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Category Archives: Name Types
Put a Z on it
Originally published Aug 13, 2015 The letter Z has a magical quality. OK, that might be going a little overboard. Let’s just say Z is a bit of a novelty in the Latin alphabet, a relative latecomer that was originally … Continue reading
Posted in Name Types, Orthography
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Budtenders vs. biketenders
Originally published Jul 31, 2015 Two recent neologisms based on the word bartender will be bandied about in Seattle this weekend, and The Name Inspector believes that comparing them might yield some interesting insights. The new words are budtender and biketender. A budtender is someone … Continue reading
Posted in Morphology, Name Analysis, Name Types
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Weird startup names of 2014
Originally published Jan 5, 2015 The Name Inspector has been reflecting on last year’s startup names while sipping on what’s left of the apple peel bourbon he made for the holidays. He’s got to say, it seems like some of these companies … Continue reading
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Namificationology just got serious
Originally published Oct 13, 2014 The Name Inspector might seem a tad obsessed with company names that end with the -ify suffix (like Spotify). Last year he released a chart showing the crazy growth of this naming fad. And now here he is with … Continue reading
Posted in Name Analysis, Name Types, Visualization
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Naming fad visualized: Did Spotify start it?
Originally published Jul 26, 2013 Back in 2011 The Name Inspector wrote a post about the proliferation of startup names that make creative use of the suffix -ify, such as Spotify. At the time he deemed the trend “disturbifying”, identifying about a dozen … Continue reading
Posted in Name Analysis, Name Types, Visualization
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Six letters, but at what price?
Originally published Sep 26, 2011 The Name Inspector was going to write a post about Qwikster, the terrible new name that Netflix has given to the movie-by-mail arm of its business. But really, what is there to say that Fritinancy hasn’t already … Continue reading
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The longest, craziest company names in Seattle
Originally published Jun 7, 2011 Brevity is a virtue in a name, usually. Come up with a short name that relates to your company or product in an imaginative way, and you’re golden. A sort of verbal minimalism is the … Continue reading
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Austin startup names
Originally published Apr 11, 2011 Photo from Flickr by Stuart Seeger. Used under a Creative Commons 2.0 license. Remember a while back when The Name Inspector did a post about Seattle startup names, and promised a series of posts about names … Continue reading
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How to misspell a word
Originally published Mar 7, 2011 Don’t be misled by the title of this post: The Name Inspector has not started outsourcing his content to Demand Media. He simply felt that he had to find a way to acknowledge National Grammar Day, founded to promote … Continue reading
Posted in Name Types, Orthography
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