Why not Mandrectiva? [LWN.net]

Why not Mandrectiva?

Posted Apr 8, 2005 2:28 UTC (Fri) by shad (guest, #29130)
In reply to: Why not Mandrectiva? by marduk
Parent article: Mandrakesoft announces name change

Why not go the whole way and call it Mango. For the Non-Americans, mango besides being a fruit is also the name of a character on SNL (Saturday Night Live) who is a Drag Queenor female impersonator. Between the two immediate connotations of Man Drivel and Man Diva, this was a very poor choice. Did you consult with a native English speaker at all?

You could have just scrapped both names and go with something new. If Gael had a big enough ego even Duval Linux would have been fine.

Connotations

Posted Apr 8, 2005 14:12 UTC (Fri) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] (1 responses)

Did you consult with a native English speaker at all?

Is there any trademark that cannot be twisted into something humorous in some major language? Probably only those that consist only of numbers...

Ultimately the only thing that matters is the quality of the product associated with the trademark.

To my Finnish ears Mandriva does not sound too bad. It feels vaguely like a brand of car, certainly nothing so negative. It even has an obvious and not so difficult pronunciation in Finnish.

Connotations

Posted Apr 9, 2005 15:56 UTC (Sat) by tjc (guest, #137) [Link]

Is there any trademark that cannot be twisted into something humorous in some major language?

Probably not. For example, General Motors had to change the name of the Buick LaCrosse for the Canadian market when they discovered it meant something other than a field sport in Quebec.