuf Islam not so much! Even if the album title Roadslinger is in a classic traveling style.

Brave move, motivated by some serious issues, I must confess. But it probably wasn’t money as now it takes a lot of PR and promotion to get re-established, especially with such a name that perhaps limits your total exposure to all ethnicities.

For me, the music already sounds different when I hear Yusuf is singing instead of our old favorite Cat. The first rule of branding has been compromised: If it is not broken,don’t fix it.

Do I eat or drink Zibibbo?

Zibibbo is a wine made locally from the Malvasiva grapes, I have now learned from a knitting site Zibibbo is Good - after all other sources came up empty! But it is also a restaurant that the high end paid reviewers call one of the best restaurants in Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, while all the amateur reviewers give it very poor grades.

Unfortunately at $11 per glass of wine I can’t afford to check it out myself - but for a restaurant with high end marketing you’d think they would at least explain the name somewhere.After all, we aren’t all of Sicilian descent! Maybe they just want us to think of imbibing in our bibs and getting our libido on.

PS The problem with looking at restaurant names is one thing leads to another. Now I have to check out Evvia that so many reviewers favored instead. I could end up being a restaurant critic rather than a name critic!

Would you name your company ngmoco?

Well if you answered yes to our title question, without even a blink, then you are definitely part of the Twitter and Computer/Phone gaming generation.

If your stomach turned to knots and you asked yourself why is a professional business namer even raising such an issue, then you are probably a little older and more traditional!

As I sit here and ponder how to pronounce the name and what it means, I realize I am being stupid. Probably only some gaming insiders will know… and half the reason will be the domain was free :).  And to compound the difficulty, they are trying to confuse all the press and media and spell checkers for ever more by writing it ngmoco with a lower case n. Good luck. Everyone else who tried this eventually changed. Hey guys.. it is your name.. not a tweet or text message. Go look at your birth certificate and see if that is spelled lower case.

PS At least their game titles are more comprehensible.. Rolando seems to be their star. Word Fu seems to be the title of another.. not Word F. U. The sounds are so loud I could never concentrate on the words… but I am an older tweeter.

The New 9 Frog Force over at Salesforce.com?

Since I wrote a chapter in my Brighter Branding book on Having Fun With Your Brand, I love to see when big companies actually do so.

And I am especially impressed when SalesForce.com, that flag bearer for SaaS software and all things analytical about tracking sales and marketing, shows that they are human too. Nowadays this little Number 9 Frog shows up when I login to my account, but no where else that I can find on their site.

Now if only I could figure out what is going on? What is it all about? Help. I am stymied. Does your personal home page give it too after logging in?

On a separate note, this company continues to outgrow its name. A classic downside of naming your company after the first product rather than planning ahead. More so than that, look at the graphic here. Are they saying they are the cream of the crop for SFA, or just can’t make up their mind whether it is a CRM system or a SFA system, or their name is now Salesforcecrm ….. or a golfing promo for the 9th hole that is frog friendly?

We are marching to Tshwane ??

For eight or nine years they have been arguing about changing the name of Pretoria, administrative capital of South Africa. For many people, Pretoria was not only a symbol of the old white government, it also did not give credence to the former neighboring black, colored or Indian townships. Needless to say emotions run high on all sides of the argument - especially as this has always been a predominantly Afrikaans speaking city by its white citizens. Compare this with its mostly English speaking big business neighbor Johannesburg - only 50 miles down the road.

But they did manage to create a super metropolis and agree on its African name of Tshwane - not that they can agree on where it comes from - other than something to do with the Ndebele tribe or language. Most of us will end up pronouncing it schwain, and not the proper Shwa Nay in the local language. To emphasize what the name is supposed to mean, the city uses a great tagline: We are the same.

While the debates rages on (see wikipedia), it appears that the hard deadlines of hosting the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament is helping some decision making along. And today, at the start of the Federations Cup (a warm up for World Cup) the Italian team, which is using Tshwane as its base city, was presented the keys to Tschwane.. without the name Pretoria being used.

