In recent years, many corporations have run public naming competitions to launch their new products. A media attention grabber, these naming events can be an excellent strategy for increasing public awareness in a corporation’s services… if it works out positively.

As the British Columbia Ferries discovered, this strategy is not without risk. In a recent campaign, the company asked the public to come up with names for three new vessels. While the response via social media was large, many of the suggestions received were not exactly what you would call sea-worthy. Some of the more salty suggestions included: Spirit of the WalletSucker, Queen of the Overpriced, and Incompetence Afloat; the Coastal Calamity.

Undaunted by the online heckling, the BC Ferries Company staunchly defended the competition. As the company’s Vice President of Customer Services explained in an official press release: This contest provided “an exciting opportunity for customers to name a ferry that will be in service for decades to come.” The competition, the VP explained, offered an historic opportunity for people to “leave a lasting legacy in coastal communities in British Columbia.” After reviewing the 7,100 name suggestions received, the BC Ferry team selected the following winning names: Salish Orca, Salish Eagle, and Salish Raven. In a statement released by the company, these three maritime monikers were chosen to “honour the Coast Salish people” and reflect the “culture of British Columbia”.

For a complete list of the names which already adorn the vessels of the BC Ferries fleet, click here.

For more information on the contest, click here or read the companies new releases here and here.

BoingBoing summarizes this article in The Independent about a new, violent baby naming trend in the US.

What do Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson, Janice Dickenson, Julianne Moore, all have in common?

No, it is not just that their first names all begin with the letter “J”. What connects these five women, other than their fame and fortune, is the fact that all of them have (or at one time had) a Birkin Bag.

Considered by many to be of the world’s most expensive handbags on the market today, the Hermès creation was named after singer-actress Jane Birkin in the mid 1980’s. Now, some three decades later, Birkin has told reporters of the Agence France-Presse (AFP), that she has requested that Hermès “debaptise the Birkin Croco until better practice in line with international norms can be put in place.” Despite this reported request, a recent look at the Hermès website revealed that the handbag is still listed under the actresses’ surname. It remains to be seen whether the company will one day adhere to Ms. Birkin’s request and/or alter international leather production practices which PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) denounced as “appalling” and “gruesome” in a recent video report.

For more information see this article and this article.

Boing Boing reports that “the Reykjavík City Council has approved a citizen-led effort to rename a street Svarthöfði, translated as Blackhead, which is the Icelandic name for Darth Vader.”

Click here for more information.

For the past four years, residents of California have been battling one of the most severe droughts in the state’s history. As a result, California is currently witnessing one of the worst fire seasons ever.

From July into August, firefighters found themselves battling a fire system named the “Rocky Fire” which burned almost 70 thousand acres of land. In general, fires are named after the area where they are believed to have started.

Other infamous California fires that have earned official names include:

• the 2012 Rush Fire
• the Cedar Fire of 2003

One of the worst wildfires in California history, the Cedar Fire is also known by two names that express its devastating size: Fire Siege of 2003 and 2003 Firestorm.

In Japan, last year was the “Year of the Horse”. As a result, many of the most popular boys’ names for 2014 included the kanji character for horse, for example,駿, 悠馬 .

Topping the list of most popular kanji characters used for boys’ names in 2014 was 蓮 or “ren” which means “sacred lotus”. Amongst the girls’ names, one of the most commonly appearing characters was 凛, which according to Japan Today means “dignified” and “gallant”.

See this article and this article for more information.

Digg and Atlas Obscura are crowd-sourcing a map of best and worst business pun names… Submit your nominations here! Nominations close September 7th.

Facebook recently deleted the pages of Balizar Orion Avatar and his wife Audry Avatar because their last name is a word Facebook has flagged as being a likely suspicious or fake account. See this article for more on this modern onomastic controversy.