# THINK before you name your product
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 24, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920 "2003-04-24T18:39:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BickByro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BickByro)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/1 "2003-04-24T18:39:07Z")
I recently became acquainted with a new wireless Internet service known as “IP Anywhere.”
I mean really… did NOBODY say the name of this service out loud?
Do a Google search and the second article you get has the headline “Top European firms demonstrate ‘IP Anywhere.’”
Would’ve loved to have seen that!
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/2 "2003-04-24T18:57:39Z")
BickByro: Perhaps the marketing team was drinking the Japanese yogurt-based drink Calpis[sup]tm[/sup] {pronounced “Cow-Piss”}.
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### Author:  [@Kallessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kallessa)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/3 "2003-04-24T19:02:36Z")
Reminds me of a old joke:
A new book just came out called _Finding the Source of the Yellow River_
And it’s written by We Pee Freely.
More on point–I’ve always had difficulties with the car **MR2** because when I was growing up the initials 'M R" were used to call someone a mental retard. So to me, when I see this car, I always wonder if the guy driving it is telling the world that he too is an MR.
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### Author:  [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/4 "2003-04-24T19:49:20Z")
My favorites:
1. Windows CE, often shortened to WinCE. They named their product “Wince”.
2. The Ventura County bus system is known as “South Coast Area Transit”. They actually run radio ads asking you to “Ride the SCAT bus”.
-lv
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### Author:  [@essohbee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essohbee)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/5 "2003-04-24T20:34:00Z")
Honda were planning to launch a model called ‘Fitta’, trying to get something that sounded Italian. Only one problem though, fitta means cunt in Swedish. It was renamed Honda Jazz. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/6 "2003-04-24T20:43:19Z")
Or [Nads Hair Remover](http://www.nads.com/flash.htm)?
[commercial]
Ladies, do you have unsightly facial hair? Just grab some nads, rub it on your face, and wipe it off! Need a bikini wax? Rub some nads over your bikini area!
[/commercial]
Imagine the letters to the networks!
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### Author:  [@djxiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/djxiii)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/7 "2003-04-24T20:58:06Z")
A popular carbonated beverage targetted at the elementary school kids here is Chubbie Soda. They are little bottles basically like a standard 16oz bottle cut in half.
I got a case of them from my landlord. My son looks in the fridge and then calls out to me… “Dad? Can I have a Chubbie?”
My daughter says “Cool! There’s a kid in my class who has a Chubbie everyday at lunch!”
good grief!
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### Author:  [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/8 "2003-04-24T21:13:07Z")
I remember the first time I ever heard of the product, I was driving down the road and saw a sign on Walgreen’s: “We have Aussie Nads!!”
I had to turn around and drive back, because I thought, “there’s NO WAY that sign says what I thought it said.” But it did.
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### Author:  [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/9 "2003-04-24T21:24:04Z")
Ikea just did the name gaffe thing, something with a bed, but my memory is failing me.
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/10 "2003-04-24T21:31:24Z")
And then there’s the famous example of the Chevy “Nova”, which puzzled its creators by selling poorly in all Spanish-speaking countries . . .
(“No va” means “no go” in Spanish)
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/11 "2003-04-24T21:38:55Z")
the [Nova](http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.htm) story is a myth. At least according to Snopes. Sorry **pugluvr**
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### Author:  [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/12 "2003-04-24T21:39:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Kallessa \*
> \*\*
> More on point–I’ve always had difficulties with the car **MR2** because when I was growing up the initials 'M R" were used to call someone a mental retard. So to me, when I see this car, I always wonder if the guy driving it is telling the world that he too is an MR. \*\*
Even worse, in French if you pronounce the letter-names and the number, it sounds like “emmerdeux” (?sp.) meaning “shitty”. 😃
Similarly, telecoms company GPT sounds like “j’ai pete”, “I have farted”. 😃😃😃
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/13 "2003-04-24T21:45:56Z")
[Cough](http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.htm)/
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### Author:  [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/14 "2003-04-24T21:47:13Z")
Damn you, NurseCarmen. But with love.
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/15 "2003-04-24T21:48:26Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by World Eater \*
> \*\*Ikea just did the name gaffe thing, something with a bed, but my memory is failing me. \*\*
It’s something in German, but I can’t remember what either.
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/16 "2003-04-24T21:53:13Z")
Oh, poop.
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/17 "2003-04-24T21:54:10Z")
Early in the evolution of AIDS, I heard a radio news report on the latest mortality figures for the disease - then the network went straight to a commercial break featuring a popular diet candy:
_“Lose all the weight you want with AYDS!!”_
Wonder if they ever changed their name.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/18 "2003-04-24T21:54:11Z")
I’m the first person to mention the [SHT](http://www.segway.com/segway/)?
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### Author:  [@BickByro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BickByro)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/19 "2003-04-24T22:02:07Z")
I suppose I should also have mentioned a certain label-making system known as the Brother P-Touch…
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### Author:  [@Earl\_of\_the\_CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_of_the_CC)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2003, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-before-you-name-your-product/170920/20 "2003-04-24T22:51:34Z")
There’s a soda somewhere, I think around South East Asia, called Sars. I think they’ll be changing the name shortly.
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