The Game of the Name
By Peter LloydYou're holding a paint chip called Oriental Silk thinking, this looks an awful lot like Ivory. And you're right. Every so often crayon makers and paint formulators update the names of their colors.
And that means someone has the fun job of deciding that Bitter Chocolate would sell better as Raisin. Or that some lackluster grassy color needs to be called Kennebunkport Green.
Anyone who's ever agonized over naming a newborn knows about the baggage every name carries. Beyond what the name means, there's its sound, spelling, length, and double meanings. You have to consider the way it works with your last name. And the religion, nationality, class, and character it implies. It's enough to make you name the kid Bob. Sorry, Bob.
When you're faced with naming anything from a baby to a bank, the idea is to create the effect you're after and to do it in the most inviting and memorable way possible. Why? Because names have power.
A study found that kids will eat more vegetables when they have cool names. Carrots named "X-Ray Vision Carrots" beat out "carrots." They even ate more after the name was put aside.
Well, duh! Marketers have known this long before Play-Doh appeared on the scene and deep into your carpet pile. I was happy to lead the new-product development effort in which kids helped come up with Heinz green ketchup.
Someone wanted to add the slogan, "It tastes like ketchup but it's not." Say that three times real fast. Kids might love it, but Mom has to feel good about buying it.
We don't need marketers to exaggerate for us, though, do we? We can use names to influence the way people will respond to what we've named. It works just as well the other way, too.
If those among us who do not enjoy the full service of all their faculties, limbs, or muscles want to be called, "people with disabilities" instead of "handicapped," what's the problem? If you want their attention, friendship, agreement, cooperation, or their customer loyalty, use People First Language.
When Sir Alec Douglas-Home popped up as prime minister of the UK in 1963, we heard his last name properly pronounced as "hume." I heard at least one person grumble, "It's not "hume," it's "home"!
No, if Sir Alec wants it pronounced "banana," humor him. It's his name. I'll bet those who used his preferred pronunciation got a few more strings pulled.
The arbitrary sounds we make to indicate what we mean give us all kinds of opportunities. By naming the geodesic molecule "Buckminsterfullerene," its coiners paid homage to Buckminster Fuller, the man who designed the shape mirrored in the molecule.
Whoever named the Queen Anne style of furniture was poking fun at the bowlegged monarch.
Was the namer who took the time to choose the words "Electronic Ground Automatic Destruct System" giving us an acronymic warning?
Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.