Ghana be closed during the holidays.

Alexandra is off to Ghana to adopt a baby monkey, bang some tribal drums, and eat every meal with her hands. The whole Eat My Words crew is taking off to recharge our batteries so we can start 2008 with a bang. We'll be back the week of January 5th, 2008. Thanks to all of you who have made this such a fantastic year for Eat My Words. We couldn't do it without loyal clients and cheerleaders like you.

Warm regards and happy holidays,

Alexandra and The Team

Eat My Words

"Need a good domain name, must be cheap, can't be lame."

Silcon Valley's dishy tech gossip rag, Valleywag, turned us on to this hysterical Web 2.0 satire video, "Here Comes Another Bubble," by the Richter Scales, sung to the tune of Bill Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire." I promise you will laugh out loud and watch it more than once.

I'd Like to Buy a Vowel, Part II

SPQR

San Francisco's newest 4-letter word is SPQR, a trendy restaurant, which gets gushing reviews for food, but like TCHO (see below), falls dreadfully short in the vowel department. SPQR is a little too much like SPOR. Eat My Words wouldn't go near the word "spor" for one of our clients. It's not something we want to taste. Plus, we're not sure how to pronounce it. The dyslexic version, "SPRQ," might sound little bit like "Spork." According to sources, SPQR is actually an acronym for "Senatus Populusque Romanus," which means "the senate and the Roman people." Okay, is it just us, or wouldn't the acroynm for Senatus Populusque Romanus simply be SPR? (Still sounds like SPOR.) We're not crazy about the names "Senatus," "Populusque," or "Romanus" on their own as a name of the restaurant either, but at least they have vowels.

I'd Like To Buy a Vowel

I don't know about you, but I like to be able to pronounce the things I put in my mouth. (You know, that whole "eat my words" thing.) And if two consumer product namers can't pronounce a $4 chocolate bar named T-C-H-O, that spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Designer chocolate begs for a hip name. The product is in "Beta" right now, so maybe it's just a code name during testing. Here are some other theories about the origin of the name...

1. It's an abbreviation for "Techno" and they want to be "cool" like Flickr (another head-scratcher). Come on man, buy a vowel.
2. The high-tech founder is alluding to technology as in T(ech)CHO(colate)
3. It's an acronym for something like "The Chocolate Hedonist's Orgasm." (Hey, that sounds like something from Eat My Words.)
   

What do you think it means? And how the heck do you pronounce it? Inquiring minds want to know.

Are you talented enough to be an Eat My Words naming superstar?

We're always looking for fresh talent, so if you think you have the mojo to be a rockstar Eat My Words namer, send us your top 20 name ideas for a cool new consumer product: a sleek external hard-drive that stores an enormous amount of data. Before you take the test, please get familiar with our distinctive naming style at the Eat My Words website and look at our portfolio. Our style is unlike any other naming firm... our names make people smile instead of scratch their head. We don't do names like Flickr, Fusic, Fabtastic, or Fraganza. No experience necessary - in fact, if you have never worked for a naming firm, your chances of success are better because you haven't learned the old school way of mangling letters and forcing words together. Email your name test to: dreamjobs(at)eatmywords.com.

A name that's generating a lot of buzz...

Eat My Words loves to name consumer electronics but unfortunately we can't take credit for naming OhMiBod or any of their buzz-worthy "Acsexcesories."

"Simply plug OhMiBod into your iPod® or any music player and it automatically vibrates to the rhythm and intensity of the music. Let your body feel the vibrations as you get down with your favorite tunes."

Talk about a name that makes people smile.... even the $69 price fits the brand.

TIP: Even though the "i" in Mi is cute and a wink at iPod, Eat My Words would have spelled "OhMi Bod with a "y" instead because any time you spell a name differently than it sounds, it's a huge strike against you, especially when people "hear" your name then type it into their web browser. OhMyBod.com is a clothing store. Oops. (At least it's not porn.) We would have suggested that the client call the company OhMyBod (spelled correctly) and simply used a domain like OhMyBodOnline or OhMyBodGirl, which is perfectly acceptable in this case.

Dizzywood - a new spin on invented website names

We're not usually fans of invented website names, but when Rocket Paper Scissors asked Eat My Words to name their new virtual world, we jumped at the chance to make up a fun word. Like the website, the name had to inspire a sense of imagination, discovery, exploration, and most of all, fun. (The client's original name was Zoodaloo, which is cute but hard to spell and too similar to other names with Zoo in them.) We knew we could come up with a distinctive name that made this magical story-driven world sound like a fun and entertaining place for kids. And we did. The winning name was Dizzywood. This is an excellent example of an invented name because it combines two familiar words into a name that actually sounds like a real place. And unlike 99% of invented names, Dizzywood is easy to say and easy to spell, which is critical for customers to find you on the Web, especially when your audience is comprised of 8-12 year olds. TASTY TRIVIA: Our runner up name, RubySneakers, got dinged because Turner Networks, who own the rights to the Wizard of Oz, is highly litigious over the use of Ruby. Talk about a wicked witch! Dizzywood is currently in Beta testing and you are welcome to try it out at www.dizzywood.com.

How to avoid an invented name trainwreck.

Names should make people smile instead of scratch their head. Especially invented names, which are often mangled gobbldygook. Start-ups and old-school naming firms fall in love with invented names for three reasons: 1) They sail through trademarking; 2) the domain names are always available; 3) they want the ego boost of coining a word. It's the easy way out. But the results are usually disastrous. Most invented names are forced and unnatural sounding. Some of our favorite offenders: Doostang, Motiva, Ziizoo, Fragranza, Advogato, Mathnasium, and our #1 head-scratcher, Xobni. Eat My Words first heard about Xobni when one of their investors wisely suggested we rename them. This internet start-up fails on so many levels: It's difficult to spell, impossible to pronounce, and evocative of absolutely nothing. What is Xobni? It's inbox spelled backwards. Cute to the founders. Dumbfounding to customers. If you have to explain a name to someone, it's a bad name. And if there is a hidden meaning in your name, make it a bonus instead of a brain grinder. For instance, our friends created a cool do-it-yourself ringtone software named DJ Nitrogen. Great name. What's even better is that NITROGEN is an anagram for RINGTONE. Super cool and fun to know. But the name doesn't depend on people "getting" the hidden meaning. For more on the subject of invented website names (and a few more jabs at Xobni), read "How Do You Tell a Web Name From a Typo?" in the Washington Post and David Pouge's "The Dr. Seuss Jumble: Naming Web Sites" from The New York Times.

Meet Heidi, our newest addition.

You may have met the our new office manager Heidi Paul at the blowout Fallapalooza party or had the pleasure of talking to her when you called the Eat My Words idea kitchen. From fielding phone calls, to planning our parties, to chasing down checks, to cataloging the extensive Eat My Words art collection, Heidi is our Super Girl Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and of course, Friday. As a multi-talented textile artist, graphic designer, and gallery manager, Heidi has mastered the art of right brain/left brain thinking. And her boundless curiosity, upbeat attitude, and cool-as-a-cucumber demeanor makes her a welcome addition to the Eat My Words clan. You can learn more about Heidi in her Boastful Bio.