Blog names based on authors’ names

Surprise! A lot of blogs are named after their authors, sometimes with a clever twist, sometimes not. This reflects the roots of blogs in what were essentially online diaries. The top two names in this category, Huffington Post and Daily Kos, put the authors’ names into newspaper-style titles. Others, like Michelle Malkin and Kottke.org, just use the authors’ names unadorned. Some folksy titles put the author’s first name in a simple descriptive phrase, as in Seth’s Blog or Joel on Software. Those that aspire to cleverness incorporate the author’s first or last name into into a coined title: GigaOM, Scobleizer, Automattic, etc.

Disarmingly self-deprecating blog titles

Some blog names poke fun at their authors, often by implying that they have nothing to say or are, by virtue of being bloggers instead of “real” writers/journalists/whatevers, hard to take seriously. Of course, these names are always used with a wink that says “I’m reclaiming and defiantly flaunting an epithet”, and usually have a positive spin as well. TreeHugger is a good example of that–it’s a term normally used to belittle environmentalists, but embraced by one here. Hot Air is not only what we call a certain kind of puffed-up nonsense, but can also suggest speech that is fueled by righteous anger. The name instapundit.com implies that any jerk can set up shop as a commentator on the web, but also promises up-to-the-second analysis. And, with its condescending feminine/diminutive ending, Wonkette suggests frivolity, but gives off a flirty, playful vibe appropriate for its content (plus it’s just funny).

Short, catchy content-oriented names

These coined single-word names make a pithy connection to a content niche: Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, Lifehacker, etc. They’re a lot like the names of companies or popular magazines.

Descriptive, boring content-oriented names

Some blog names just put it on the table with a thud. Official Google Blog and The Unofficial Apple Weblog are excellent specimens of this variety.

Arty names

Some blog names have a certain je ne sais quoi that makes them kind of arty or literary sounding. Ars Technica achieves this via highfalutin’ Latin, and A List Apart makes enigmatic use of the syntactically interesting word apart (remind The Name Inspector to write about the name Six Apart one of these days).

FUN! names

Some blog names just want to have fun. Boing Boing, Explosm!

Ironic gee-whiz names

The ironic use of corny expressions of enthusiasm and praise is pervasive on the web. We see this in blog titles like Neatorama, and in blog subtitles or taglines like A Directory of Wonderful Things (Boing Boing) and home of fine hypertext products (kottke.org).

Earnest calls to action

Some blog names are achingly sincere about changing the world: Think Progress, How to Change the World, Creating Passionate Users, Jihad Watch, and NewsBusters are all good examples.

Names covered with cheese

The web can be a pretty cheesy place, and some blogs and their names wallow in it. icanhascheezburger.com, The Superficial – Because You’re Ugly, Something Awful: The Internet Makes You Stupid, and Go Fug Yourself, anyone?.

The Name Inspector is sure there are many more types of blog name to discuss, but must go convince himself that The Name Inspector does not fall into the same category as Official Google Blog.

Tags: blogs, blogging, blog names, blog naming, technorati

To examine this issue it helps to have a long list of different names for the same thing. That makes it possible to see the range of meaning strategies used to deliver a message relevant to that thing. This post uses Charles Knight’s list of the Top 100 Alternative Search Engines, and considers the different ways the names on the list relate to web search.

The direct approach

Of course, many names are based on words that already have strong conventional connections to the idea of web search and web use:

Searchbots
CrossEngine
FyberSearch
nnseek
Picsearch
Searchles
SearchTheWeb2
Srchr
TheFind
50matches

Some names evoke the more general idea of web surfing, which is getting hard to imagine doing without search technology. The idea of web surfing is of course based on a metaphor that treats web use as travel (discussed below). The word surf, however, is now the most basic verb we have for web use.

SurfWax
Serph

Other names focus less on the activity of web use and more on the informational need that it serves:

Answers
FactBites

Metaphor

Not surprisingly, many of the names on the Alt Search Engines list involve metaphor. That is, they evoke meanings that do not relate to search literally, but that give us a way to think about search using another concept as a sort of model or template.

