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What kind of idiot names a company APPLE????
I was just thinking about the idea of naming something that’s very, very different from the rest of the crowd. Even with the word “Computer” in the name, “Apple” had nothing whatsoever to do with the rest of the field.
Yahoo – an acknowledgment of their own inexperience
Google – doesn’t even mean anything at all
Adobe – a mixture of water and dirt
Brother – sweet name, nothing to do with fax, copiers, etc.
The success of those companies MADE those names synonymous with their fields.
I had some fun kicking those names around – any others come to mind?
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26 Replies
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Don’t know if Steve Jobs is considered an “idiot”…seems pretty successful to me. Just sayin’.
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[Hunter Hempen] “seems pretty successful to me. Just sayin’.”
Exactly my point.
You and I both know that everybody who ever gave Steve advice BEGGED him not to name the company Apple. Anybody “serious” about computers would choose a company with a “serious” name.
In fact, Apple is definitely NOT a serious name. They wanted to do something different, and they did.
So did Adobe.
So did Yahoo.
So did Google.
So did Brother.
THAT’s my point. Somebody told those guys that they were idiots to choose names like that…and they did anyway…and they succeeded, “despite” their “ridiculous” names.
So back to the question – who else’s name belongs on the list?
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I’m not sure I really thought cows were terribly creative until…
😉
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Well there’s Facebook and YouTube – but those are kinda straightforward. Flickr, Hulu, and Twitter are pretty good nominations.
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Amazon – what does that have to do with books…or lawnmowers? (Yes, I bought a lawnmower on Amazon)
I guess these are the kinds of things I’m thinking of – real words in inappropriate contexts (Apple, Adobe, Brother, Amazon), for companies that became such big successes that they became synonymous with their fields….rather than entirely made up names…although Google as a made-up name is kinda hard to leave off the list.
Actually, Hulu is a good made-up name too. I waited waaaay too long to visit that place because the name didn’t make sense….but now I’m there a couple of times a week….
COW? Why that makes PERFECT sense.
🙂
Keep ’em coming….
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I do remember seeing early ads showing Adam in the Garden of Eden covering himself up with the forbidden fruit, with a built in keyboard…
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This is something I’ve thought that has struck me at times. I work for a production company called Blue Tuna. Absolutely nothing to do with TV but it seems to be working. The boss doesn’t really know where the name comes from either, he just mutters about vague relations to the environment whenever asked.
[Tim Wilson] “Google – doesn’t even mean anything at all”
Apparently a google is a number – 1, followed by 100 zeros. I think that kind of fits what Google does as a company – they give us access to a huge amount of information.
I wonder if the world will ever see a ‘googillionaire’!Alex Elkins
Salad Daze Films – Freshly Tossed
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Actually, the original intention of Google was to be called Googol. This is the name of the number, but somebody made a misspelling when registering it and the guys like it.
In advertising a good name is one that is easy to remember and people can associate with positive things related to the company or product. Of course, if you have a punk band called “smelly feet” that’s positive… for a punk band.
It’s all about saving money. Of course, you can have a bad name and be successful, but you’ll need to repeat you name much more times for people to remember it.
Weird names of products that I like:
Lamb of God – metal band
Aladino (Aladdin) – peanut butter
TKT – beer*Always share a link to your site and rate the posts. This is a free service for you and for us.
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[Timothy J. Allen] “I’m not sure I really thought cows were terribly creative until… ;-)”
I just ran Tim’s comment by Bessie® and she was rather perplexed that, as she said, “Humans fail to see just how creative we are. We eat little more than grass and water — which isn’t much on the food value scale, I assure you — and from it we make milk, cheese, butter and other things quite high in protein. You try that with your single stomach and your faulty pair of man udders, Mister Allen!”
I was without retort. I mean: how do you respond to words like that? Especially when you are pre-caffeinated, early in the morning. So I said the only words that came to my mind in the situation: “Yeah, and all it takes is three stomachs and some massive molars, is all.” (Hardly my best retort, but again, in my defense Mister Allen, I was sans-caffeine.)
Bessie tipped her head a bit and got that quite bovine all quizzical look that cows get when they’re talking with you and a question begins to frustrate them, (you know the look), and she muttered something about “Yeah, four legs driving three stomachs and four udders. You try that one, too, Allen.”
So, in a gesture to make her feel better, I gave her a Creative COW® t-shirt, pulling it on over her head. It was then I realized my mistake, as the sleeves hung there embarrassingly empty in the breeze.
How could I have been so blind? It must have indeed been due to the lack of coffee at such an early hour.
As Bessie stood there with those dangling sleeves rippling in the breeze, she again twisted her head to the side in a look of abject befuddlement, giving that sideways glance from her big cow eyes that you always see when cows have something very important to say — and just when I thought that she was about to speak, she walked off, sleeves emptily rippling in the wind.
As she walked off, I heard her finally mutter that “Timothy J. owes cows an apology. That he does…that he does. NASA? Heck, they send monkeys into space. Never cows. Shows how much they know. And they still can’t make a decent Brie or Camembert.”
I promise it happened just like that. Really.
Best regards from an as yet still pre-caffeinated,
Ron Lindeboom
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Zagnut.
That is all.
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