Naming briefs #4

Short takes on three names of note.

In the naming business, a naming brief is a detailed written document that serves as a road map for name development and legal review. (Read more about the naming brief here.) The naming briefs in this newsletter are something else: short reports on names I’ve spotted in the wild or in my reading. Fourth in a series; read Naming Briefs #1; read Naming Briefs #2, read Naming Briefs #3. Have you come across an interesting company or product name you’d like me to critique? Let me know in a comment.

Aura Aero ERA

I saw — and in my mind’s ear heard — this euphonious name in an email from JSX (née JetSuiteX), a semi-private jet company that patiently hopes I will eventually become a customer. In December 2023 JSX signed a letter of intent with Aura Aero, a French airplane manufacturer that will deliver 150 ERA (Electric Regional Aircraft) planes to the Dallas-based carrier. Aura Aero was founded in 2018 and is “committed to contribute [sic] to the objective of reducing emissions by 55% in 2035 and reaching carbon neutrality in 2050.” The ERA seats 19 passengers.

“Aura Aero” was already pretty sweet; adding “ERA” makes it downright poetic. The name crosses linguistic boundaries just as the planes cross international borders. The echo of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour probably can’t hurt, either.

The Aura Aero ERA, via Aura Aero

Uwila Warrior

Years ago, on my old Fritinancy blog, I hosted a couple of Underwear Weeks (see 2013; see 2010). Uwila Warrior, a women’s underwear brand founded in Boston in 2018, is a perfect example of why underwear branding is both challenging and fun.

I haven’t seen Uwila Warrior products in person, but on the screen — the brand is sold on the Uwila Warrior website as well as at Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, and other retailers — they look appealing. Briefs and camisoles are simple but elegantly designed and come in a wide range of colors; many are made of silk (and reasonably priced!). The company was founded by Lisa Mullan, who has a background in investment management and a commitment to “helping women live their best lives.” So far, so good.

The name, though, is tricky: a tongue-twister with a number of phonetic stumbling blocks, namely the initial U, the W, the L, and the Rs.¹ How do you pronounce “Uwila” — with an initial oo or with you? (I found a video: Mullan says “you-willa.”)

As for the meaning of the non-English word “Uwila,” here’s the story Mullan tells:

In thinking about our customer, myself and two others decided she was smart, wise, and beautiful. Very intelligent, very interesting, knows how to navigate life. She’s like an owl—in German, “uwila” means “owl.” And warrior, well, our customer is juggling a lot. She has to be smart about life, what’s right for her, and what’s right for her family.

Let’s stipulate that a “juggler” is not a “warrior” — maybe the intention is to beat Commando, an older underwear brand, at its own militaristic game — and move on to another problem: Uwila does not mean “owl” in German. It meant “owl” in Old German, which isn’t spoken anymore.² (The modern German word for “owl” is eule.) And uwila would have been pronounced oo-villa. Like uvula, almost.

A little more digging through UW’s “Meet the Founder” Q&A reveals the root of the brand-name problem: “having to rename your company in one weekend because your previous name happened to be the nomenclature of a not-so-stable country’s intelligence agency—oops.” I have no idea what that nixed name was — possibly a skunked word like ISIS.

Do I wish they’d called me before rushing into a tortured alliance with an unlovely name that’s hard to parse and pronounce? I certainly do.

Uwila Warrior wordmark

Ghoulardi Film Company

For reason’s I won’t bother to explain I recently found myself researching the oeuvre of Paul Thomas Anderson — director of Licorice Pizza, Boogie Nights, and other films — and I was tickled to discover not just the name of his production company but also the story behind it.

In brief, with full credit to Wikipedia:

Ghoulardi was a fictional character created and portrayed by voice announcer, actor and disc jockey Ernie Anderson as the horror host of Shock Theater at WJW-TV, Channel 8 (a.k.a. "TV-8") the CBS Affiliate station in Cleveland, Ohio, from January 13, 1963, through December 16, 1966. Shock Theater featured grade-"B" science fiction films and horror films, aired in a Friday late-night time slot. At the peak of Ghoulardi's popularity, the character also hosted the Saturday afternoon Masterpiece Theater, and the weekday children's program Laurel, Ghoulardi and Hardy.

And who was Ernie Anderson? You guessed it: none other than Paul Thomas Anderson’s father. Read the whole Ghoulardi entry, which includes lots more about the character’s extensive cultural influence. And here’s my 2014 column for the Visual Thesaurus about the names of some other film-production companies, including Scorsese’s Sikelia and Alfonso Cuarón's Esperanto Filmoj.

Ghoulardi himself, via Wikipedia

1. I’ve had naming clients who firmly stipulated no Ls or Rs. Some of them also said no Ws or Vs.

2. Uwila also has a meaning in Hawaiian: “electricity” or “lightning.”