There are two important things to keep in mind about metaphor. First, it is primarily a conceptual issue, and its linguistic significance follows from that. Second, most of the metaphors that people use in names are not made up, but are already a part of the way we all look at and talk about the world. There are existing metaphors that we can all draw upon and expand upon. A famous and accessible discussion of these ideas can be found in George Lakoff’s book “Metaphors We Live By”.

So what kinds of metaphors are we talking about here? One of the most common casts the search engine as a sentient being.

Search engine as sentient being

Agent 55
GenieKnows
Knuru (play on guru)
Ms. Freckles
Pixsy
Sidekiq
Swamii
Turboscout
guruji (based on the word guru)

This one is a little tricky because personification is common in names independently of any particular metaphor. However, many of the names above emphasize aspects of personhood that are especially relevant to search. Agents, genies, gurus, swamis, and scouts are all people who know or find out things that are useful to us.

Other names relate more generally to the idea of intelligence:

Intelligence

Cognitionsearch
Wisenut
Wize

Another important metaphor treats search and web use as motion. Of course, this metaphor has become a normal part of the way we think and talk about the web: we navigate it, we surf it, we go to or visit websites, etc.

Some names relate to the idea of motion in a general way:

General motion

Bookmach
GameSkoot
GoPubMed
Turboscout
Skreemr (relates to fast motion as well as sound)

Other names tie into the conventional navigation metaphor by evoking different kinds of travel:

Travel

Trexy
Icerocket

A little oddly, some names focus on dancing. These names may be motivated by the motion metaphor combined with the idea that dancing is fun.

Dancing

ChaCha
gogo
iBoogie

The flip side of the motion metaphors is the idea that the web is a world in which we can move.

Web as world

BlogDimension
Kosmix
Sphere
MP3Realm

A completely different metaphor that’s used in the context of web search is the one that treats becoming aware of new things as uncovering objects. A prominent website name that uses this metaphor is Digg (which The Name Inspector has written about).

Becoming aware of things as uncovering objects

BlogDigger
FeedMiner
Fisssh!

The last name on that list combines the uncovering metaphor with the nautical context implicit in the web navigation metaphor.

Related to the uncovering metaphor is the metaphor that treats learning and understanding as physical taking or holding. We use this metaphor when we talk about grasping a difficult subject. Only a one name on the list clearly uses this metaphor, which means that there’s an opportunity for you namers of new search engines!

Grabble

Even this brief examination of search engine names makes it clear that metaphor is an important naming tool that can be used in different ways. When naming anything, it’s important to understand the metaphors we already use to think about that thing.

Tags: metaphor, search, search engines, alt search engines

So crowded is the space of names, however, that people have been forced into three-meaningful-part territory. The first example that springs to mind is MyBlogLog, the source of that widget at the bottom of The Name Inspector’s sidebar. (By the way, if you’re a MyBlogLog user, you’re hereby invited to join The Name Inspector’s community.) If you shortened this name to MyBlog or BlogLog, you’d have something that fits a common naming pattern: MyBlog is like MySpace or YouTube, and BlogLog is like SmugMug or TagJag. With MyBlogLog, however, there’s kind of a lot going on. Technically it’s a phrase name, but the way it’s written, without any spaces, is an invitation to pronounce it as a single word. And that’s kind of kind of tricky. Which syllable do you emphasize? If you pronounce the name as a phrase, you probably emphasize both my and blog. If you pronounce the name as a single word, you probably de-emphasize either my or blog. But the result sounds kind of hurried and squished together, doesn’t it?

One of the clunkiest three-part names The Name Inspector has encountered recently is Side Job Track. Again, just Side Job or Job Track would be a very normal-sounding name (well, Side Job sounds vaguely lewd to those of us whose minds wander in that direction). But Side Job Track? With this name the natural phrasal pronunciation is not even available. You have to break it down as a compound that contains a compound–most likely side job + track. If you go with this analysis, you emphasize Side, kind of mumble out Job, and may or may not place any emphasis on Track. It just doesn’t flow.

