Vote For the Worst Brand Name of 2008

All year long we compile the biggest brand name  "Head Scratchers" in our blog. Now you can vote for the worst one and help induct it into the Eat My Words Name Shame Hall of Fame. Based on criteria from the Eat My Words SMILE & SCRATCH name evaluation test, here are what we consider to be the top ten offenders that we've discovered this year:

Airphoria -  a new "airline experience"

Authonomy - post your manuscript online

Chumby - a newfangled Linux-based gadget 

Cuil - a not so cool search engine name

Cranergy - Ocean Spray's latest trainwreck

Naymz - a professional "reputation network"

Salesify - the new name for SalesBuild

Shryk - online banking platform

Traackr - social networking popularity site

VivaKy - integrated digital media universe

Please vote for the worst here. (Write in candidates welcome.) We'll announce the winner in our blog in late-January. The company behind the winning name will receive a big pink trophy, courtesy of Eat My Words. (We're still waiting for our thank you note from last year's winner, Xobni.) NOTE: Feel free to post this in your blog and spread the word around.

 

Comments

[R.T.]

What about Doostang? When you're company name means "shit stain" in the Urban Dictionary, you're in trouble, not too mention the fact is completely nonsensical. ;)

[Russ G]

My "favorite" from the list is Shryk because I like Shrek, but my write in name is "oDesk". It reminds me of the o-face line in Office Space and even though I use them, the name is so boring that it is hard to remember.

[Phillip Davis]

Alexandra- My vote would be for Amway's invented/corporate name Quixtar. Talk about a head scratcher. Is the "x" supposed to be pronounced like a "ck" or an "xs" or is the "s" simply implied? To read it literally it would sound like "Quicks + tar." Invented names can work, but they shouldn't require a pronunciation guide. They do get credit though for having the exact matching .com domain name -- which might explain why they chose it.

[Laurel Sutton]

Ooh, tough choices! I think I'd have to go with Cuil - it launched with a lot of press, but the name is still impossible to figure out how to pronounce if someone doesn't tell you. Also, their backstory for it (that "cuil" means "hazel") is sort of true, in the same way that "M is the next letter after A" is sort of true.

[Pete Leonard]

My vote is for (against?) Shryk - A person would never be able to just say it, it would always have to be spelled. Seeing it written gives no clues as to how it should be pronounced. It has nothing whatsoever to do with banking (or anything else for that matter) and ... what can you do with it from a word play standpoint?

Shryk = epic fail
What an awful name!

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