I’m going to try to start my own information security consulting business this year. I haven’t sorted out very many of the details yet, but I’m thinking I’m going to start by offering online security training, possibly through a platform like Thinkific. The training will be geared toward students pursuing certifications like the CISSP. If that goes well and I start getting an income stream from it, I hope to branch out to other consulting, most likely incident response and forensics services. I envision this being a one-person show for the foreseeable future.
I’m trying to come up with a name. For a long time, I’ve had the name Angerona in the back of my mind. I gather that Angerona was the Roman goddess of secrecy. Wiki sez:
This is the name that’s been featured in my daydreams for a while, but I’m not entirely sure about it. I like the idea of something that evokes protecting information and protecting people from harm or relieving anguish. And I like that she isn’t one of the major, well-known deities. On the other hand, it may be hard to spell and pronounce, and it might be seen as pretentious or twee to name the business after an ancient deity. I’m on the fence about it.
So, I’m looking for suggestions. I want a name that hints at protecting valuable information and bringing comfort and calm to chaotic situations. I want to be the guy you call who keeps his head and sorts things out when the shit is hitting the fan. Alternatively, something that evokes seeking knowledge or uncovering hidden facts might do the trick. I toyed with something like Palimpsest, which is fitting for the forensics services but has some of the same drawbacks as Angerona.
I could just make up a nonsense word, which is what a lot of security consultancies do, but I think I’d rather go with a real word.
Famous companies, the ones that last, have short, memorable names or, at least, “initialed” their too long names. IBM, Apple, GE, Microsoft, Safeway, KMart, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, USAA, Kroger, more.
Even the ones named after mythological figures… Amazon, Oracle, Olympus… tend to be the more familiar names.
So… let me think, but for starters, Angerona is a non-starter. At least imho. (Hell, the root appears to be “anger”. I know it’s not (soft g, and all that), but to the avg reader, that’s what they’ll see: Anger-on-a.)
OK, so the “anger” part of Angerona is kind of a big negative. It had occurred to me, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so much a red flag. Drat. But, I do like the idea of having the Knack write a song when I hit the big time!
I looked into deities from other religions, but none jumped out at me. It doesn’t have to be a deity name.
I’m all for a short name if I can think of one that hasn’t already been done to death.
Unfortunately the security industry is populated by a lot of chest-thumping guys in macho sounding companies. I want to go for something more like “wise counselor” or “thoughtful adviser”.
There is a Greek deity called Metis that is in the ballpark, but there is also the Metis ethnic group in Canada, so that’s not going to work. The Roman equivalent to Metis is Polus. That might do.
Is there some animal or tool or symbol associated with sages, advisers, scholars, counselors, scribes…? Something along those lines? The fasces were a symbol of power, and the symbol of learning was the… something? Anything?
Athena or Minerva are the first names to pop into my mind when it comes to classical and wise counsel. Along those lines is aegis, which was the name for Athena’s shield sporting the disembodied head of Medusa. It certainly has implications of protection for the bearer. Hermes gave us hermetic which can mean sealed and impervious to external forces.
Looking to Norse mythology, Mimir was associated with wisdom. After he was killed by the Vanir and returned to Asgard, Odin used charms to bring his head back to life to continue providing him with advice. Odin also had two ravens, Huginn and Muninn (Thought anad Memory) which would fly from him each day and return each night with news of the world. There are also the goddesses Sága, Vör and Snotra* who are associated with wisdom. Gullveig taught the Aesir witchcraft, was burned three times and pierced with spears but survived.
Along more traditional christian lines, Sophia is the personification of wisdom. Something could be done with that.
Can you use Angerona in an acronym? Like Angerona Security Services (Okay, not that one.)
Or you could call one of your service packages The Angerona?
I agree that another heavy handed aggressive name will get loss in the crowd.
I think mellifluous three syllable names are the most attractive, and I prefer “Ltd.” to “LLC”, but I understand the latter is a business and not a marketing decision.
