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Comment by aijony | Hacker News Reader

I think this is a great idea for people for people wanting to respect other's sensitivity.

However, I also think that it is even more important for people to respect other languages/cultures by not attributing their own independent negative connotations.

For example when it comes to naming a project, a Swede shouldn't get offended by an English-speaker using "fan" (Swedish swear for devil), and an English speaker shouldn't get offended by a Swede using "slut" (Swedish root for stop/end).

Maybe I'm wrong, but this is a neat service nonetheless.

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I'm sure it happens, but I don't usually hear names with unfortunate meanings discussed in terms of offence or respect, but much more practical concerns: inability to get the culture to take the name seriously, inability to register a business, that sort of thing.

I'm not going to get strident at a Swedish company trying to launch a product called "slut", but at the same time I'm going to have trouble taking it seriously, and I'm probably not going to recommend it to anyone.

So if a Swedish company creates a revolutionary pesticide called 'BugSlut', you'll have no qualms recommending it to your green-fingered elderly relatives?

Just put an ü or ø in there somewhere. Problem solved.

I think you may have misinterpreted my comment, I said the opposite of that.

Ah sorry, I'd meant to reply to the same comment you did, making the same point really.

The name is going to be the first thing many people see, well before finding out the name has roots in another language or culture.

We can talk about how people should act, but the simple fact is a Swedish developer releasing SkrappostSlut or a Chinese developer releasing NiggaApp are probably not going to get a lot of traction in English markets and I’d expect similar issues the other direction. If those markets are important to your business, it’s probably wise to at least be aware of these sorts of issues.

A real-world example would be the Japanese university that changed the official English translation of its name to Kindai University; it's original name, using a direct transliteration, was Kinki University which apparently caused awkwardness.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/01/national/japans...

There is also the Bonerowski Palace hotel in Krakow, formerly known as the Boner Palace.

Mitsubishu Pajero --> means Wanker in Spanish.

wix.com reads as jerkoff.com in german

Skoda Laura, a premium sedan was launched a decade or so ago in India. It was too late for the geniuses to learn that “laura” means dick in Hindi, a widely spoken language in northern parts of India.

This seem like a strawman. It's not about "snowflakes" getting offended. Everyone understands that words have different meanings in different languages. So if I read "you need to get fitta'" in an english gym ad I just giggle and don't get offended like "hrmph, is this gym implying that I don't get laid!". But, when I'm in the process of buying a car, that giggle might turn into a "I'll just buy another car then". Specifically thinking about Honda Fitta.

(Use the site to check what that word means in my native language)

Amazing that you're down-voted to -3 for expressing your opinion as a consumer. And it's kind of funny that people here are complaining about companies doing a thing which make perfect sense even from a purely financial perspective. Why choose a name that means something gross/weird/derogatory in the language of your consumers? Just bad for business.

I think HN has a subset of people who swarm to these sorts of threads and rage-downvote based on some sort of unusual meme (in the original sense of the word) that's spreading through their community.

But a lot of these names seem to be manufactured words that are intended to sound foreign and exotic, and thus cool.

For instance, Herman Miller has just introduced the "Motia" Gaming Desk [1]. They don't offer an explanation for what "Motia" means, and I can't seem to Google/DDG the meaning, because search results in my location are overwhelmed by the colloquial meaning of "motia" in Hindi and Urdu. That meaning is "cataract", an unfortunate name for a gaming desk that goes out of its way to reduce eye strain by sporting a matte, anti-glare finish.

[1] https://store.hermanmiller.com/gaming/motia-gaming-desk/2520...

Moti = Pearl in Hindi/Urdu

I think that's why it is used in cataract where eyes look like pearls.

So the meaning depends on which context you used the word in.

When I started learning web development I was told the possibly apocryphal story that Lego had one of the first websites, and they were of course tracking visitors, but they couldn't figure out why they didn't have any kids visiting from the U.S, as it turned out this was because at the end of every page they had the word "Slut" (the end) and American parents of course had bad language filters on their kids computers.

The corporation that just invested in a 100M global re-branding will for sure want to make sure their branding isn't obviously offensive in a certain market. It's a basic service that branding agencies offer. This could be an useful tool for those efforts.

So “SlutFan” might not be the best name for a company?

depends on which TLD it is registered.

.xxx, presumably.

.church

It means "StopTheDevil"

It doesn't.

The two replies to this comment are the entire problem, in a nutshell.

Now, think about search. I know a guy who named his company using his last name and after 20-odd years got told by some customers that searching for it yields dick pics. He suspected a googlebomb... But no, it just happens that his name is a slang word for a penis in some Asian language.

I don’t think the problem is people getting offended. But sometimes a name can sound funny and it will be difficult for people taking it seriously. For example WebOS in Spanish sounds like “huevos” (eggs) and huevos it’s another way to say testicles at least in Mexico. I doubt too many people will get offended by that, but there will be a lot of jokes about your company or product.

The point of it is rather different. Classic example: Osram which roughly translates into "I will cover in shit" in Polish

And hugely successful in Poland despite and maybe even because of the name.

I think we became immunized and stopped noticing it in this context after product being so many years on shelves. Just like you stop noticing your nose in sight. Though such a threat from a lightbulb sounds scary :)

> it is even more important for people to respect other languages/cultures by not attributing their own independent negative connotations.

Is that what you really care about here? It sounds like feigned concern over a non-issue so you can throw shade on the product that doesn't align with your politics.

> an English speaker shouldn't get offended by a Swede using "slut" (Swedish root for stop/end).

No one has claimed otherwise. If a product is designed for international usage, the company should think about what is implied by the name of the company in minds of their potential customers.

In 2017 the Danish company Dong changed it's name to Ørsted https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%98rsted_(company) no idea why (although article says they changed "citing that DONG was inappropriate considering they had no oil and natural gas assets under ownership any more"), but I had noticed some stuff on BoingBoing just before making fun of the name.

But using a letter hardly anyone outside Denmark knows is even worse. There's a good reason Mærsk isnt called Mærsk anymore.

Given that most Danes below the age of 50 are effectively bilingual they were also made fun of here in Denmark. Also "dong" in danish is ofc. onomatopoeia for the sound that a large bell or gong makes when struck, which in itself was a bit silly even without the english meaning.

The same company issued a long maturity (1000-year) bond, which on the trading floor became known as the Ultra Long Dong, and broke many many trading applications that used 64 bit nanosecond timestamps.

Since you mentioned Sweden

Sweden's Lund University admin snaps after being trolled by Indians on Facebook - https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/swedens-lund-universit...

I wasn't aware of the meaning of "snaps" as "asks people politely to refrain from harassment".

So an admin at a university (probably a person who should be sensitive to PR) should have said "You #$&*^$ #^#%&%$#$@, stop doing this already!" to make it look like a true "snap"?

Yes, he'd have to do something very uncharacteristic of the position, otherwise it's an entirely appropriate and reasonable reaction, which isn't really what one would characterize a "snap".

I think I am coming from the perspective that incessant trolling forced them to issue an official response and that's "snap enough" for me.

You seem to be coming from the point of view (that's my assumption based on our short comments; it maybe something else) that it doesn't meet the literal dictionary meaning so it's not a snap - which I disagree with.

I think that's all to it.

Possibly, I think "snap" is there purely for clickbait reasons, to imply a much larger reaction so we click through. "Responds" would have been more accurate, though not as converty.

It's not only that it doesn't mean the dictionary definition. There's no usage - colloquial or otherwise - of that term I'm familiar that fits the situation.

It's disingenuous at best to refer to the response as "snapping".

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