Name Awards

Worio saves worrying about search results

Road warriors, and others, now have an interesting new search engine optimizer to really help get the best out of web search. Attracted to this tool because of its name, I actually found it quite useful, especially when I was diving deep into the web on one specific topic.

As for the name, they say that it evolved from a project called “Web of Research”.  I wonder if the ending was just because of the interesting and smooth alliteration, or did they consciously know I/O is short for input/output in popular computer jargon? Not to worry. Worio is an interesting name that is hard to forget once you have spent a few minutes using the service. And it gives me the feeling they are warriors going to war for me. The web is a very, very big field, so I often need some of their help.

How many CC’s in a VW?

Is the new VW just a Carbon Copy of something else? What was wrong with the name Passat? Does this new version no longer drive like the wind?

Or are they perhaps trying to position it as a City Car? WIll they realize it needs more CC’s in the engine later and call it the CVC, which might evolve to Civic? Oh no.. that has already happened…  Oops… German higher end model being mixed up with a low end Japanese model? Might not go down so well on the autobahn out of Wolfsburg.

Please VW. We are sorry for criticising some of your other new names. We didn’t mean you to drop names all together. Passat is a rare, great name. What a pity to see it retired in favor of some initials that imply things very small

Icann, You Can, We all can. But when?

Thanks to the internet and domain names, the whole field of naming has grown dramatically. It is therefore only appropriate that early this year we give the governing international body, Icann, a suitable name award and shout out. Unlike other joint international quasi-government ventures, this one has to perform - in both growth and in a timely manner. And they have to do it in a field that is growing exponentially, which has a lot of public and private stakeholders, and has attracted a big number of sharks and even crooks.

To date the whole internet runs on only 21 general top level domains. Worldwide that is not many - but for many of the general public you are lucky if they know more than .com, .org and .edu. Especially in the USA, they don’t even know there is a .us!

Would someone out there care to sponsor me attending ICANN meetings this year?  I will carry your banner to Mexico, Australia and Seoul. How about next year too… on to Africa, Latin America and Europe. Yes, it is a very, very international body. In fact, the news back in November that they were going to open up the whole spectrum of names generated a lot of news here to do with trademark protection, but realistically, the only top-level domains on fast-track for this year are those to satisfy international language needs.

For too long they have labored under the poorest alphabet of only 26 characters.  I am especially looking forward to the day when I can have a website with a name like www.branding.olé. Won’t that be fun? Stay tuned. Gracias. Mercí.

Phonetically interesting name of the President

There were many firsts in US history and politics today, and even a first in the naming of a US president. Instead of traditional common first and last names, the new president has a very unusual and strange name. At least it used to be. Suddenly, a very different and foreign sounding name has become mainstream. Amazing what a little PR coverage and a few good speeches can do for one. Let this be a lesson to all who still think that their company or product cannot have a coined or foreign name. It may even be a major advantage to cut through the noise.

But for us linguists, there are other very interesting angles. The name Barack and Obama are both pronounced with soft ‘a’s, something much more common in European languages (and British English) than in American English, where the ‘a’ is more likely to rhyme with ‘brand’. Secondly, while Barack is a little sharper name, ending in a one of the sticky consonants (k), Obama is oh so soft and melodious.  So the two names never run together when you say them fast, but they do fit together well. I am sure his mother never planned all this, but we offer her up a name award anyway.

Palm Pre (announcement) - Is the Palm Tree next?

Now here is an interesting name for a product. Or are they playing with us? At the recent CES show Palm announced the new Pre… and it certainly was a pre-announcement. No prices. No confirmed services. No registered trademark filing on the name.

More interestingly, wait till you hear how many people with an accent (especially Asian) pronounce this one. You might think we are back to bush telegraph communications with the Palm Tree! But enough said, we have already played off that theme enough with the Treo…..  3 trees in a row.

At the same time, they announced their new operating system with the exciting name webOS. This might also be a temporary name. Three other companies have previously filed for trademarks on this name and for one reason or another never been granted the trademark. It might well still be judged generic today (and therefore not trademark protectable).

If you want to know more about the devices, Engadget have done their usual stellar job. But as for the names, I think things might still change before final release. Palm are well known for usually acquiring and protecting good names. After all, they picked a great company name back when common English words were still available, then spent a fortune getting out of the trademark mess over the name Palm Pilot that for years had belonged to a certain famous pen company.

Maybe I should wander down the street and chat to them. I could be wrong. It might be that one of the many tricks this new little technology entertainer can do is be very motion sensitive. Maybe the name was chosen so it can compete head to head with the Wii - and keep you entertained while waiting for the boss to join the meeting.

Pre vs Wii - let the peewee (piwi) games begin.

Tags: phone names, technology trademarks, telecom names

The Philly Chests? or other names for new franchise..

There isn’t often a new professional sports franchise started in the USA, but when it is, we all want to weigh in and see what it should be named. Fox Soccer Channel’s key announcers have a great point when they say “Let’s not call it Philadelphia FC or Philadelphia SC.” So boring. So uninteresting. So confusing for people who are not familiar with FC and SC. This is not England.

The official word is that fans will get to vote on the name, but so far they are not saying where or how or what names can be voted on. So I suggest you just email them with your better ideas. Let me know too about your better ideas, after all I was the big influence behind the San Jose Clash being renamed the Earthquakes. I think the new franchise will get a different opinion when they hear from people who do not live in Philly itself… and even they might want to use the much easier Philly abbreviation.

Fox announcers are rooting for The Liberty or something like that. Great idea, except the team is quickly building a new stadium and their home base will actually be in the city of Chester. I wonder if they have enough influence to move the liberty bell to Chester? Hmmm.. probably not.. it is soccer after all… and this is the USA where they think football is not played with feet on the ball.

For the ladies team it is easy: The Philly Belles

Tags: franchise naming, sports names

A new year, a new era in energy

New Era Energy Resources is not the most exciting name in the world, but for a staid old energy company used to running under FPL and similar initials, it is a strong and interesting departure. From the outset, they are the biggest wind energy producer in the country, as well as a leading solar energy producer.

Our guess is that not only are they setting their sights on the next era (whenever that may be), but also a broader market than that served by FPL (aka Florida Power and Light). Perhaps they are trying to tell us the new era is here already. If that is the case, let us all commend them.

We wonder how many other companies wanted to be the next or new era in energy. We note already that Viasyn use the tagline Next Generation Energy Services and we have heard others bandy these name roots around.

New, next, green, wind, renewable, clean….   watch for these names to suffer extreme overuse in the next few years. Maybe we will need to give an award to the most creative use of one or more of them as part of a name.

Tags: clean energy names, green industry naming, new green names