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Apple just announced the name for their newest toy, the iPad this week.  My first thought was, “Oh, that’s a reasonable name.  It sounds like an iPod, only different.”  But then I heard people talking about the new iPad and saying “What will the come up with next?  The iTampon?” 

Being a guy, my initial interpretation of pads is, well… not what a woman thinks of first.  But now that I have heard about it, I can’t help but think about it.  I would venture a guess that most women would think of this as a pretty poor name for a product.  The fact that #itampon is a trending topic on Twitter is proof.

Now, I don’t think that the product name is going to kill Apple.  They might feel some effect from it, but in the end, probably not much.  They’re lucky.  They’re a huge company with a pretty high reputation, and they’ll likely do well, not because of the name, but in spite of the name.  Few other companies could pull this off though.  With the small company that I work for, this would likely kill us off.

So my first reaction is to think about what led them to this name?  I’ve heard some people say that they must not have thought it through very well.  I seriously doubt that.  I’ll bet they had many long meetings discussing the name, and chose it from a large collection of other names only after a great deal of thought.  If Apple is like much of the rest of the technology industry, then there is unfortunately a very small number of women there.  Had there been a few more, they could have avoided this disaster.

Apple isn’t the only company to create not-so-perfect names.  In the past, I worked on a program whose name had to be changed because it was already taken.  Instead, our company chose an acronym that unfortunately sounds way too much like a game from EA.  Anyone who I told about the program immediately asked “oh like the game?”  Our boss doesn’t seem to be too interested in changing the name before it is too late.

This is only the beginning of the list.  Many companies have made mistakes like this.  Don’t let it happen to you.  You may not come out of it as well as Apple will.

So the important thing to discuss is how to actually come up with good names for software.  Here’s a few suggestions that I have.

1. Tell as many people about the intended name as possible.  Tell your spouse, tell your friends, and above all, tell a pessimist and a cynic.  See what their first reaction is.  The focus should be less on sheer quantity, and more on variety.
2. Google it.  Or google it with Bing.  Whichever.  The point is, the name may be taken, or it may have a meaning that a team of nerds didn’t realize.  (Yeah, we aren’t all nerds, but, I’ll admit it, I am.) Failblog is full of dumb product names that could have been avoided with a simple web search.  And let’s be honest, if Apple had done this, they likely would have found MadTV’s iPad spoof.
3. Don’t decide on a product name overnight.  Spend the entire development cycle of the program deciding.  You don’t need a name until you are ready to start marketing or making big announcements.  I realize that there is a desire to put an interesting title at the top of your program besides “Form1″.  And you also want to be able to discuss your program without needing to say “the program that does ____”. Many companies use code names for their projects.  I’d definitely recommend taking advantage of project code names to give your team or company plenty of time to brainstorm and explore plenty of good ideas for the final name.

What interesting things does your company do to help pick creative (and safe) names for your software?  Leave a comment and let us know!

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