Matters are complicated further by the fact that track can be a noun or a verb. It’s most natural to interpret the last word of a multi-word name as a noun, but if you do that you make a confusing connection to the phrase job track (like career track), which isn’t as clearly relevant as the idea of tracking side jobs. So this name is kind of a jumble.

That’s not to say Side Job Track isn’t a great service. The Name Inspector has been using it to keep track of billable hours and do invoices for consulting jobs, and while there are a few kinks to work out, it has a really nice set of features. Check it out.

While he’s on this topic, The Name Inspector must give a nod of grudging respect to Bare Escentuals, the San Francisco-based cosmetics company. Here’s a pun name with four meaningful parts (not including the morphological breakdown of essentials) that actually kind of flows. Built on the phrase bare essentials, it pulls off a double pun, tweaking essentials so that it evokes both the words scent and sensual. In the Olympic sport of naming, this one gets a good but not great score for artistry and extremely high marks for difficulty.

Tags: MyBlogLog, the name MyBlogLog, blog community, Side Job Track, the name Side Job Track, invoicing, Bare Escentuals, the name Bare Escentuals, double puns, cosmetics

Ignite is one of the best tech/science/geek events in town, and it’s absolutely free. It’s organized by Brady Forrest of O’Reilly Radar and Bre Pettis of Make, and sponsored by some generous local (and non-local) companies. The first Ignite was held downstairs at CHAC and was packed, so they had the second one in a larger upstairs room. That was packed, too. The third one is bound to be the biggest yet, so get there early if you want to sit down. If you didn’t make either previous Ignite event, there are pictures and videos available.

Tags: ignite, ignite seattle, igniteseattle

The fodder for this analysis is the list of the Top 100 Alternative Search Engines that’s begun to make a monthly appearance on Read/WriteWeb. Below the 100 names from last month’s list are put into the same ten categories that were found in the TechCrunch index.

But there’s a twist. Aside from the fact that we’re a ten-fingered species and have all pretty much settled on a decimal number system, there’s no reason there should be exactly ten kinds of name, and some new types pop up on this list. Interestingly, the new categories are basically mashups of the other ten. For example, if you can have misspelled word names and compound names, you can also have compounds in which one of the words is misspelled: a name type mashup. Let’s give these the slightly ridiculous name mashonyms. They’re discussed at the end.

1. Real words (23)

First a comment about the subcategory Misspelled Words. It’s a bit of a catch-all, because there are lots of different ways to tweak the spelling of a word. The most obvious is to replace letters and letter combinations with sound-alikes–a time-honored technique for creating product names which is now being applied more and more to company names (isn’t it interesting the way a web application blurs the distinction between company and product?). Two other techniques are worth mentioning because they’re especially common in Web 2.0 names. One is the domain hack. Everyone’s favorite example is the much-imitated del.icio.us, which makes a word out of the subdomain del, the domain name icio and the top-level domain us. Another technique is the omission of vowels (e.g. Flickr), which is vaguely reminiscent of text messaging conventions.

boing
ChaCha
Ditto
grokker
like
Local.com
mamma
Slideshow
Sphere
Zippy

Misspelled words

blinkx (blinks)
filangy (phalange ‘finger bone’)
GRUUVE (groove)
pipl (people)
retrievr (retriever)
sidekiq (sidekick)
Sproose (spruce)
S R C H R (searcher)
Swamii (swami)

Foreign words

hakia (Finnish hakea ‘to fetch’ hakia COO says no–see comments here)
pronto.com (Italian ‘quick’ Mario says a better gloss is ‘ready’–see comment)
soople (archaic variant of the English verb supple ’soften, make supple’)
girafa (Portuguese ‘giraffe’)

2. Compounds (20)

AnswerBus
Blabline
bookmach.com (Presumably sounds like a Bostonian saying bookmark)
ClipBlast!
Dogpile
dumbfind
factbites
FindSounds
FyberSearch *
GoYams
ICEROCKET
Pagebull
qksearch (= quicksearch) *
searchbots
SurfWax
WASALive *
WEBBRAIN
WiseNut
ZABASEARCH (”ZABA is from the Greek word tzaba…’free’ or ‘at no cost’ “) *
zapmeta

