(A version of this article appeared recently at Marketing Profs.)

Like the internet phenoms they trumpeted, internet company names of the last decade have been, by turns, wildly inventive, deeply troubled, breathtakingly silly, serviceable (if dull)—and occasionally, brilliant. As a bicoastal naming company that’s christened more than our share of internet phenoms, Catchword looked back over this tumultuous decade and identified the 10 biggest dot-com naming trends—and our picks for best and worst examples. (Although frankly, it was hard to choose just one “worst” in some cases. There were so many Web 2.0 disasters! It was as though the rules of language ceased to apply.)

Here are the trends and names that rose to the top (and sank to the bottom):

1. The Hookup
Sometimes two words are better than one—especially to convey a new way of doing things. Serviceable hookups can range from descriptive (Facebook, StubHub) to suggestive (LinkedIn) to evocative (SnapFish). But if two words don’t have a discernible relationship with each other—or the brand—it’s a Random Hookup. And we all know how short-lived those are—in this or any realm.
Win: YouTube
Intuitive, catchy, grassroots-y. The retro slang “tube” for TV evokes simpler times and ease of use: clever for a new app that could have been seen as intimidatingly high-tech.
Fail: TalkShoe
Uh . . . say what? The name is a play on the use of Ed Sullivan’s pronunciation of the word “show” on his long ago TV show. Like anyone is going to make the connection.

2. The Conjurer
Evocative words can make memorable brand names when they relate to the core of a brand’s story (like Yelp). But the line can be fine between edgy and baffling.
Win: Twitter
Whimsically conjures up users sharing short little bursts of information (like birds twittering in a tree)—as well as excitement (“all atwitter.”) It’s extendable, too. A whole vocabulary quickly takes flight: from tweet and twitfriend to twipic.
Fail: MOO
Great for cows, milk, cheese, ice cream. Not so great for a site offering printing services.

3. The Letter-Dropper
The problem with this type of coinage is it’s so distinctive, you’re almost bound to look like a copycat if you’re not the first out of the gate. And if you drop more than one letter, you’re asking for trouble. (Was Motorola’s SLVR cell phone meant to be Silver or Sliver? And what’s with Scribd?)
Win: Flickr
The image of a camera’s flicker is relevant for photo sharing and reassuringly familiar, while the dropped letter—a new naming convention—suggested cutting-edge technology.
Fail: iStalkr
Creepy.

4. The Assembly Line
Names assembled from word parts with meaningful associations can be rich and unexpected (witness Gizmodo, the gadget blog). But tone and messaging need to be just right.
Win: Wikipedia
The unusualness of the name establishes it as a fresh player, while the evocation of both encyclopedias and speed (“wiki” is Hawaiian for “quick”) is spot on.
Fail: Nupedia
The flatfooted claim of newness sounds dated from day one. Plus it’s risky to stake an identity on newness in internet-land. Before long, this premise is far from “nu.”

5. The Misspeller
This kind of brand name often spells disaster. Hard to remember (Ideeli, Scrybe), confusing to pronounce and spell (Myngle, Wotnext, Gravee), and reeking of URL-search desperation (Itzbig, Profilactic, Fairtilizer).
Win: Boku
French word “beaucoup” is on the money for an online payment service—and for many Americans, the misspelling is actually more intuitive and inviting.
Fail: Cuil
Meant to be pronounced “cool,” but who’s gonna get that? Rule #1: your name shouldn’t need to come with a pronunciation guide.

6. The Wordster
Another convention that ages fast. And there’s nothing more pathetic in naming than a transparent attempt to appear cool. (Cases in point: Dogster, Agester, Talkster.)
Win: Friendster
Not exciting, we’ll grant you, but the intuitiveness of the name helped usher in the era of social networking.
Fail: Napster
In light of its ensuing legal woes, to highlight the “kidnapping” of music is probably not the best idea (to put it kindly).

7. The Double or Nothing
Doubling a letter in a real word only works when the word remains recognizable, and the addition of the second letter serves some purpose, other than to complicate spelling (as in Gawwk).
Win: Digg
Intuitive and evocative, the double “g” underscores the digging nature of research and is graphically interesting.
Fail: Diigo
A social bookmarking site, the double “i” destroys the semantic connection and confuses pronunciation. (Is it Dee-go or Dih-go?) Plus, coming on the heels of Digg, it seems hopelessly derivative.

8. The eThing, the iThing, the meThing, the myThing
“e/i” shorthand quickly becomes redundant in the internet space, although it spawns many workhorse names: serviceable, if dull. The me/my thing (as in mySpace) tends to be similarly predictable and unremarkable. (Now, myBad—that would be interesting….)
Win: iContact
For a provider of email marketing, the “i” works on three levels: “I contact,” “eye contact,” and, of course, “internet contact.”
Fail: eSnailer, eBaum’s World, eXpresso . . .

