Sunday, October 28, 2007

A Good Name Is Important

I was listening to a song today in which the singer describes a golden ring sinking in a river. He looks into the river and watches as the ring gets stuck in the "murk" at the bottom.

At that moment, all I could think was how odd it is that "Merck" named themselves "Murk." Didn't the marketing department catch that? You'd think they'd look out for negative homonyms... Another one is the Nissan Murano. I always think "Morono" when I see someone driving one. What kind of name is that?

Can you think of any others?

UPDATE: I just thought of another... The Gap. I only thought of them after reading this disturbing article about 10 year olds in India making their clothes for no pay. Trading Goddess should like that one.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Why would someone name their child "Dinosaur Trader"? What were they thinking?

Dinosaur Trader said...

I guess it's the same reason why muslims name their kids "Muhammad." It's like, we'll name our kid after someone great in the hopes that he'll turn out to be great.

Dinosaur Trader = greatness embodied.

-DT

artha said...

I've always wondered why some Richards call themselves "Dicks".

I remember the first time I tried to go to the Dick's Sporting Store website and I typed in www.dicks.com. Let's just say it was the wrong url.

Dinosaur Trader said...

artha,

Excellent example. I love the t-shirts with the picture of our current vice president and the word DICK! written underneath.

-DT

wincity said...

Years ago, when I was looking to rent a room, I went to see two landlords on the same day: one named Lawson and the other Lawless. I wouldn't be surprised if a study finds that Lawlesses tend to turn into violent offenders, at least more so than Lawsons.

tapeworm said...

don't forget the "gamecocks"

tapeworm said...

here's two more for you: (1) a diet product in the early 80's called "AIDS"...when the disease came out, it went under, and (2) a couple of years ago, there was a stock that traded under the symbol HIV...that obviously didn't go over well...i don't think it trades anymore

Dinosaur Trader said...

tapeworm,

I knew I could count on you for some interesting comments in this thread.

I don't remember that diet product, but then I was just a kid. You must be old or something.

-DT

tapeworm said...

i heard about it on stern -- but i am old :-(

Claudia said...

Haha very funny. Thankfully Nissan did a better job naming their new crossover- the Rogue
http://youtube.com/watch?v=o5PgHAHAoRw

Dinosaur Trader said...

Yes, but then they prove once again that they have idiots running the marketing department.

Why? Well, selling SUVs to city dwellers is inherently stupid. City people need small cars... and they definitely don't need "all wheel drive."

Nissan Moronos indeed.

-DT