What’s in a name?

This great city of St. Louis is missing something. I am that something.

As you may or may not be aware, I’ve recently taken a ginormous leap of faith. I’m doing my best to manage the fear accordingly given the enormity of it all. The business development side; the insurance; the getting paid; the time management; all are very scary to me. However, there is one thing that is slowing me down the most. I don’t have a name for my new company. Whatever shall I do?

The Background

The background is relatively simple. Yes, I’m starting Just Another™ web design &ampl development company. What I’m really wanting to do, though, is fill a void. While living & working in St. Louis, MO for nearly my entire life, I’ve been disappointed by many things that this wanna-be big city lacks. For now, my mission is quality web design & development. I’m not that great of a designer, nor am I that great of a developer. However, I know it doesn’t take Being Great to fill a void, it simply takes Action.

I’ll save my gripes on St. Louis for later, but what is definitely missing is anyone evangelizing the benefits of web standards, usability, Getting Real™ and the more philosophical side of web development. Most of what exists today is either very strong technically, very strong graphically, or neither, its just done by tradition.

I hope to be the New Voice of St. Louis. I want to Inspire Change.

The Idea

I want something that sticks. I recently read an article on business card design. Business cards are typically the lasting impression you give to a potential client. If your business card makes a statement, or gets people talking, they’ll remember you much more than that Power Tie. One could easily argue that the company name makes the same statement.

I could go the easy route and use some form of my name. However, I have a Crappy Name.

I could go cliche and create any sort of nonsense word that sounds like a new element in the Periodic Table.

I could combine two completely unrelated words that sound reasonably cool together (much like the name of This Here Website).

Really, there is no telling where the name of this company will come from. I know the feel I want it to have. I know that I want it to tie to my mission statement and say much more than what I do, but really who I am (or we are) as a company. I know that I want it to be easy to remember, easy to say, easy to spell. I know I want it to be unique, have an available domain, etc.

Why am I telling you this? No reason, really.