from Hacker News

Ask HN: Unfortunate Startup or Product Names?

by everling on 1/3/21, 11:14 AM with 1 comments

Sorry if this topic is too silly for HN, but a recent jobs listing site submitted to HN shared the name with a serious psychological disorder. It's unfortunate, but also funny - the idea of people spending a great deal of time and thought to produce something and unknowingly giving it an objectionable or obscene name. For example, there is a recommendation engine called TasteDive which started out as "TasteKid". Does anyone recall other examples here on HN?

One show HN-submission a few years ago that I recall but haven't been able to trace since was a database startup with an inadvertently obscene logo. The logo was a cartoon beaver or otter lying on it's back, waving, supposedly. Commenters on HN pointed out that it looked like the beaver was "air-fellating", which cheapened the landing page a bit. Anyone remember what I am talking about?

  • by ksaj on 1/4/21, 6:46 PM

    In its early startup days, BorderWare firewall used to be called Janus, until they tried to market it to their partners in Sweden, who kept pronouncing it like Anus.