Blake Dowling
In recent years, Louis, my brother-in-arms for 15 years, and I were brainstorming new names for our business.
About 30 years ago, we were called Aegis Computer Services, then Aegis Business Technologies and to simplify things our latest will be Aegis Biz Tech.
The name Aegis is Greek for shield and with cyber security concerns being what they are, we are sticking with it for our IT support company name with just a slight tweak.
Biz & Tech is the name of our podcast, website domain, some columns and newsletter, so we are solidifying the brand under one name, if you will.
The first impression of a name, corporate or otherwise, can confuse you, inspire confidence, or offend you (someone is always offended by something these days — see Dixie Chicks, Burger King (why not Burger Queen?) etc., or maybe give you a peek at what they do.
Our capital city here in Florida has some great history behind the name. The word Tallahassee is a Seminole/Creek Indian word meaning, “old town” or “open fields.” The original words “Talwa” (town) and “Hasi” (old) were combined.
The choice of the name is credited to Octavia Walton. She was the 14-year-old daughter of then-territorial secretary George Walton.
Octavia is said to have chosen the name Tallahassee for its long association with the natives of the area and our legislature formally adopted the name on Dec. 11, 1824, during the very first session in Tallahassee. Thank you to all those in our current session for their service.
One band from the Sunshine State has a name that I bet you did not know its origin.
Rock and rollers Sister Hazel is named after a missionary who ran a homeless shelter in Gainesville. Her full name is Sister Hazel Williams.
When the band got started in the early 90s, they showed their respect for the good work of Sister Williams by naming their band after her. They continue to support her efforts in Gainesville, 30 years later.
For 2024, Sister Hazel is still doing their thing, touring the nation and in fact they just dropped a brand new single that you can check out here.
Nice work Ken, Ryan, Drew, Jett and Mark, it sounds great.
In the tech space, have you ever given thought to the word “Bluetooth?”
Every time someone says to turn on Bluetooth, I picture an angry pirate Smurf. I can picture him heading to Gargamel’s house to finally take down him and Azrael saying something like “Haarrr, ain’t it smurfy matey” with a metal version of the Smurf song blasting.
Just me?
Bluetooth is the wireless technology that we all know and love, the framework of which was invented in 1994 by Jaap Haartsen.
The name came two years later when industry titans at the time, Nokia, Intel and Ericsson gathered to come up with a name and a plan for this type of technology to become the standard. The name Bluetooth was suggested as a code name until a real name could be put together and it came from King Harald Bluetooth.
Harald was a famous leader that united Scandinavia and he had an ugly dead tooth that sort of looked blue. What is the cool symbol next to the word Bluetooth you might be asking? That would be Harold’s initials in ancient text, rune I believe they call it. Pretty cool huh, or totally dumb, it’s all in the name.
They could have called it NoKord? Right?
What about two words we, the people, will be throwing around and judging each other on for most of 2024? Those two words would be the “evil” Democrats and the “vile” Republicans. I joke of course, as this is where I would normally put my “can’t we all just get along” message. But we know the answer to that. The answer is nope, we cannot. As for the origins of the words. The word Republican stems from the Latin “rēs pūblica.” Combining “rēs” (thing or entity) with “pūblica” (public).
As for the word Democrat, it comes from the Greek word “dēmokratía” (popular government). Blending together the people (“demos”) who held the power (“krátos”).
Just like those three executives sitting around the table in Norway, you need to make sure to put a lot of thought into a name. It just may be around for a while. We look to music legend Dave Grohl for his cautionary tale of being stuck with a name.
When Nirvana broke up he was unsure of releasing music under his name, so he borrowed the name Foo Fighters. This was a term used by Allied pilots in World War 2 to describe UFO’s and Grohl was and is a UFO enthusiast. His music caught on and the name was stuck, he says years later.
“Had I actually considered this to be a career, I probably would have called it something else because it’s the stupidest f**king band name in the world.”
The names we come up with for our bands, companies, cities, and products define us. You don’t have to look far to see a great one (see the naming of Mötley Crüe in their 2019 movie “The Dirt.”
And you also don’t have to look far for a horrendous one, see “Goin Postal?”
If you find yourself in a brainstorming session for a name of something, keep in mind it could be around forever, so as the old knight says in “Indiana Jones 3,” choose wisely.
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Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies and can be reached at [email protected].
