“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” Or so Shakespeare tells us in Romeo and Juliet.
In Shakespeare’s time, there weren’t many names to choose from. One source says that the 15 most common names represented 80% of people named; one in five men were named John.
Today, there is a lot more variety in names. The most popular boy name in 2008, Jacob, was given to just 1% of boys born in the United States. The most popular name for girls in 2008, Emma, was bestowed on just .9% of U.S. girls born in 2008.
Studies have shown that your name can affect your life in subtle ways. Dr. Albert Mehrabian wrote an entire book, Baby Name Report Card, discussing research findings showing that “people with desirable or attractive names are treated more favorably by others than are those with undesirable or unattractive names. Also, persons with undesirable or unattractive names tend to be handicapped in their personal, social, and work-related activities.”
Another study, published in the Journal of Human Resources, found that girls with ultra-feminine names are less likely to study science or math and those with names perceived to be of “lower status” receive consistently lower test scores in school. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that job applicants whose resumes had African-American sounding names were half as likely to be called for job interviews than those with Caucasian sounding names.
Like anything else, baby names are subject to trends (just ask any 30-year-old named Jason or Jennifer). One of my great aunts is named Gertrude. When she was born in 1910 (or so), Gertrude was the 26th most popular girls’ name in America. Gertrude was smart and pretty, the kind of girl who could become a famous writer or movie star. Today? Not so much. Despite the adorable Drew Barrymore as Gertie in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Gertrude is perceived as old and ugly. It hasn’t cracked the top 100 baby names list since 1960.
Needless to say, for a lot of parents naming their baby is a high-pressure situation. An entire industry — books, web sites, and more – exists to help you choose just the right name for your baby. Name guru Laura Wattenberg, author of The Baby Name Wizard, created BabyNameWizard.com which showcases some truly cool ways to present database-driven information in a visual setting; check out the Name Voyager, which graphically presents a name’s popularity, and the Name Mapper to see how popular a name is in a given area. And for those naming a second or third child, Nymbler uses sophisticated logic and an incredibly easy-to-use interface to help you find a name that fits in perfectly with your older children’s in tone and style.
(These sites are worth checking out even if you aren’t trying to name a baby, just to see simple, easy-to-use graphical interfaces presenting complex data, not to mention a great example of how to drive more book sales and extend a brand beyond a one-time book purchase. Wattenberg has dethroned former leading baby name gurus Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz (authors of Beyond Jennifer and Jason) in part by leveraging web technologies to enhance her books’ value and usefulness.)
So, did we agonize over what to name our newest “baby,” Bandworth? Naming a blog is not quite the same as naming a new baby, of course. But it’s not hard to connect the dots between the pressure to choose the perfect baby name, which will affect people’s perception of your child for the rest of his/her life, and the pressure to choose the perfect brand name or brand extension. There is most definitely an entire industry devoted to helping companies choose the right brand name (one we participate in) and many prominent examples of failures (just search “brand name failures” or “bad brand names” and behold the carnage).
In naming our newest blog, we needed a name that extended our Stephan & Brady brand, staying true to ourselves as Chief Customer Officers and an agency worthy of being named “best advertising agency” five years in a row by the readers of Corporate Report Wisconsin magazine. We also needed to complement the name and tone of our sister blog, Food4Thought. And we needed to convey a sense of what our blog is about — leveraging interactive media for marketing communications–while enticing readers to learn more.
Which may lead you to ask, why “Bandworth?”
It’s a play on two important concepts. One is bandwidth, the “measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits” (Wikipedia). In general, the more bandwidth, the better. Maximizing bandwidth takes smarts and experience.
The second is the question “How much is your brand worth?” Enhancing our client’s brand value consumes much of our working lives here at S&B. Integrating strategic interactive and social media solutions plays a big role.
Smash those two concepts together and viola! Bandworth, an evocative name that met our requirements and had the crucial advantage of being available (we still love you, Brandworth and Digital Sandbox).
What do you think of our name? What’s your favorite brand name success (or failure) story? What do you think of your own name? Leave us a comment and let us know.
Labels: baby names, brand names, branding, names
Love the name! You can discern what the blog is about by its name alone. Effective!