Thanks for your note. It’s great to hear from the company that created the name. Coincidentally, your colleague Laurel and I know each other from grad school.

(By the way, my name is not John. You may have been thinking of the commenter above–one of my best commenters, John Xavier. My name is The Name Inspector.)

The information about getting the TM and TLD in all those countries is crucial insider stuff and of great value to my readers–thanks for that. And I know what a huge constraint it imposes on the naming process.

Loved the analysis of Kijiji. Quite impressed by your knowledge of Swahili.

As a representative of the firm responsible for the brand name (eBay hired us to help them brand the service), I wanted to add a few quick additional points to consider.

First, it is important to note that when the name was created, the service was not intended for the US market. While the CV construction was of interest, the folks at eBay did not expect the name to have much relevance for Americans. In fact, the eBay team expressed a strong preference for names that didn’t sound overly American.

Second, one additional “perfect sense” criteria for the name is that it was available as a TM in 16 countries. Moreover, eBay was able to secure the TLD in each of those countries (.fr, co.uk, .ch, .jp, etc.). Had we presented more anglicized names to them, it is highly unlikely that eBay would have cleared the name in all of the countries in which it planned to do business.

I really do think you offered a great analysis of the name. Just offering a few more tidbits for your readers to enjoy.

Thanks for your comment–yeah, the three [i] sounds was a bit TOO weird. You’ve made me realize I should use the lax vowel in the first syllable. Like you, I’ve never heard it pronounced out loud, but that representation is more realistic.

Maybe I should write about the name Wii.

Regarding the pronunciation: 3 consecutive syllables ending in the [i] sound is strange. I find myself just using the schwa in the first syllable instead. I’ve never heard the name pronounced out loud though, so I’m not sure on that. :shrug: