Naming Names

As digital communications shrink our world ever smaller, naming names -- whether the names of products, Internet addresses, or new corporations -- has never been a more important or complex task.

Take the example of Internet domain names (as in Computing Japan's "cjmag.co.jp"). Right now in the US, you can register a domain name with the National Science Foundation-appointed Internet Network Information Center on a first-come, first-served basis. With every node on the Net requiring a unique address, it's not surprising that hundreds of disputes have arisen, such as the one between Ohio-based Internet Classifieds and BellSouth, a Baby Bell company. The former registered "realpages.com" as a domain name; but BellSouth already has trademark ownership of "Real Pages" for its yellow pages business, and the trademark covers its use in all mediums.

Note that corporations such as Bell South are compelled to take action to protect their trademarks, or risk losing them to the public domain -- as Xerox almost lost control of its name a couple of decades ago when people used it as a synonym for making copies. The issue will be settled in court, as will similar disputes (some concerning domain-address brokers who have been busily registering popular business names and categories in the hopes of selling them for big bucks to companies coming late to the Net).

Cross-cultural concerns
The computer industry is very much a global business. Certainly global markets can do wonders for boosting sales -- but they can also open up a number of unexpected pitfalls. Microsoft, for example, fell down a Spanish pit this summer when the software giant inadvertently used racist and pejorative synonyms for homosexuals, lesbians, and American Indians in the thesaurus of its Spanish edition of Word 6.0.

Then in September, the South Korean government protested an article in the latest edition of Microsoft's Encarta CD-ROM encyclopedia that declares the old Korean kingdom of Kaya was ruled by the ancient Yamato clan of Japan. While this theory is advocated by certain Japanese historians who call the kingdom by its Japanese name (Mimana), the assertion holds no sway with neighboring Koreans, who suffered brutally when Japan really did annex the country earlier this century.

Still, the handy thing about electronic-based publications is that they can easily be corrected. The red-faced Redmond word wizards have promised that next year's software updates will straighten matters.

Double entendre
Electronics consumer giant Matsushita Electric was recently saved from making an embarrassing faux pas concerning its Woody multimedia PC, which is named after the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker. Matsushita was set to introduce an entry-level Woody with a touch-screen interface this summer, which it intended to call "Touch Woody." Until, that is, it was informed that in certain parts of the US, the phrase is a sexual pun on "touch wood," with "woody" being a substitute for "pecker," common slang for penis.

Speaking of peckers, Matsushita was also considering "Internet Pecker" as the name for some new Internet software for its Woody. That, too, was aborted before its erection in public caused blushes.

What's in a name?
Naming new companies must also be undertaken with care -- though this can be overdone. Recently, 3M Corporation (a distinctively named corporation if ever there was one) downsized and spun off its media-based (imaging and storage technologies) business as a separate concern. The 3M media management asked for input on a new name for the spin-off from its various US, European, and Japanese groups and, after much deliberation, launched the new company to great fanfare under the name of Imation -- a combination of "imaging" and "imagination." Unfortunately, perhaps because of the effort to please all, the name is easily forgettable and contrasts blandly with the memorable 3M.

Japanese is a homophonic, syllabic language that facilitates the use of contractions: pasocon for personal computer and Famicon for Nintendo's Family Computer being two examples. Japan's stuffy national telephone carrier Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) has shown an unexpected aptitude in exploiting contractions to its benefit. NTT's cellular phone subsidiary is officially named NTT Mobile Communications Network Inc., but it goes by the nickname DoCoMo (standing for "Do communications over the mobile network").

DoCoMo (which also means "anywhere" in Japanese) recently introduced a discount cellular service called Donicho: a contraction of the Japanese words for Saturday, Sunday, evenings, and holidays. Donicho is aimed at OLs (a popular contraction for "office ladies") who would like to have a personal service to use during their leisure hours. Both DoCoMo and Donicho are catchy names that stand out from the crowd because they are imaginative and memorable, and proclaim their corporate missions.

A rose by any other name may still smell as sweet, but in the competitive international IT industry, assigning something just any name reeks of a lack of creativity.