3. Phrases (17)

AllTha.at *
Ask Mobile
ASK VOX
FIND FORWARD
goshme Beta 3.0
liveplasma
PlanetSearch
Quintura for kids
RedZee
SearchTheWeb2
thefind.com
Web 2.0
whonu? *
Windows Live Mobile
Yahoo! Mobile
Yahoo! MINDSET
yoono (you know) *

4. Blends (9)

collarity (collaborative + clarity)
CONGOO (”taken from the words content and glue“) *
exalead (exact + lead ??)
GoLexa (Google + Alexa)
mnemomap (mnemonic + map)
Quintura (quintessence + neural networks)
Speegle (speech + Google)
Swoogle (Semantic Web Ontology + Google) *
yoople (Yahoo! + Google + people) *

5. Made up or obscure origin (8)

Of course, this means obscure to The Name Inspector. Anyone who sees an overlooked meaning or derivation should please leave a comment. For example, onkosh is an Arabic search portal–does the name have a recognizable Arabic derivation?

fazzle (blend of facile and dazzle?)
lurpo (???)
Mojeek (?)
onkosh (something derived from Arabic?)
Slifter (blend of sifter and lift?)
UJIKO (adjacent letters on keyboard)
yubnub (Ewok “hooray”; no, this does not belong in Real Words)
ZUULA (made up, but means ‘to take off’ in an African language)

6. Tweaked words (7)

Clusty (cluster)
d e c i p h o (decipher)
ixquick
KartOO (cartoon?)
Lexxe (lexical)
Trexy (treks)
WIKIO (wiki)

7. Affixed words (6)

crossEngine
GIGABLAST
MetaGlossary
Mooter
PolyMeta
turboscout

8. Initials and acronyms (4)

Omgili (Oh my god, I love it!)
TWERQ (The Web’s Effective Result Query; also from QWERTY)
url.com
VMGO.com (domain name for test verion only)

9. Puns (3)

gnod (nod, n –> gnostic ‘relating to knowledge’)
gnosh (nosh, n –> gnostic ‘relating to knowledge’)
scirus (cirrus, ci –> science)

10. People’s names (3)

mrquery
MS. DEWEY
riya

Mixing the name types in mashonyms

Some of the names above are flagged with asterisks because they really belong to more than one category. These are the mashonyms:

Blend + Compound = FyberSearch (first word blend of fiber and cyber ?)

Misspelled Word + Compound = qksearch

Initials/Acronym + Compound = WASALive (This is a guess. Does anyone know what WASA means?)

Foreign Word + Compound = ZABASEARCH

Phrase + Misspelled Word + Domain Hack = alltha.at

Phrase + Misspelled Word = whonu? (knew –> nu)

Phrase + Misspelled Words = yoono (you –> yoo, know –> no)

Blend + Tweaked Word = Congoo (glue –> goo)
Blend + Acronym = Swoogle (Swo is an acronym for Semantic Web Ontology)

Triple Blend: yoople (Yahoo! + Google + people)

The search for search engine names has drawn on some creative linguistic strategies. As new companies proliferate and compete for attention, domain names, and trademarks, these strategies are bound to become even more complex.

Tags: search, search engines, search startups, search engine names, company names, web 2.0 names, web2.0 names, naming strategies, name categories, name types, compounds, phrases, prefixes, suffixes, affixes, blends, portmanteaus, puns, acronyms, made-up names, mashonyms

Though most of the TechCrunch names are “Web 2.0″ names, there’s nothing particularly Web 2.0 about the categories. They all represent linguistic naming strategies that can be used for companies or products of any kind.

Of course, there are different ways to categorize names. You can use phonetic properties like sonority or number of syllables. You can use semantic criteria, such as whether they are metaphorical, metonymic, or literally descriptive. The categories below are based on the morphological structure of names: what kinds of meaningful pieces they have and how the pieces fit together. They’re listed in descending order of frequency. The number of names in each category is in parentheses.