9. The Empty Vessel
A word without recognizable semantic roots can be a useful umbrella name for a company that may want to branch out in different directions. But it needs to be pronounceable and have relevant sound symbolism, Otherwise, it’s not an Empty Vessel—it’s Alphabet Soup. Like Disaboom, Xoopit, Yebol and Goozex. Cover your ears.
Win: Kazaa
Recalls huzzah or hurrah, conveying excitement. (Sample exclamation: “Kazaa! I just downloaded Season One of Six Feet Under, FOR FREE!!!”)
Fail: Eefoof
Vintage Web 2.0: hard to spell, silly—and utterly meaningless.

10. The Foreigner
Words in little-known languages can also make good empty vessel names, especially if their meaning provides a springboard into their brand story. The trick is to find words that are easy to pronounce and pleasing to the American ear (like Kijiji, a communal website with a Swahili name meaning “village”).
Win: Hulu
Good empty vessel name for an entertainment company that wants to keep its options open. (Ironically, the word means “empty gourd” in Mandarin.) The rhyming word is playful, and by evoking hula hoops, it suggests fun.
Fail: Jwaala
Talk about a tongue-twister.

As for internet company naming trends of the coming decade: we predict companies will demand more meaningful brand names, as far from Web 2.0 flights of fancy as possible. And they’ll be willing to pay a premium for real-word or lightly coined domain names, and be creative in the messages they explore—as long as they’re relevant to the brand. Like internet companies themselves, internet naming will be coming back down to earth.

Tags: best names of the decade, Catchword, naming, naming trends, worst names of the decade
Posted in Catchword, Company Naming, Domain names, Fun stuff, In-the-News, Language use | 3 Comments

I spoke with a reporter from the Dallas Morning News last week. He wrote a fantastic column on the surge of marketing directed at combating the swine flu pandemic.

There’s a quote from me about resisting the temptation to be trendy. Naming consultants above all need to be wary of this temptation. Any new brand name that keys on a temporary trend risks becoming obsolete as soon as that trend fades away. This is particularly true in technology, where things can change in a heartbeat. But whatever the category, brand names need to have the flexibility to grow with your company (or product) over time.

Tags: health names, healthcare naming, naming, naming fads, swine flu, trendy names
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I was interviewed recently for a piece on how language can impact political dialog. The article (“The Semiotics of Conflict”) questions whether the term “apartheid” can be used to describe the situation in Israel vis-a-vis the treatment of Palestinians. I was impressed by the author’s ability to address the question without necessarily taking a side in the debate. (I want to emphasize that my comments were meant to be completely neutral on the subject as well.)

Still, it is interesting how in the last few years, “branding” has started to shape political debate with increasing significance. The classic examples of “pro-life” and “pro-choice” have been joined by “Death Tax” (formerly “Estate Tax”) and “Climate Change” (formerly “Global Warming”). These new euphemisms/dysphemisms are all geared toward shaping opinion long before any pros or cons have been considered. In today’s soundbite-driven world, the “brand” of the topic itself can really impact public opinion. Perhaps lobbyists should be hiring naming consultants like me.

Tags: naming, political branding, political naming
Posted in In-the-News, Language use | No Comments

The excellent folks at Daily Writing Tips have weighed in on the question that’s on everyone’s mind: Should you pronounce the “h” in “-wh-“ words like whistle, whiz, and overwhelm?

DWT’s balanced response is very much in accord with my linguist colleague Laurel Sutton’s assertion that there is no “should” in the evolution of language.

Even so, those of us who pronounce the “h” may, just occasionally, continue to whine over “whine” over wine.

Tags: hw, language, linguistic analysis, linguistics, naming, wh
Posted in Language use | No Comments

Sorry, I just can’t leave this one alone. I started thinking about the Syfy name change and realized that there are quite a few other channels that could benefit from a new name. Because I’m such a nice guy, I’m going to publish the solutions here. Apologies to Landor — I hope I’m not hurting their chances of turning these folks into new clients.

Remember: the reason’s the folks at Syfy née SciFi said they needed to rebrand was 1) their name was too generic and 2) it was too specific. I still think they were crazy, but here are some other great fixes:

The Food Network should rebrand as Fude or Füd

Lifetime should rebrand as LiveThyme

History should rebrand as HighStory (the stoners would love it)

Travel should rebrand as Tour Ravel

Biography should rebrand as BYO

The Cartoon Network should rebrand as CarTune (although maybe that’s still too generic/specific)

CBS should rebrand as SeeBS (again, maybe still too generic/specific?)

MTV should rebrand as M&M TV or Eminem TV

E! should rebrand as Eee!

I guess if name development was really that easy, anybody could be a naming consultant. (Shhh…don’t tell Landor.)

