What's in a Name?

For close to five years I had a small firm called Greg Womble Communications. The name itself took months to say. The website was (and is, since it's a showcase of my scriptwriting and film/video work) www.womcom.net. Every time I mentioned the website name to someone--after taking a second to put the Wom and the Com together, I suppose--there was a smile. Then they would say it. Almost every time. There's just something slightly goofy about the sound of it. But I got over it and eventually decided those two syllables were better than seven. So WOMCOM was born. Or at least reincarnated.

When you get a smile, or people enjoy saying your business name, it's good. Try that with "Ogletree Stump Removal and Christmas Light Repair." People will call you "Ogletree" if anything at all. Kentucky Fried Chicken changed to simply KFC and started marketing fried chicken to twenty-somethings whose attention was distracted before they could say the full name.

Do you remember The Wombles? They were a furry bunch of tree-hugging park dwellers across the Pond who had a popular children's TV show and an unjust number of top pop hits in England in the 70s, 80's, 90's and beyond. I was a young college radio programmer when I opened a new promotional 45 rpm and saw "The Wombles" across the cover for the first time. And their big hit? "Remember Your a Womble."

With WOMCOM, I kinda did that.