Over the past few years, a crowd of new companies has emerged across tech, finance and health—all sporting a first-name brand. “Oscar,” “Alfred,” “Lola” —they have the look and feel of a friend, a colleague, maybe even your cat. And that’s the point: Make a connection with consumers that even Dale Carnegie would appreciate.

The strategy seems to be working. Research shows that the more simple and human-sounding the name, the greater the company’s success. Brands with short, easy to pronounce names were viewed more positively by investors, a 2012 study published in the Journal of Financial Economics found. By reducing name length by just one word, companies can see a boost of 2.53 percent to their book-to-market ratio—a formula used to find the market value of a company—or $3.75 million for a medium-size firm, according to the study.

Check out this article at Bloomberg.com about the trend in personal names in startups!

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex leaves Windsor Castle in the Ascot Landau carriage during a procession after getting married at St Georges Chapel on May 19, 2018 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

On Saturday, May 19 2018, Meghan Markle married into the monarchy, bringing her misspelling and all. She will begin signing letters as “Meghan,” and the spelling will spread as children get named after the Duchess. The name historically acquired an “H” when the Welsh name was confused with Irish ones.

The first Megan hardly died 50 years ago, but parents have gotten straight to the business of misspelling it. Megan Lloyd George (1902 – 1966) was the first woman MP in Wales and the daughter of a British Prime Minister. Before her birth, the name was merely a nickname for Margaret, but her parents made it a first name itself, according to the ANS’ own Cleveland Evans:

He explained authors confused Megan with the Irish last names Meighan and Mehegan, and in 1977, a character by novelist Colleen McCullough brought the mothership: Meghann.

Click through to this article at Macleans, written by Meagan Campbell, to find out more!

Accent marks are missing in place names all over the Bay Area. Many neighborhoods and streets are named after Spanish explorers. Some of those names once had accent marks. But now, without them, we don’t know if we’re saying them right. In this news story at KALW, you can listen to the different ways residents pronounce the name of their neighborhood in San Francisco. 

And find out about the history of San Francisco’s Portola district. Don Gaspar de Portola was a Spanish explorer. Historians believe he discovered the San Francisco Bay in the 1700s. He was also the first Governor of Spanish-ruled California, before it was a state.  After the miners struck gold and San Francisco rapidly grew, most people living here didn’t know about Portola. And those that did, forgot about him. How did a neighborhood end up named after him?

The Social Security Administration has recently released its annual list of the United States’ most popular baby names and one thing is clear: American parents love vowels. Continuing an on-and-off reign that began in 2008, “Emma” took the top slot for newborn girls’ names. “Liam” became the most popular name for boys for the first time ever. Both, notably, have a 1:1 ratio of consonants to vowels.

This is true up and down the list: Vowels accounted for at least half of the letters in all but one of the most popular girls’ names (Charlotte). Boys’ names are slightly less vowel-heavy: They make up at least half of the letters in four of the 10 most popular boys’ names, but many of the rest are close, with just slightly fewer vowels than consonants.

Want to know more about this trend? Click through to this article at the Atlantic for details and analysis!

Have you wondered how professional namers create those million dollar brand names? How those names are created, vetted, and selected? Learn the secrets of namers in this fascinating new podcast called How Brands Are Built, hosted by Rob Meyerson.

Listen the first episode, an interview with Anthony Shore, right here:

On April 25, China sent a letter to 36 foreign airlines pressuring them to remove references to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau as countries on their websites and marketing materials. Air Canada and Malaysia Airlines have altered references to Taiwan on their websites, indicating China’s claim over the self-ruled island; at Malaysia Arlines, where the country used to list “Taiwan,” it’s been changed to “Taiwan-China.” Air Canada’s booking page  previously listed Taipei’s airport as being in “TW,” the abbreviation for Taiwan, but just recently all mention of Taiwan as the country had been replaced by “CN,” the abbreviation of China, with no mention of Taiwan.

This article at Business Insider reveals more about the changes, and details some of the steps China is taking to assert its preferences in the international market.