Affluent Flowers?

Picked up some flowers the other night from a place called Affluent Flowers. I should first mention that the lady who helped me there was polite and helpful, and the flowers I purchased were very nice and well-priced.

That said…

While I didn’t go there specifically so that I could write this post, I was thinking about their name even before I walked into the store.

You didn’t call this place ‘Affluent Flowers’ because everything here costs a lot, did you?

No, the woman behind the counter assured me that the name “Affluent” had been chosen primarily because it starts with “A.” The owner is hoping that as a result, his store will show up near the beginning of alphabetical listings. I’m sure the question’s been asked before, but is this still a relevant concern in most industries these days? I’d argue that it’s not. I found the flower shop by using Google Maps; I just wanted something that was on my way. For flower shops—and maybe most single-location retail stores—listing yourself in map-integrated online directories is probably more critical than choosing a name that starts near the beginning of the alphabet.

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Will Bing be as simple as its name implies?

I’ve just read through some great blog posts and articles on Bing—the name as well as expectations for the upcoming Microsoft “decision engine.” Opinions on the name are all over the map, with (mostly) negative opinions led by naming professionals like those at Snark Hunting and Pollywog. I love the bitter sarcasm over at Snark Hunting, and they make a funny point comparing Bing (“ping” with a “B”) to Zune (“tune” with a “Z”). But one of the earliest lessons I learned about naming (or writing taglines, etc.) is that it’s easy—often too easy—to pick on someone else’s work. Or, to put it more bluntly, to dislike it because it’s not your own.

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In defense of “tangle”

I first learned about this name change on CatchThis, a blog produced by the excellent naming firm Catchword. According to the post, a family-friendly video sharing site called GodTube has renamed itself tangle. Laurel Sutton, a founder and owner at Catchword, outlines her case against the name by making two points:

1. A contradiction between a) a line in an article explaining the name change, which states that tangle supports “no specific theology” and b) quotes from the CEO that suggest the site is really for Christians.
2. The fact that “tangle” is “usually something you want to get out of, not in to. And then there’s the meaning of ‘mess with’ or ‘provoke’ – also negative, and kind of threatening too (do you want to tangle with god?)”

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Great name: Mind Reader

More successful than Hoosier basketball

Kudos to my alma mater for the inaugural edition of Mind Reader, a newsletter for alumni of the IU Cognitive Science Program (yours truly). And I love the name–doesn’t require any explanation, but I’m really impressed with double entendre on “Reader.”

Also, congrats to my old professor Dr. Robert Goldstone for successfully working the word “interdisciplinarity” into a sentence. Nice one.

Name rationale: Semantic Argument

Let’s start with some basic background information.

From Wikipedia: A semantic dispute is a disagreement that arises if the parties involved disagree about whether a particular claim is true, not because they disagree on material facts, but rather because they disagree on the definitions of a word (or several words) essential to formulating the claim at issue.

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