Remember Boaty McBoatface? It seems like only yesterday when the name was first floated after the UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) asked for help in finding a name for a Royal Research ship via its website and Twitter account. More than 124,000 votes were cast and the winner turned out to be . . . Boaty McBoatface. But the Boaty name was overruled in favor of RRS Sir David Attenborough, but the name remains afloat on the Attenborough as an onboard submersible.
Now following in Boaty’s wake is Sweden’s Trainy McTrainface. Yes, the latest engine on Sweden’s Stockholm-Gothenburg train line has been named Trainy McTrainface, thanks to a public poll run by Swedish rail company MTR Express and a Swedish newspaper, Metro.
Trainy derailed the other proposed names — Hakan, Miriam, and Poseidon — tracking 49% of the vote. Three other names for new engines on the Stockholm-Gothenburg line had already left the station before this poll took place:
- Estelle — after the daughter of Sweden’s Princess Victoria
- Glenn — in recognition of a long-running local joke that everyone in Gothenburg is named Glenn after having four footballers named Glenn on the IFK Göteborg team in the 1980s; and
- Ingvar — named after Swedish TV personality Ingvar Oldsberg
A written statement from the train company said the Trainy McTrainface news “will be received with joy by many, not just in Sweden.” When asked by Swedish paper, The Local, about whether voters in Sweden could end up disappointed like Boaty McBoatface voters in Britain, the company’s head of marketing said: "I can guarantee with my life that the train will be called Trainy McTrainface." Naming ceremonies are on track for autumn this year.
If you’re involved in the business of naming, you know that names are important, especially if you’re an attorney who has had to say “No” many, many times to name suggestions. Here at Corsearch, we’re about to launch a new solution that will help streamline the naming process, making it faster and easier to find the right names for products and brands.
Corsearch Contour integrates the naming and trademark clearance process and identifies likely name obstacles through a comparison to names already in the trademark universe. It also provides names in the “white space” — alternative names that are likely to be available based on criteria you identify. In short, Corsearch Contour provides naming options, beyond simply adding a “y” or a “Mc” to your name, as in Trainy McTrainface.
If you’d like to learn more about Corsearch Contour, you can read more about it here.
