What’s in a Name?

30 ^th April, 2006

by Moni Schilller

Here’s a challenge for those of you reading this and feeling bored. Imagine yourself starting up a company in an area where you feel some interest, and then just for fun, start brainstorming the witty and imaginative names for this business. It’s great fun, isn’t it, as by about the fourth or fifth name you realize you have no clue how to name a company!.

What to do? When I came up with the idea of starting a fruit cake company, I thought the name should be evocative of the region or else of the product itself. The family was subjected daily to entrances into rooms prefaced with variations on “The Sunshine Valley Fruit cake Company!” Blank or downright negative expressions always ensued. The challenge of pleasing the test audience grew.

Some days I realized I had been driving for twenty or more minutes with no recollection of where I’d been or what was on the radio. I was chanting my mantras: The Totally Decadent Fruit Cake^(tm) Company; The Okanagan Fruit Cake Company; Moni’s Marvelous Fruit Cakes, but none seemed to be the right thing.

Then one day I was driving along, and the expression Nuttier Than a Fruitcake^(tm) popped into my mind. I began sweating a bit, my heart palpitating, as I felt this could be it! I drove home and burst in, but stopped. I gathered myself and entered the room: the two teenagers and the husband were perched on chairs near various TVs and computers. I said listen to this, and tried my new name out for them.

I knew I had a hit when both boys said “Mom that’s you! That’s a perfect name for your company.” Sadly, in the time it took to tell them the name, a moving image had caught my husband’s eye, and he had drifted away and could only mumble his assent.

When I tell people the name of my company, they always laugh, and many say “great name.” I believe choosing the name of a company is as important as choosing the name of a child or pet, so even if it takes a while to find it, it’s worth it.