1. Real Words (34)

Names that are simply repurposed words. Such names can’t be generically descriptive, because then they wouldn’t be protectible trademarks, so they usually work through metaphor or metonymy (indirect association).

Pros: These names are short and come ready-made with rich, often multiple associations.

Cons: Expect to pay money–possibly a lot–to secure the URL. Trademarking can be tricky too.

Adobe
Amazon
Apple
Dapper
Ether
Expo
Flock
Fox
Grouper
Indeed
Inform.com
Live.com
Multiply
Pandora
Pluck
Revver
Riffs
Shadows
Sphere
Wink
Yahoo!
Yelp

Misspelled words

These are simply words that have been misspelled to make them more distinctive. This addresses the URL/trademark issue.

del.icio.us (delicious)
Digg (dig)
flickr (flicker)
Google (googol)
Goowy (gooey or GUI)
Snocap (snow cap)
SoonR (sooner)
Topix (topics)
Zooomr (zoomer)

Foreign words

Renkoo (Japanese renku, a type of poetry)
Rojo (Spanish ‘red’)
Vox (Latin ‘voice’)

2. Compounds (31)

Each of these names consists of two words put together, with the first word receiving the main emphasis in pronunciation. (It doesn’t matter if there’s a space between words). In most cases both words are nouns. Names with verbs in the second position are Bubbleshare, Google Talk, and possibly Tailrank (share, talk, and rank can all be nouns, but they’re verbs under the most natural interpretation). Names with non-nouns in the first position are BlueDot, SocialText, JotSpot, Measure Map, and possibly Jumpcut, Rapleaf, and SearchFox. Again, the first words here can all be nouns, but they’re more naturally treated as two adjectives (blue and social) and a bunch of verbs.

Compounds are a simple way to create new words and are very common in English (and other Germanic languages), so it’s not surprising to find them high on the list.

Pros: The practically limitless number of possible combinations makes it easy to create a unique name. Interesting meanings can be created through the combination of words.

Cons: There are no huge drawbacks, which is one reason that compounds are popular, but they are longer than many other kinds of name.

Attention Trust
Bloglines
BlueDot
Bubbleshare
Facebook
FeedBurner
Filmloop
Firefox
Google Talk
JotSpot
Jumpcut
Measure Map
Netvibes
Newsgator
OPML Editor
Pageflakes
Photobucket
Powerset
Rapleaf
Salesforce
SearchFox
SocialText
Songbird
TagJag
Tagworld
Tailrank
TechMeme
Webshots
Wordpress
Video Egg
YouTube

3. Phrases (25)

These are names that follow normal rules for putting words together to make phrases (other than compounds).

Pros: They sound linguistically natural and have clear meanings because they follow regular rules.

Cons: Phrase names can be long, and they can also sound awkward when used as nouns if they are not already noun phrases (e.g. Have you tried iLike?)

37 Signals
Adaptive Path
AllofMP3
AllPeers
Amie Street (could be a compound, but __ Street is such a common pattern)
CollectiveX
iLike
Last.fm
LinkedIn
MyBlogLog
MySpace
PayPerPost
Planet Web 2.0
rawsugar
SecondLife
SimplyHired
SixApart
StumbleUpon
TheVeniceProject (could be a compound, but the the makes it phrase-like).
TopTenSources

Included in this category are names that consist of a company name or prominent brand name followed by a generic noun. In these names, the first word functions as a kind of modifier of the second.

AIM Pages
Google Reader
Google Video
Microsoft Expo
Yahoo Answers

Notice the Google Talk is not here–it’s on the compound list. That’s because Google Talk is pronounced with the emphasis on Google, which means that the whole thing is treated as one word. As far as The Name Inspector knows, all the names immediately above are pronounced with some emphasis on each word, and the main emphasis on the second. Does anyone disagree?

4. Blends (12)

Each of these names has two parts, at least one of which is a recognizable portion of a word rather than a whole word.

Pros: When they work, blends can be short and elegant and have all the advantages of compounds.

Cons: When they don’t work, blends can be awkward and/or have obscure meanings.