Tags: Biography, CBS, E!, History Channel, Lifetime, MTV, naming, Syfy, The Food Network, Travel Channel, TV names, tv naming
Posted in Brand Naming, Company Naming, Fun stuff, In-the-News | No Comments

I love Mental Floss — Everyone should read it. They ran a fun naming piece yesterday on the origins of eight high-tech brand names. The brand names origins they illuminate include: TiVo, Bluetooth, Hulu, Blackberry, Wii, Wikipedia, Asus (um, what?), and Prius.

The post is a fun one, giving origin stories that savvy name aficionados already know. My beef is not with Mental Floss or their fun article. Instead, I have a bone to pick with the companies who pick random names at will, and then backfill meaning into their brand name.

Do you really think the folks at pre-Hulu really knew that the word meant “interactive recording” and “a hollowed-out gourd used to hold precious things” in Mandarin Chinese? If so, then they probably also knew that it meant “butt” in Indonesian and would never have chosen the name for a global brand. Hulu is a fun, four-letter word that recalls Hula ad Lulu (which is probably the real name origin). It has a consonant-vowel structure and is meaningless enough for them to build any brand personality they want around it. They probably picked Hulu as their name and then discovered that it had these other meanings when they conducted brand name linguistic analysis before launching. Which is fine, but just own up to the truth. The truth will set you free, Hulu!!!

And the story about Toyota believing “the Prius was going to be the predecessor of the cars of the future,” so they chose the Latin word for “before.” Um, so not plausible. Nice story though.

Tags: Asus, Blackberry, Bluetooth, brand name origins, Hulu, name origin, names, naming, Prius, Product Naming, TiVo, Wii, Wikipedia
Posted in Branding, Company Naming, Product Naming | No Comments

I know my partner Laurel also blogged this news, but I had to add my two cents. I, too, saw the news last week in the Washington Post announcing that the ominous Blackwater had decided to change its name to Xe. So many fun points to this story … where to begin?

Let’s start with the rationale behind this name change. The company states that it is repositioning itself to focus more on training and less on security. Fair enough, but one wonders if this shift in positioning was the result of the company’s flagship security wing being effectively thrown out of its main customer’s “office” (that being Iraq) and/or as a defensive reaction to the serious black eye marking the company since its “employees” were charged with firing on Iraqi civilians. My first reaction to this announcement was basically the same reaction I had to Phillip Morris becoming Altria: You can take the boy out of danger but you can’t take the danger out of the boy. My guess is that the US Government will be the *only* group that allows this faux wool to be pulled over its eyes. The rest of us know exactly what’s going on.

And don’t even get me started on the new name itself. According to Anne Tyrrel (spokesperson for Xe née Blackwater) as quoted the Washington Post article, the name has no meaning whatsoever, and was generated internally. No kidding? I’ll give them a half a point for finding a name that is short. Three demerits for having to tell people how to pronounce the name (hard to find a two-letter name that no one can pronounce). Two additional demerits for picking a name that sounds more like a Chinese security training company than an American one. And two additional demerits for picking a name that they can’t own.

And if I were running Xe Currency Exchange (the company that owns “xe.com”), I would be talking quite seriously with my attorney right now. Trademark law is designed to prevent customer confusion, but it also has stipulations preventing companies from disparaging an existing brand. No one is likely to confuse DolceGabbana Waste Removal Services with the fashion brand, but should such a company exist, it could seriously tarnish the real owner’s brand.

So for those of you who wonder “why should I hire a naming consultant” you now have your answer. First, we wouldn’t have let you use Blackwater in the first place. (Apparently named for the brackash water of the Great Dismal Swamp near the company’s headquarters—whose great idea was that?) Second, we would have told you that you need to do more than change your name to change your image. (Perhaps time will tell if Xe is able to migrate its image to be slightly more favorable than that of [insert hated villain].) Third, we would have helped the company find a name that reflects its newly desired image: serious, trustworthy, secure, and American. Xe fails on all counts. I’m not suggesting that all names need to have meaning to be effective, but one would think that a company such as this could have come up with *something*. The new name sounds more Web 2.0 than anti-terrorist contractor.

Next time somone asks why pay for a name, I’ll just say, “Hey, you can always do it yourself. The guys at Blackwater did it twice, and look how great things turned out for them.”

Tags: Blackwater, name change, naming, naming blunder, renaming, Xe
Posted in Brand Naming, Company Naming, In-the-News | 2 Comments

The announcement was so made so quietly that one might even call it stealthy – or perhaps covert. Over the long Presidents’ Day weekend, when people were distracted, busy with Valentine’s Day, and generally thinking about whether they would have jobs to come back to, the military contractor Blackwater officially changed its name to Xe. In a note to employees, president Gary Jackson said the name change reflects the company’s new focus, and he indicated Xe would not actively pursue new security business. One wonders how far away from the security business Xe would need to get in order to escape its reputation for lawlessness, arrogance, and needless violence. Perhaps they plan on opening a rescue center for really cute animals, like pandas and polar bears.

