Herman: John L. Herman Jr., Author

What's in a Name?

You are driving in your car and you kind of know the name of the place you are going to, but not sure of the address. So you punch in 411 on the phone and after some computer voice gets the city and state then they want the name of the listing you want….it’s TIR NA NOG……..or it’s TRINACRIA…..no we are going to CINGHIALE…..or is it KEE PIZAZZ….TENPACHI……no I think it is SOTTA SOPRA, no I am sure it was LE XANADU.

The computer voice replies…TERRAGOG is that right?.......Katrina Cria is that right?......you get the picture….and about then you almost run a red light trying to have a conversation with a computer. Finally a live body comes on and it gets even more ridiculous. Are you saying SVENGALI?.....is that SODA OPERA? Can you spell that for me? You can’t. You can’t pronounce it or spell it and you know it. Are you saying KEN POSSE?

Now, being a geezer with the kids out of the house years ago, my wife and I like to eat out a lot. And we don’t always want to go to MICHAEL’S or PATRICKS which have been our favorites for years and they serve wonderful food every time we are there. We want to see what the new places are like, and my wife is quite a gourmet cook so she wants to experience fine dining and we try to seek out new spots that could become a regular place for us. So you have figured out that the names above are all names of new restaurants where we live. Wrong. One of them is the place I get my hair cut, but the name doesn’t give it away.

If you can’t pronounce the name of the business or spell the name of the business finding it is an adventure in itself. Then telling friends about the trendy spot you found becomes a comedy routine as they sound just like the information operator from the call which failed to go anywhere when you were lost on the way to the place.

Funny thing about trendy names. They seem to last about as long as some trends. Maybe not enough people who couldn’t get the address from information, and refused to just ride around in that area until they somehow spotted the place, ever showed up at your fancy named establishment to keep you alive. Does the name of your business tell people what you do…and can they pronounce it and spell it so they can find it?

After we drove around for what seemed like an eternity my wife said she was hungry so we just drove to MICHAEL’S and had a great dinner.

• Posted: 11 December 2007
• Comments: 0
• Category: Business success

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