Maxthon (max + marathon)
Microsoft (microcomputer + software)
Netscape (net + landscape)
Newroo (new + kangaroo)
PubSub (publish + subscribe)
Rebtel (rebel + telephone)
Rollyo (roll + your own, or roll + your own)
Sharpcast (sharp + broadcast)
Skype (sky + peer-to-peer)
Technorati (technology + literati)
Wikipedia (wiki + encyclopedia)
Zillow (zillions + pillow, with overlap of -ill-)

5. Tweaked words (11)

Some names are just words that have been slightly changed in pronunciation and spelling–usually with a letter replaced or added.

Pros: As long as people recognize the word, you get all its rich meaning while still having a distinctive name.

Cons: People might not recognize the word, and some of these names can be a little cheesy and gimmicky.

Attensa (attention)
CNet (might stand for computer network, but who thinks of it that way?)
ebay
edgeio
eSnips
iPhone
iTunes
Wikia
Zoho (Soho)
Zune (tune)
Zvents (events)

6. Affixed words (10)

These are all novel forms consisting of a real word and a real prefix or suffix. Notice how common the -ster suffix is.

Pros: These names can be distinctive and meaningful while remaining relatively short.

Cons: Sometimes these names sound contrived. The meanings added by affixes are limited in variety and usually abstract (which means not very vivid).

Browster
CoComment
Dogster
Feedster
Findory
Friendster
Napster
Omnidrive
Performancing (performance isn’t a verb, so doesn’t normally take -ing ending)
PostSecret (post can also be a noun or a verb, making this a compound)

7. Made up or obscure origin (8)

These are short names that are either made up or whose origins are so obscure that they might as well be made up.

Pros: Made-up names can be short, cute, and very distinctive (and therefore easy to trademark).

Cons: Made-up names don’t provide much ready-made meaning to work with (all the meaning has to come from sound symbolism). Good ones are hard to think of, and when they’re short the URLs are likely to be taken.

Bebo
Meebo
Odeo
Ookles
Plaxo
Qumana
Simpy
Zimbra (taken from a Talking Heads song based on a nonsense Dada poem)

8. Puns (8)

These names are words or phrases that have been modified slightly to evoke an appropriate second meaning. They’re similar to blends, but they involve a coincidental similarity between part of the main word and the second evoked word.

Pros: Pun names can be fun and memorable.

Cons: Nothing sounds dumber than a bad pun.

Automattic (automatic, mat –> matt, the guy who started the company)
Consumating (consummating, consumm –> consum(e))
Farecast (forecast, fore –> fare)
LicketyShip (lickety split, split –> ship, the verb)
Memeorandum (memorandum, mem –> meme)
Meetro (metro, met –> meet)
Meevee (teevee/TV, tee –> me(e), the pronoun)
Writely (rightly, right –> write)

9. People’s names (real or fictitious) (5)

Some names are either pitched or recognizable as people’s names. If the audience for a name doesn’t see the connection, the name is just like a made-up one.

Pros: These names are short and give personality to a company (or product or service).

Cons: Aside from personality, these names don’t provide meaning to work with. As with made-up names, good, short ones might not be available as URLs.

Bix (e.g. Bix Beiderbecke)
Jajah (F. Jajah Watamba seems to be their fictitious spokesperson)
Kiko (a name in Japanese and other languages)
Ning (a Chinese name)
Riya (the name of a founder’s daughter)

10. Initials and Acronyms (3)

These are names made up of the first letter of each word in a much longer phrase name. Sometimes the letters are pronounced individually, in which case we can just think of them as initials, and sometimes the combination of letters is pronounced as a word, in which case it’s an acronym.

Pros: These names provide short mnemonics for long, descriptive phrases.

Cons: Zzzzzz. Also, sometimes initials are short when written but long when spoken. For example, the initials www have nine syllables when spoken, while the phrase world wide web has three.

AOL (America Online)
FIM (Fox Interactive Media)
Guba (Gigantic Usenet Binaries Archive)

The Name Inspector hopes that these name categories will be useful to people struggling with their own naming problems. They might suggest naming strategies or spur name ideas that wouldn’t otherwise come up. Good luck in your naming endeavors!

