Call it what you will
Better yet, don’t. That’s the whole problem:
I’m still baffled why companies insist upon naming themselves something that is meaningless to their customers, difficult to spell and hard to pronounce. Some leading offenders: Tcho, Vumber, Naymz, Technoganic, Doostang, Motiva, Ziizoo, Fragranza, and Mathnasium. Start-ups and old-school naming firms fall in love with invented names for three reasons:
- They sail through trademarking because they are unique;
- the domain names are usually available for $9.95 on Godaddy;
- people want the ego boost of coining a word.
Invented names are the easy way out but most invented names are forced and unnatural sounding. My #1 head-scratcher is a company called Xobni. What is Xobni and how the heck do you pronounce it? “Zob-knee” is inbox spelled backwards. Cute to the founders. Dumbfounding to customers. If you have to spell, explain or teach someone how to pronounce a name, it’s a bad name.
I was curious about Doostang, which, according to its meta information, is “An invitation only site that ensures all contacts entering the system are trusted by at least one or more members in the network.” Liz Strauss was not impressed:
The invitation … touts the core value they offer, but the rules are that you deliver your value to them before they deliver that core value to you — if they do.
But more serious is the fact that the name has been added to Urban Dictionary, and not as a term that lends itself to flattery. Citation given:
“I had to take a wicked doostang, sorry I am late.”
So far, nobody seems to be making fun of Xobni.
fillyjonk »
10 November 2008 · 9:52 am
“Motiva” sounds too much like a laxative.
McGehee »
10 November 2008 · 10:33 am
As far as I’m concerned, if it looks or sounds like TXT-speak or some exotic foreign language, it’s not a good name for a business. In fact such names remind me of the American Express commercials where prospective clients are put off by an entrepreneur’s comic-book-character credit card.
Rob OHara »
10 November 2008 · 6:34 pm
It’s a double-edged sword. Maybe not for company names, but for things like books or bands, having a unique name is the key to people finding you on the net. In pre-Internet days naming your band something like “The Cure,” “The Who,” or worst of all “The The” was cute, but try doing it today and having anybody find your website ever.
I went through a dozen potential name ideas for my first book before settling on Commodork. When I googled for the term I got (I think) 2 hits.