# What's in a Name **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 8, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321 "2003-01-08T16:37:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FuzzyWuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/958977/32.png) [@FuzzyWuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyWuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/1 "2003-01-08T16:37:22Z")
Commenting on Cecil’s column about “copyrighting” one’s name, there’s an interesting story. When a computer company is developing a new product, they generally give it a code name. The name is usually used strictly in-house, and usually has little or no relation to the final product name. The original code name for the Apple PowerMac 7100/66 was “Sagan”, after the astronomer Carl Sagan. Sagan discovered this, and sued for damages for copyright violation, unfair competition, and unrequested rights to publicity. He lost the case, but the developers at Apple obligingly changed the code name anyway. The new code name was “BHA”, which stood for “Butt Head Astronomer”. Sagan sued again, saying the name subjected him to “hatred, contempt and ridicule”. He again lost, with a ruling that Butt Head Astronomer is a generic term. Oh well, I guess even the most brilliant among us are subject to a bit of butt-headedness now and then! ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/2 "2003-01-08T16:54:19Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, and thank you for posting your comment. Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the Straight Dope web site. To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in your post (make sure there is a space **before** and **after** the text of the URL). Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link: [How come people steal song titles and nothing happens? (26-Aug-1983)](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_144a.html) The column can also be found on page 144 of Cecil Adams’ book «[_The Straight Dope (1984; reissued 1986, 1998)_](https://securesite.chireader.com/cgi-bin/dopestore/buystuff.bat#tsd)». * * * moderator, «[**Comments on Cecil’s Columns**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1)» ---
**Author:** ![FuzzyWuzzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/958977/32.png) [@FuzzyWuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuzzyWuzzy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/3 "2003-01-08T17:22:54Z")
Thanks for the pointer. Actually, the column I was referring to was “Do you have a right to exclusive use of your name?” [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_144b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_144b.html) ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/4 "2003-01-08T22:07:11Z")
This question came up in my high school business law class in 1967. I recall the answer, but not the teacher’s name. He said if your name was Howard Johnson, and you opened a motel and/or restaurant, you couldn’t name it for yourself. Another HoJo beat you to it. However, if you wanted to open Howard Johnson’s Auto Parts or Howard Johnson’s Pool Hall and Showgirls Club, the other HoJo probably couldn’t stop you. Judging by cases I’ve seen in recent years, though, a big company can sue you over a business name, and often it’s cheaper to change the name than do battle with a troupe of hotshot lawyers. As Cecil said, the courts are capricious on this issue. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/5 "2003-01-08T22:24:58Z")
Whoops! My mistake. It’s a sad day for Arnold. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Saxifrage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Saxifrage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saxifrage)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/6 "2003-01-08T23:09:27Z")
Interesting situation concerning ownership of a name occurred when an American columnist named ‘Bill Wyman’ was asked by the former Stoner’s lawyers to cease and desist using his own name: [http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/1102/14wyman.html](http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/living/1102/14wyman.html) The funny thing was that Bill Wyman (the Stone) took his name after the columnist was born. ---
**Author:** ![Saxifrage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Saxifrage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saxifrage)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/7 "2003-01-08T23:19:20Z")
Another story I heard (apocryphal unfortunately) was that an Australian woman with the name of ‘McCaffee’ tried to open up a cafe named after her but was shut down by the evil corporate behemoth, McDonalds, who claimed it was breach of their trademark, ‘McCafe’. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/8 "2003-01-10T20:57:55Z")
FuzzyWuzzy, got a cite? That sounds very urban legendish. ---
**Author:** ![mightyaphrodite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@mightyaphrodite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mightyaphrodite)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/9 "2003-01-11T01:09:23Z")
Actually, just yesterday I heard on the radio that a guy in Canada (I forget what province he lives in, but I think it’s Saskatchewan) who had legally changed his name to Jack Assman is sueing the makers of the show Jackass as well as “Jackass: the movie” for damages and harm to his name. You have to admit, though, he had his name before the show started airing. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/10 "2003-01-13T23:21:09Z")
I don’t think he has a legal leg to stand on. It’s ridiculous on the face of it, especially since he changed his name to Jack Assman especially to call attention to some other issue (allegedly). Thus he deliberately picked a name that already had a bad reputation, and was already a common derogatory phrase. I think a couple of Bugs Bunny cartoons will suffice to prove he has no grounds. Which pisses me off that this case will get into court and suck up valuable time over something that is clearly groundless. I have a new version of tort reform. From now on, any time the judge finds the case is groundless, he cites the plaintiff’s lawyer for damages. ---
**Author:** ![Zelmph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/46a35a/32.png) [@Zelmph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zelmph)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-in-a-name/147321/11 "2003-01-14T00:47:50Z")
**Irishman** – Here are a couple of cites for the “Butt Head Astronomer” story: [Wired](http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.03/flux.html?person=mitch_kapor&topic_set=wiredpeople) [Time (first part of the story – too cheap to pay for it all)](http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/from_redirect/0,10987,1101941017-163077,00.html) and [The Scientist (requires registration)](http://www.the-scientist.com/yr1996/mar/prof_960318.html), which says: > [@](#): > > This principle came into play in Cornell University astronomer Carl Sagan’s suit against Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Apple had been using “Carl Sagan” as its internal name for a new computer. Sagan got wind of this, and his lawyers sent Apple a letter instructing the company to cease and desist. In response, a project manager changed the computer’s name to BHA, an acronym for Butt-Head Astronomer. Sagan sued Apple in the Central District of California for, among other things, libel, infliction of emotional distress, and improperly using his name. > > Judge Lourdes G. Baird dismissed the libel portion of the suit, holding that “one does not seriously attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase ‘butt-head,’ and that a reader aware of the context would understand the project manager was retaliating in a humorous and satirical way.” Sagan, who declined to be interviewed for this article, later reached a settlement with Apple on the other aspects of the suit.