Francois A. Badoux wrote:
Finally, the company will be renamed before Sun'n Fun (it changed
ownership). I will greatly appreciate the feedback from
this newsletter's
readers on the following short list of names (suggestions
are also welcome):
- Raven Motor Corp (RAVEN=Rotary Aviation Engine)
Not too bad, although the raven is considered a portent of
death (or at least
bad luck) in Western culture.
- Crane Rotary Engine (Crane, the bird, not the
construction version)
As you point out: there's built-in confusion. The crane is
considered a good
omen in the Orient. Some people consider it ungainly, however.
- Stratos Rotary Engine
Cloud reference; not bad especially considering the
turbo-charging or
turbo-normalizing aspects.
- Futura Rotary Engine
A new Ford automobile. Stay far away unless you enjoy
receiving "cease &
desist" letters from a big law firm (even though there's no
good legal
reason).
- SAMTEC Rotary Engine (for Swiss-American Rotary Technology...)
Uh, considering how much money the Japanese have poured
into the Wankel engine
design, I'd say this is a rather insulting name to them.
- EUREKA Rotary Engine
As Paul pointed out, Eureka is a brand of vaccuum cleaners.
Do you really
want people to say your company (or its products) suck? :-)
- Mistral Rotary Engine
A cold north wind. Doesn't sound too nice.
- Sirius Rotary Engine
A well-known star. Also, a satellite radio company. Dunno
if this would
generate "cease & desist" letters.
- Sierra Rotary Engine
In the USA, the Sierra Club is a well-known (and much
despised by some)
environmental organization. This name will engender
automatic dislike among
some, and curiousity about your engine's "green-ness"
(which it doesn't really
have) among others. Not a good choice.
Of the choices listed, I find Stratos and Sirius the best
candidates. Raven
is an ok choice since the "death" reputation is definitely
not widely known,
but the bird is considered somewhat aggressive (a good
thing for an engine to
have).
You could go with the obvious: Trochoid Rotary Engine. Trochoid is
descriptive, pronouncable, "techie-sounding", and
non-infringing. For a small
fee you might even convince Matt Stillerman to surrender
trochoid.com for your
company website.
Russell Kent