Comments on: Incuby?

By: Darius

Darius — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:31:30 +0000

Well, I can’t see how the Reebok guys could come out with the Incubus name without knowing what it means. I mean, there is almost no chance to “invent” such a name. However, it’s possible they had looked over a list of supernatural creatures and find it, and instead of checking a dictionary, they checked the whois.sc and trade mark availability.

By: The Name Inspector

The Name Inspector — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 19:34:51 +0000

Thanks for your comments.

Aaron, it’s not so much a linguistic principle as a convention of English orthography that rules out the pronunciation you’re talking about. Normally the consonant would be doubled, as it is in the word “cubby”, to cue that pronunciation of the preceding vowel.

Lexi, maybe they were going for a little “even bad press is good press” attention with the name. I still don’t like it. But I also share your relief that they didn’t go for a Flickr copycat name. I can’t believe how many of those there are. They don’t exactly scream innovation, do they?

By: Lexi

Lexi — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:55:55 +0000

We all know Reebok was trailing in the battle with Nike for the shoe industry reigns. Could it be that reebok created the shoe with that name on purpose, to gain some kind of publicity.

Maybe incuby is doing the same, got you to write about it………….

Besides I thought it was pretty easy to understand and think its a great name because of the play on incubation. Much better than going with the ol’ web 2.0 incubr.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:29:34 +0000

When I look at the name, I can’t help read it as if it were spelled “in cubby” (as in cubby hole), which at best doesn’t help me understand their company at all and at worst leads to a negative connotation (I end up thinking about cubicles as soon as I think of cubby holes).

Is there some linguistic rule that should rule out my pronunciation? Or a way to spell it that more clearly encourages your suggested pronunciation?