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Comment by MockObject | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't use it because I just don't want to see and write its name daily.

People are downvoting you, but there's something to be said about it. What happens if you try to pitch CockroachDB to your non-techie upper management? They're going to look at you like you're an idiot. Names aren't important unless they're bad because first impressions do matter.

Say "CRDB" and move on with your day.

While I agree with the spirit, and don't share gp's attitude, that probably wouldn't be effective for web search.

I'm guessing that the downvotes are because people consider the stated reason to be a terrible one.

Your point, which is that other people may use the same justification, doesn't validate the point. It just means that there may be more than one person who would use the same, poor, reason.

I think the opposite. The name makes it easier to describe what it does to people that doesn't understand the technical vocabulary.

In this case, with the connotations that the name "coach roach" is associated with, you'd be wrong:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/molly-reynolds/why-brand-name...

The only connotations I've got with cockroaches is resiliency, and maybe hissing?

I guess that does explain the custom support for

    PRAGMA hissing_noise();

> They're going to look at you like you're an idiot.

Are they really going to? As someone with many years of marketing/branding/advertising experience, CockroachDB is a bold, powerful and meaningful name, that, in my opinion, is one of the best branding cases I've ever seen for tech infra products.

How often do you pitch the name of the tools you use to upper management? I just say we are going to use a database.

are people really serious when they say they won't use the product because of its name or is this some kind of HN meme where everyone complains about the name everytime there is an article on cockroachDB

I refuse to use it until they change the name. It's disgusting.

Cockroaches are awesome! The name[0] is sort of a back-formation from a loan word cucaracha which simply refers to a beetle. But in English it takes on a new meaning because of the word "cock" which gives it a real badass connotation, and these things are indeed badass. Now we also have the shortened word "roach" which is also an awesome word for the language. BTW, in SC2 you will want to look out for 6 or 7 Roaches[1] knocking down the front door of your base[2].

Back to the awesome creation of God[3] commonly known as the cockroach. According to Wikipedia[4], there are some 4600 known species of cockroaches, and only 30 of them are associated with human habitats. The rest of them are basically outdoor roaches, so if you find one in your house they are probably there by accident and trying to find a way out.

In fact, the only species you really need to worry about is the so-called "German" cockroach, which Germans call the Russian roach, and Russians call the Polish roach (and I'm sure the Poles blame the Turks or some such group).

If you see this roach in your house then you are in trouble. They like dirty houses so clean your house. And they have evolved to avoid sweets so you have to buy the correct kind of bait[5]. I like to spin long yarns about my battles against these bugs to anyone who cares to listen. In the end you need to deal with the humans who are too friendly to these roaches. Look for college students who live 3-4 to an apartment and go home for the weekend, people who work long hours and leave bags of half-eaten fast food in their open trash cans, and other unfortunate neighbors. Knock on their door and give them packs of the aforementioned roach bait to leave around their dwellings (this requires some tact). In time you can certainly eliminate them, thanks to modern chemistry. It should cost less than $50 and a few months of vigilance.

Frankly the German roach doesn't really fit the profile of your average cockroach. It's slow and seems to be asking you, almost daring you, to kill it, knowing there are 20 others that will take its place. A standard cockroach is the kind that runs away really fast, and would be just as happy living outdoors. They are far more widespread and just as survivable as the pest species, and lend their name to an awesome database product that will probably outlive discussions about its name.

I for one hope the creators keep the name and use the human revulsion about it as a marketing benefit. No one will forget their encounter with the mighty cockroach, and business people will come to associate it with sustainable competitive advantage which cockroaches have in spades.

[0]: https://www.etymonline.com/word/cockroach

[1]: http://liquipedia.net/starcraft2/Roach_(Legacy_of_the_Void)

[2]: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/11/02/genetic-algorith...

[3]: Genesis 1:24-25

[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach

[5]: https://www.amazon.com/Combat-Month-Roach-Killing-Station/dp...

Competitive advantage to everyone else. Survival of the cockroach-est.

I think they're being serious. Names are important, not as much as the underlying technology, and I think some people legitimately would be embarrassed trying to pitch a DB with the name Cockroach, or their phobia could be so extreme that the name itself does affect them. People can argue all day about the name, and HN can get all upset that its brought up everytime a post about CockroachDB is made, but that should say something about the name itself. If the name warrants comments on it, then maybe that means there is some significance to its name and to the general populace.

I think someone should fork it and use Palmetto Bug in the name instead in some creative way. It'd be keeping the spirit of the original name while also not having the same immediate disgust some people have with the name. In South Carolina, a common name to refer to cockroaches is the Palmetto bug.

For example, I wouldn't mention it on my resume.

You would want to work for people who hadn't heard of it?

I would. It would make for excellent interview fodder.

Well, it is open source, you can just fork it and rename it to, say, ButterflyDB. ;-)

The connotations that the name "coach roach" stir up aren't positive. People are grossed out by coach roaches.

The good news is that DBs are a niche of their own and as such don't need to appeal to the masses, making the name choice somewhat less important. But I still think, as someone else already pointed out here, that selling an exec (or non-tech decision maker) on this will be just slightly more difficult because of the name, as irrational as that might seem.

Google seemed like a stupid name the first time I heard it...

Well that's silly.

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