The Runner-Ups

Larkspur

Larkspur was one of the first name ideas to gain traction in our group. It was suggested by Mark Stosberg and got enough momentum even for Jesse to do some initial branding exploration.

Talkoot

Talkoot, which is a Scandanavian word which caught my attention because of its meaning. From wikipedia:

“Talkoot is a group of people gathering to work together, for instance, to build or repair something. The word is borrowed into Finland-Swedish as talko. It is the cultural equivalent of common work in a village community, although adopted to the conditions of Finland, where traditionally many families lived in isolated farms, often miles away from the nearest village. A talkoot is per definition voluntary, and the work is unpaid. The task of the talkoot may be something that is a common concern, i.e. for the good of the group, or it may be to help someone with a task that exceeds his or her own capacity. The institution bears considerable similarity to barn raising but is more general in application.”

In the end, I think the group just didn’t like the sound of the word, and didn’t want any name that seemed was so foreign that is seemed almost made up. I for one have grown tired of product names that sound like the name of a Star Wars character.

Janata

Many of the names we considered came from other languages. We looked for words that translated literally into one or more of the values we thought was essential to our identity, just as “Drupal” means “droplet” in Dutch. One of those words that resonated with us was “Janata” - a Hindi word meaning “the people” or also “community.”

Foundry

This was one of Tim Appnel’s ideas and his personal favorites. I think everyone liked the name, each for their own reasons, but in the end we thought it felt too technical. Movable Type and WordPress for example are names that feel mechanical in nature and very much disconnected from the people who make them work. We wanted something that would exist in contrast to that - something with a more organic quality.

Monarch

Everyone loved the imagery the butterfly brought to the table and we loved the idea of “metamorphosis.” I am not sure why we ventured away from this name, but it might have had something to do with trademark issues, or our feeling that it was a little too overused and cliche.

The Top 11

Yes, our list of favorite names went to eleven. This final list of names comprise the ones we all considered to be the strongest possibilities:

Melody

Larkspur

Texet

Harmonic

Janata

Hansa

Talkoot

Monarch

Ensemble

Twill

Ignite

Our Final Pick

No matter how many names we considered, the one that had virtually unanimous appeal was the name we used as the project’s code name from the very beginning: Melody. As many familiar with Movable Type will know, “Melody” was the original default username (“Nelson” was the default password) for Movable Type a long time ago. The name was chosen by Ben and Mena in reference to Serge Gainsbourg’s album “Histoire de Melody Nelson.” Aside from liking the name we all felt it was a fitting homage to the product Melody is derived from.

For those who are interested, you can also listen in on the group early on the process discussing our many name options in one of our weekly conference calls, which by the way, are always recorded and available for the public to listen to. Listen now: