What's in a name?

    Did you ever wonder why Twitter is called that? When cofounder Biz Stone saw the application that Jack Dorsey created in 2006 he was reminded of the way birds communicate: "Short bursts of information...Everyone is chirping, having a good time." In response, Stone came up with 'twttr', and the group eventually added some vowels. How about Google?  Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin named the search engine they built “Google,” a play on the word “googol,” the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The name reflects the immense volume of information that exists, and the scope of Google’s mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.Yahoo! started out as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" but eventually received a new moniker with the help of a dictionary. The name Yahoo! is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," but Filo and Yang insist they selected the name because they liked the general definition of a yahoo: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth." Yahoo! itself first resided on Yang's student workstation, "Akebono," while the software was lodged on Filo's computer, "Konishiki" - both named after legendary sumo wrestlers. The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau of wiki (a technology for creating collaborative websites) and encyclopedia. FYI: a portmanteau is a fancy way of saying that we're going to take two words, jam them together and (hopefully) create a new concept that people will love, whereas Facebook's name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the school year by university administrations with the intention of helping students get to know each other better.Famous online bookstore Amazon was originally named Cadabra, Inc., but the name was changed when it was discovered that people sometimes heard the name as "Cadaver." The name Amazon.com was chosen because the Amazon River is the largest river in the world, and so the name suggests large size, and also in part because it starts with 'A' and therefore would show up near thebeginning of alphabetical lists. The do it yourself reveiw site Yelp! is an onomatopoeia.
     So is there a science to these sucessful names? They are all catchy, pop culture icons to be sure. I think there are some basics to finding a catchy name. Many companies rely on rhyming, imagry, and alliteration. Other naming tricks include Neologism, that is making up an evocative word, like Google, or onomatopoeia, a word that sounds like what it stands for.

I will now explain myself

My name is Maggie. My love life resembles a plate of spaghetti that has been dropped onto a hard floor but I have three wonderful teenage children who keep me focused...and entertained. I was once a rich housewife who traveled the world with her tech savy husband but I spent so much time raising kids and cleaning that my internet skills were very spotty. There was always someone around to just do it for me. Now that the economy has crashed and taken me with it I have embarked on an exciting new career in the world of Non-Profit thrift stores. I am also taking classes at Cabrillo college to improve my chances of having a career instead of a job. I am taking an "Introduction to the Internet" class in an effort to make me independent in cyberspace. There will be no more waiting for my twenty year old daughter to explain things to me. Having lived in India, the Philippines, and Thailand I have met a range of wonderful and interesting people. Now that I work for Goodwill, I am meeting a whole new set of interesting people. I want to thank all of them for making my life a rich experience. I like to read, dance, camp, hike, cook, and learn new things. I really like the way this class is structured so that you can get as much out of it as you put in.