According to the AP report, “Xe” is supposed to be pronounced “zee”; an op-ed in the LA Times suggests is might be named for the element xenon, one of the noble gases. Do they mean to suggest that they are colorless, odorless, and heavy? That they are generally unreactive? That they have 54 protons? That they make a really bright light? Honestly, I can’t imagine why they chose this name, since xenon, while quite useful for lasers, ion propulsion engines, and medical imaging, isn’t much to write home about. And if they’re trying to interpret the word “noble” in a non-chemical way, they are dreaming. Blackwater = noble? NOT.

It’s likely they were just trying to pick something meaningless and kinda cool, a name that had no relationship at all to security, wars, and, er, murder. It’s short and distinctive, for sure, but unfortunately they don’t own the exact .com domain (xe.com is a handy currency exchange site – I have it bookmarked). Unfortunately, I think they chose something so distinctive that no one will ever forget that they are the Outfit Formerly Known As Blackwater.

I personally got a big laugh out of this name because in science fiction/internet circles, “xe” is often used an a gender-neutral pronoun, as in “Xe laughed” or “I wonder if xe can join us for the chat” – a necessity when communicating online where gender is often (deliberately) blurred or hidden. Maybe by choosing Xe, the Blackwater fellows are really trying to tell us that they’re transsexual Star Trek fans. (I hope that’s not true – it would give a bad name to transsexual Star Trek fans everywhere!)

Tags: Blackwater, name change, naming, naming blunder, renaming, Xe
Posted in Brand Naming, Company Naming, In-the-News, Language use | 1 Comment

Just read this article on how marketers do a poor job of marketing Marketing. Very interesting perspective.

The simple, but brilliant point that Marketing is neither a science nor a profession helps explain the frequent (and often unfair) criticism of the discipline (although one could argue that Marketing is becoming both a science and a profession as the discipline gets more attention). And I had to chuckle at the author’s point about the lack of any code of conduct for marketers. So very very true (and so very very unfortunate). Maybe the marketing world needs government oversight (yeah, right — just like the banking world needs the SEC).

I wonder … does the mercurial rise of technology help or hurt marketing? One the one hand, the farther the Internet spreads its tentacles, the more raw data gets disbursed. One could say that this raw data undermines marketing (who wants to squeeze the Charmin if “TP.com” says that other brands are softer?). On the other hand, perhaps this infusion of technology is just what the industry needs. First, it will help reveal the charlatans out there (who’s claims can’t be substantiated) and second, it helps further the cause of quantified results (the holy grail of ROI). Click-throughs and minutes-spent-per-page are much easier to assign directly to some marketing initiative.

Still, as a creative person working for a creative company, I hope the discipline of Marketing continues to allow for (or even demand) adventurous thinking. Otherwise, I fear Marketing wouldn’t be as fun, or as interesting, as it is today.

Tags: marketing, naming
Posted in Branding, Fun stuff, In-the-News | No Comments

Catchword had tons of fun creating Leapfrog’s recent product names. It just might be possible, however, that we had even more fun giving the Leapfrog educational gaming toys as gifts this holiday season.

I gave Leapfrog gifts to three youngsters in my life. My niece had asked for a PSP or Nintendo DS for Christmas. Instead Santa (aka Uncle Aaron) bought her a Leapfrog Didj. My niece is seven, so she’s in the target age range for the Didj. Just look at how excited she was when she opened the present from Santa:

She was immediately engrossed. And later that evening she asked me to play along with her. I was surprised that she asked me to do the gaming part (driving the car around the track), while she took care of the math and spelling challenges in between levels. Clearly the educational challenge was as much fun for my niece as was the gaming aspect.

I also bought Tag for my partner’s three-year-old niece and his housemate’s two-year-old daughter. Both girls love their Tags. I witnessed them touching the Tag to words and to various characters to hear the extra content embedded throughout the books. Although they were both on the young side for Tag, they’re both very verbal and already recognizing words. So, the Tag was the perfect gift.

Our Creative Director Maria also bought her three girls a Didj and a Tag. Once again, the Leapfrog products were a huge hit. We’ve been advocates of Leapfrog’s products ever since we started working with the company. But, seeing how excited kids get playing with these learning systems really emphasized for us that Leapfrog is an expert when it comes to what kids like.

Oh, and our Linguistic Guru Laurel has a nine-year-old daughter who still loves her Leapster. She never puts it down. You can almost sense the knowledge sinking into her brain through her fingertips.

Tags: Didj, Didj name, game naming, gaming names, Leapfrog, Leapfrog names, Leapfrog naming, naming, Tag, Tag name, technology naming
Posted in Brand Naming, Fun stuff, Product Naming | No Comments