Itchy New Head Scratchers

Here are the latest Head Scratcher inductees into our Name Shame Hall of Fame. Each name violates one or more rules of good naming and is hard to spell, pronounce, remember, meaningless or just doggone annoying.

IN A CATEGORY ALL ITS OWN:
Doggie Diaper
Poochie Pants
Tinkle Trousers
Peepers
Bitch Britches

RANDOM NAMES:

Quantum of Solace (The next James Bond film - sure, 12 year old boys will get this)
Evventa Oscillococcinum (Their lame ad: Tough to pronounce. Even tougher on your flu.)
Quel Objet Oztion
Little WoWo (I'll let you figure this one out)
Bella Cabosse (chocolate)
Zerran
Mzinga (Swahili for beehive)

Thanks to John Luckett, Erika Taylor, Alex Gramling, Maryam Ayyash and Matt Sterne for sending these in. Keep 'em coming!

Bad Names That Make Us Insane

Here are the first 2008 inductees into the Eat My Words Name Shame Hall of Fame™, including some repeat offenders. Each name is eligible to win our #1 Head Scratcher™ award at the end of the year. Thanks to all of you who sent in suggestions. Keep them coming and we'll post more soon. (Send your entries here.)

Beneful (pet food)
Benefiber (people food)
BOOMJ (how do you pronounce that?)
Eneloop
Fragranza
Motiva
Oncothyreon (formerly Biomira)
RenewzIt
Tcho
Wii (lots of people sent this one in)
Zumobi (formerly Zenzui)
Ziizoo
Zune

Submit your most irksome Head Scratcher™ for the Name Shame Hall of Fame™

What can you do when a product or company name makes you cringe, scratch your head, roll you eyes, or queasy? Submit it to the Name Shame Hall of Fame™, the official list of “bad names” compiled by Eat My Words. Name will be posted here weekly and we’ll vote for the #1 Head Scratcher later in the year. (Last year's trophy went Xobni, a name that meets all 5 of our submission criteria):

1. It’s difficult to pronounce the first time you see it.
(Apahcinc, Bliin, Qoop)

2. It’s meaningless unless someone explains it to you.
(Caachi, Etelos, Raketu)

3. It’s forced and unnatural sounding.
(Motiva, Fragranza, Pureology)

4. It has an unnatural spelling.
(Takkle, Flickr, Ziizoo)

5. It’s just damn annoying.
(Doostang, Thoof, Mathnasium)

TO VENT: Send your contender(s) for The Name Shame Hall of Fame to nameshame @ eatmywords.com. (We won’t sell your email address to spammers, we promise.)

Newly Minted Tagline for Chocolatemint Water

We're huge fans of Metromint, so we were thrilled when they tapped Eat My Words to create a multi-purpose tagline for their new Chocolatemint water. But how would it taste? (Considering some people think Metromint tastes like mouthwash, we weren't sure what to expect.) Luckily, Alexandra was immediately hooked. It's simply magical, which is what inspired the tagline... "We've turned water into chocolate." It's hard to believe that something that tastes so naughty is actually good for you and has no calories, preservatives or sweetners. It's just pure water with cocoa essence and real mint. Look for it in hip stores and at our next party.

Ghana: Heaven for Namers

Before I went to Ghana, I had read that I could expect to see the country's passion for Jesus reflected in the names of their businesses, but I didn't expect 75% of shop names to have some kind of religious reference. Some of the more unusual names included included Blood of Christ Restaurant, Holy Canteen, and Jesus Loves Fashion. Unfortunately, while Ghanaians love the Lord, they hate cameras, so I didn't get photos of most of the signs I saw as we whizzed by. Here are some snaps of some of my faves... there's more in the official album.

Where's a McDonald's when you need one?

Some of the more interesting food names in Ghana...

Back from Ghana with a new name: Borley Atiaku

Little did I know when we booked our trip to Ghana and requested to take part in an African naming ceremony ($125 per person), that it would be a serious all-day affair that the entire village showed up for! We were adopted into the Royal Borketey Larweh family of the Ga tribe. My Ga name is "Borley Atiaku." The naming rites were performed by the Head of Family-Dr Sam Bortei-Doku (on right) who is a dead-ringer for Nelson Mandella. (Despite looking like my groom, the man in blue is our guide, Sam.) We spent a few days with the family and even went to church with them on Christmas where we danced by the collection box. Twice. More colorful photos here in the official trip album....

The secret to pearly whites

We think Pray would make a great name for a home pregnancy test, but in Ghana, it's a brand of toothpaste. I picked up a tube and have it at the office if you want to come by and see that it is indeed for real. Ghanaian's do have incredibly white teeth, but their secret is they use tree bark. (Can't you see it now.... NEW Crest Whitening Bark.) I have seen some pretty strange toothpaste names in my world travels. Here are some other faves.... (I picked up Darkie in Thailand around 20 years ago, but they changed it to Darlie a few years back.

FrightAll Wacky Package Flashback

This sign in Ghana for frightfully named Frytol cooking oil reminded me of Wacky Packages, the collectable 70s trading cards featuring parodies of consumer products.