Tags: company names, techcrunch, techcrunch names, web 2.0 names, web2.0 names, naming strategies, name categories, name types, compounds, phrases, prefixes, suffixes, affixes, blends, portmanteaus, puns, acronyms, initials, made-up names

The striking thing about the name 37signals is that almost no one will have any idea where it comes from or what it means. It’s an enigma, and if you want to get to the bottom of it, you have to do some investigating. Curiosity is rewarded in the company manifesto:

Mankind constantly analyzes radio waves from outer space in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Since this analysis started, almost all of the signal sources have been identified. 37 signals, however, remain unexplained.

So the name is a reference to those radio signals that might, just possibly, be from intelligent extraterrestrial life forms.

The enigmatic name is an interesting way to engage potential customers in a conversation. It can drive them to a website to find out more and provide an excuse to tell them a good story. For 37signals this is an effective strategy, because their marketing materials are well written and full of ideas (they have a manifesto, after all), and their blog, Signal vs. Noise, is one of the most consistently interesting company blogs on the web.

Despite its mysterious nature, this name belongs to a recent trend of web names containing numbers. 43 Things, 43 Folders, 30 Boxes, and 9 Rules are some other examples. What accounts for this trend? First, the scarcity of good single-word domain names. Putting a number in front of a word is an easy way to create a short, available variant. Second, techies are a number-lovin’ crowd, and the use of a specific number in a name implies a kind of quasi-scientific precision.

Though the name 37signals is fun and intriguing, it’s a bit hard to square with the philosophy of this company, which is known for its down-to-earth realism and its lean, easy-to-use web applications (Basecamp, Backpack, etc.) and web development framework (Ruby on Rails), all of which the Name Inspector is a great fan of. While 37signals is reasonably short in its written form, it’s very long in its spoken form (six syllables–compare that to the average of 2.25 syllables for the other names that have been analyzed here so far), and there’s not really any way to shorten it. It’s hard to understand why a lean, agile company would opt for such a name. What’s more, the relevance of this completely opaque name to a clean-and-simple design philosophy is a bit puzzling. Finally, setting aside the we-have-a-clue implications of intelligent signals, why does a realistic, down-to-earth company want to be associated with extraterrestrial life?

These are mysteries that may remain unsolved.

Tags: 37signals, the name 37signals, 37 signals, basecamp, backpack, ruby on rails, rails, 43 things, 43 folders, 30 boxes, 9 rules, signal vs. noise

Pandora is the character from Greek mythology who opened a jar (or box) and released evil and woe into the world. Doesn’t sound like good material for a name, does it? Isn’t calling a music service Pandora kind of like calling a women’s athletic shoe Incubus?

No, it’s not like that at all. When people think of Pandora now, they probably don’t think of the myth. They more likely think of the common expression open Pandora’s box, which is based on the myth but has softened in meaning. Now it doesn’t suggest evil and woe as much as setting into motion chaotic forces beyond one’s control.

The image of opening a container to release wildly unpredictable forces perfectly captures the great possibility, and slight danger, of baring your listening habits to the world to discover new music. Unfortunately, that’s not quite the way Pandora Internet Radio works. It’s last.fm that asks you to make your private listening stream public. Pandora simply asks you to tell them which artists and songs you like and then it will create a “radio station” including similar artists and songs. This is an example of the right name for the wrong company.

That’s not to say Pandora isn’t great. Its secret sauce is the way it determines similarity through human judgments about musical qualities.

Phonetically the name Pandora is quite lovely and musical. We English speakers are suckers for those classical-sounding names that end with -a. The di-DUM-da stress pattern sounds lilting, the initial p- gives the name a powerful start, and the rest rolls nicely off the tongue because of the easygoing voiced alveolar consonants between the vowels.

Pandora is a good name. It would be even better if the service were more like last.fm.

Tags: Pandora, the name Pandora, last.fm, music, music service, music discovery, recommendations