Their number 1 problem is the name.
If you think you are not affected. Would you try a product named "octopussy"? Would you deploy it across your organization and gives presentation about it?
P.S. Octopussy is a real tool that solves a hard problem I forgot about.
"Mongo" is a norwegian/swedish(?) slang for a retarted person. It's derived from the word "mongoloid" which was an person with Downs or a similar syndrome. The latter word is not commonly used anymore.
They can keep thinking the name is not a problem, or they can decide to grow up and change the name.
Only naive engineers who know nothing about branding/marketing will think this is OK. It's fine if they're just doing their own thing, but it's a whole different story if they're operating a business
The name is one thing that anyone can have an opinion about, the average person can't really speak to the internals of the database, but anyone can look at the name and say "I don't like it and wouldn't want to say I have 'cockroachdb' in my stack".
The very fact that it comes up every time there's a story about the database should be a pretty strong sign that the name is overshadowing the product. If it was named after an animal that doesn't have nearly universal disdain like "Koala-db" or "dragonfly-db", or even "ant-db", then I doubt people would be bringing up the name every time it's mentioned
But the reason that people don't complain about the name every time git is brought up is because git comes up in conversation a lot. CockroachDB is also a really bad name - I do agree - but the reason almost every thread about it on here is partially derailed by chatter about its name is, I think, simply because it doesn't come up all that often.
That's stretching it a bit too far. Just because it's a "mild oath" in British english, doesn't mean it's bad name for rest of the world. I for one have never heard about it and don't think git is a bad name at all.
Cockroach, on the other hand, I don't know of anyone who would get a good image in their mind hearing it.
So you think if people keep saying cockroach a lot, suddenly cockroach will magically become some nice clean creature in people's mind? That's like saying if you keep saying "ShitDB", someday people will think it's a good name.
I'm saying these people are doing their own technology disservice by making the brand difficult to talk about and take seriously.
It's their choice, but there's a difference between "stupid names don't matter, look at Google!" and "stupid names don't matter, look at FuckDB! RapeDB! CockroachDB!" (I know i'm going extreme with this but just trying to get the point across, that "stupid" names and "offensive" names are completely different things)
If you still disagree with me, I don't really have much intention of trying to persuade you nor care much about this company succeeding. I'm just saying it's a bad business decision to make it hard for your customers to advocate for your product. If there was a company with the same technology and they had a normal name, they would probably get much better traction (assuming that their tech is unique and useful).
Something like that. People will associate the name with the database, not the insect. This does happen, over time you almost forget the the original meaning.
Some examples: when somebody says Oracle or Delphi, I'm thinking databases and Pascal successor, not ancient Greek stuff. When somebody says Pascal, I'm thinking programming language not the French mathematician. Fedora is a Linux distribution (and also a type of hat), Twitter is a social network (and also a type of bird vocalization) and so on.
Cockroach not only has negative connotation, but the negativity scale is pretty strong.
Bring me a single person who will say they get good emotion when they hear "cockcroach". Sometimes you need to be stubborn about your business decisions, but if you're being stubborn about naming your business after a word most of the population will get negative feelings the first time they hear, then you're doing it wrong. It's not even a subjective thing, with a bad name, people are less likely to talk about your brand than if you had a positive name.
Or, for a not-exactly-elegant name: Ubuntu 4.10 Warty Warthog. You are launching a brand-new Linux distribution, why not call it after a warty wild pig. Worked OK for them.
"Cockroach" on the other hand, like i said, I know of absolutely NO one who would get positive emotion upon hearing that word. Just like "rape", or "nazi" don't evoke positive emotion for anyone.
First impressions actually matter in human interactions, and when you're named after one of the most disgusting pests known to man, that's definitely not helping your case.
Sorry, not everyone (especially management and others you have to explain it to who aren't rational super-men) get a good impression on a technology you're peddling... it's associated literally with cockroaches. Good luck selling that to them. What's next, "Cancer-DB"?
Because "aid" means to give assistance and that database is here to help you ;)
"Roaches on Open Water! CockroachDB on DigitalOcean" https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/roaches-on-open-water-coc...
Next up - Annual cockroachdb conference: roach motel.
You guys are ruining my lunch time.
proprietary auto sharting algorithm makes me laugh every time.
but i guess no one got the joke , because you know apple is like a famous tech company and mongodb is a popular nosql db
so apple+mongodb = mangodb .. got it .. no .. :(