“Alexa, STOP!” How many times have you shouted that after unintentionally waking a voice-enabled Amazon device? Now imagine being the parent of a human named Alexa who is trying to… Read More
Don’t ask Alexa about recent trends around the most popular baby names in the United States — Amazon’s virtual assistant might not be in much of a talking mood. University… Read More
For anyone that has been involved in naming a startup, blog or product, you are well aware of the complexities. The good news is that you have 26 letters to… Read More
Choosing the right brand name can be a make-it or break-it experience for a lot of startups. Finding something that defines your brand, gives homage to your core message and… Read More
Back in 2011, The Name Inspector wrote a post about the proliferation of startup names that make creative use of the suffix -ify, such as Spotify. At the time, he deemed the trend… Read More
BlackBerry continues to wither on the vine, with market share for the once iconic smartphone maker slipping to under five percent. So, can a company name change salvage what’s left?… Read More
Is Doz too close to Moz? That’s the question in a naming dispute which has arisen between the marketing software companies, both of which have undergone business and moniker changes… Read More
Let’s face it. A good startup name is awfully tough to find. So tough, in fact, that you are oftentimes better off going into the dustbin of the Internet to pick… Read More
At first glance, Kindle Fire seems like a pretty good name. It uses a thematically coherent naming strategy, similar to the one that Apple used when it named the Macintosh, presumably… Read More
[Editor’s Note: Seattle author Christopher Johnson, aka The Name Inspector, shares an excerpt from his newly-released book, Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little, with GeekWire. In this chapter, Coin a New… Read More
Is Microsoft’s use of the Tulalip name for a secret, internal social networking effort insensitive to the Native American tribe? That’s the question on the minds of some in Snohomish… Read More
Do you think Electronic Arts would have shelled out $1.3 billion for a company called Sexy Action Cool? It could have happened if PopCap Games stuck with its original name.… Read More
I’ve been covering Zillow from its inception, stretching back to 2005 when it was just a seed of an idea. During that time, I almost always referred to the Seattle… Read More