Name Origins

When this project began, I knew it had to have a unique name – and like most modern web companies (I’m trying to avoid the overused “Web 2.0” term – because that’s not really what Jabloo is about) – I needed a name that not only reflected the feeling of the concept, but had no associations with any other company or concept. I didn’t want a compound name, a name that seemed composed of parts of other words, or something generic that required a tagline or positioning statement to give it context – so I let my brain vomit up as many nonsense words as it could generate.

The first name I came up with for this project was “Spume” – which didn’t really fit the above criterion of being completely made-up, but the domain was available, and it felt right – for the first couple weeks, anyway. Then I put together a list of companies and websites with similar qualities: Gund, Galoob, Kandoo (though there’s some meaning mixed into that one), Squidoo (I particularly liked that double-O at the end), Mego – those kinds of names that have little-to-no meaning when you first hear them, then slowly become the brand/product/service over time.

That inspired a list of purely imagined words that could serve as the name of the company. I’m almost embarassed to list these, but entertainment purposes, I’ve transcribed the name possibilities from my original scrawled list. In the order they were generated, we have: Plimp, Jabloo (!), Floon, Noofee, Bloon, Yooney, Takoi, Ipple, Waggle, Garf, Glutes, Gluke, Ort, Loo, Ellum, Blue, Furl, Fleck, Yeeko, Fliff, Hin, Wafty, Yoobee, Voobee, Wimble, Gribbee, Unibo, Durl, Urd, Dingle, Prog, Odge, Moogie, Woogle… and Bibi.

I’m not a parent, but I’m told that no matter how many potential names you go through for your child, once they’re born and you give them their name, you can never imagine any other one having worked. That’s how I feel about Jabloo – it really couldn’t have gone any other way.