Name Awards

A descriptive sentence or a name?

Now the one language I know absolutely nothing about is Vietnamese, but many of us in Silicon Valley have followed the controversy over naming a local business district Little Saigon. The fact that there is already such an area in Southern California (and perhaps elsewhere in USA) is beside the point. The name stirs up lots of emotions and has become the downfall of a city official here in San Jose.

More interesting for me is the name of businesses popping up in and around this area. Other than the ones with Pho in part of their title (and a picture of noodles nearby) I have no idea what their names mean. But when I read the legal notices in the local Metro paper (something only a namer nut would do at lunch time), I have a hard time believing this is a good name for a new business: Hoi Cong Huong Soc Trang Bac Cali.

What a long name, especially for an Asian language that tends to have shorter words. Can you imagine answering the phone here? I am surprised it even fit on the county name registration form. I don’t know what it means. I do know they will abbreviating it by the second week. It is long enough to be the name of some quasi government organization name, just like we have in English names of the form The International Society and Brotherhood of Metal and Glass Workers Union.

When your name is longer than your tagline or elevator pitch, you know you have a big branding and marketing problem.

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