So now, all around the world, will we have to update that grand old marching battle hymn of the republic “We are marching to Pretoria”?  Maybe not. Most who sang this song probably didn’t have a clue it was a real city they were singing about. Just one with the right melodious tone to it.

In the meantime, we are impressed with this super-city doing such a good self-branding campaign.

A big name award for the first kid’s book on naming

Well if we are going to issue name awards to names and their authors, then we had surely best also consider authors who write books for kids that are based on a naming story. Especially if it introduces kids to a simple naming process!

More importantly, it is a fun and educational and travel read for any young reader. It will also be enjoyed by the parents of younglings if you read it to them - at least the first few times!

Download a copy today from FodenPress.com and surprise them on the trip. Just when they get restless, pull it up on your laptop. Most adults with a young heart will also enjoy the story and see different overtones and places than the kids. But you can all enjoy the critters coming to life as well as the great illustrations.

On top of that, children can later go to the companion website (www.chimona.com) and look up more details on their favorite critters, as well as check the glossary for explanations of big or foreign words. If this sounds like a shameless plug for How Kelvyn Got His Name and the author Rosie Reay then it surely is… but I only do this when I really believe in the product, even when I am not an innocent bystander.

I am in awe of your story telling ability Rosie and can’t wait to help produce the rest of the Chimona Chronicles, along with our great editor Kyra Dawson of  The Brighter Scribe and our new favorite illustrator Candice McMullan. It will be fun to see even more critters come to life and start their travels around Lake Okenagan - or even around the world.

Ballmer’s in the bing - or will it go ka-ching!

Oh here we go again. Microsoft got Dr. Lu to come up with a great new search engine to provide smarter results than the usual crowd of suspects. But did Dr. Lu use some Chinese meaning to come up with the lifeless name Bing?

You know you have a problem right out of the gate when the CEO has to explain the name is not a joke to his own employees. And Microsoft doesn’t even believe it is enough of a proper noun to capitalize the logo, so it looks like the ending of a word - like the last syllable of stabbing.

You know you have more of a problem when you look in the Urban Dictionary and discover that this no-meaning word actually is street slang for Jail!

Now how much traffic will BingBong get? Wish these were my dogs. Still, I hope Bing isn’t a dog and goes ka-ching for Microsoft. Perhaps they will put their search engine where we can find it this time - and promote it accordingly. Otherwise, it is Do not Pass Go. Go Directly to Jail time.

PS Bing Crosby wasn’t even the famous old singer’s real name. Just a nickname for Harry Lillis Crosby.

Brain Burning Brand Names Boost Business

Today I tip my hat to Michael Fortin of SitePro News, the definitive source for news on website management and search engine marketing, in my humble opinion. Not only did he come up with this brainy title, his list of top 5 naming characteristics is fairly on the mark for anyone needing a quick refresher. Unfortunately, in an attempt to have 5 characteristics all starting with an S, he ends up contradicting himself (as most of us often do sooner or later in naming meetings).

Notice that item (1) is Suggestiveness. However, to satisfy item (3) Size, he uses Yahoo as an example. What does Yahoo suggest? According to Webster’s Dictionary, a slightly drunken cowboy!

Here is a more complete article I previously wrote about the top 10 characteristics of a good name that professionals can agree on. It continues to be relevant in most instances.

33Across is a rather puzzling name

I came across this name recently in a Business Week article on the power of friends and measuring social marketing. Makes you wonder what happens if 33Across merges with 45Down. Perhaps they will solve the SocialDNA tree!

More interestingly, what is that little splodge after their name?  A registered trademark sign?  Not a TM sign as it is one symbol. Reason I ask is that they have applied for a registered trademark on their SocialDNA service name, but never on their own company name. At least not in the USA, even though their HQ is in New York and their TQ (corny as they use it) is in Silicon Valley.

My guess is their logo designer jumped the gun on this one. He probably had too many social trademark DNA genes jumping in his jeans. Regardless, a cute and interesting name style that really cuts through the noise.