Graphing the distribution of English letters
prooffreader.com
prooffreader.com
Looking at graphs, this could be a convenient way to generate short, pronounceable, easily-spelt, yet uncommon names for a new product or service that you want to launch.
The results are both hard-to-pronounce and hard-to-spell, unfortunately.
Edit: and here's a version with letters in their most common positions - http://jsfiddle.net/tqC5L/1/
Of course, if you come up with an uncommon, 'weird' name and you got really, really good at what you do, then you'll redefine the thing itself, and your noun will become a verb. But it's such an uphill battle.
All in all I suppose it's a lower order bit than getting your product or service right. You can always rename 37signals to Basecamp later on, for example.
Using a created name means you have less risk of trademark problems. You also create a strong search benefit. (See Fedora's baffling decision to rebrand their file browser as "Files" and their curated package manager "Software" for examples of something that is now impossible to find using search engines.)
I think Pyrex is a genius name, by the way!
Just went to look up the etymology of Kodak, and found this gem:
"Towards the end of 1887 photographic entrepreneur George Eastman was preparing to launch his 'little roll holder breast camera', which he believed would prove popular with the growing market of amateur photographers. In order to promote global sales he wanted to give the camera a snappy and distinctive name that would be recognizable in any language. After experimenting with various combinations of vowels and consonants - aided, it was said, by an anagram game set or possibly a bowl of alphabet soup - he hit upon the name 'Kodak.'
It may have been a made-up word but the prominence of the letter 'K' was not purely arbitrary - Eastman confessed to a liking for 'K', partly because his mother's maiden name was Kilbourn but also because it seemed to him 'a strong, incisive sort of letter.' His first public use of the Kodak name was in a letter to his patent lawyers on 28 January 1888. Four months later, the first 'original Kodak' went on sale and proved a runaway success. The tradename was registered in the United States on 4th September 1888 but when Eastman tried to do the same in England, the Comptroller of the British Patent Office requested a letter explaining the derivation of the word. In response, Eastman confirmed that 'Kodak is not a foreign name or word; it was constructed by me to serve a definite purpose. It has the following merits as a trade-mark word: First. It is short. Second. It is not capable of mispronunciation. Third. It does not resemble anything in the art and cannot be associated with anything in the art except the Kodak.'" (http://www.darklanecreative.com/blog/the-meaning-of-the-word...)
Also: Asked about the name "Kodak", George Eastman replied, "Philologically, the word Kodak is as meaningless as a child's first 'goo'—terse, abrupt to the point of rudeness, literally bitten off by firm and unyielding consonants at both ends, it snaps like a camera shutter in your face. What more would one ask!" (http://askville.amazon.com/origin-word-Kodak/AnswerViewer.do...)
Beautiful stuff. It's really hard to put together a universal rule here- there are certain general principles, but the exception can make all the difference. I think it's ultimately a matter of taste, and a sensitivity to language.