How do you create names?

[marcelomd]

Hi,

How do you come up with names for new designs? That has to be the most difficult part for me.

Descriptive names are so boring: Super Distortion, 4 Knob Compressor. meh
Derivative names for derivative designs are a little better: English Muffin, Muffuleta, Archer, Merman, Minotaur, etc.

I used to work at a lab where the guys would name the boards for (most of the time porn) actresses. Juvenile & funny, but I wanted a little more meaning. I like the idea of person names, like "Churchill", or "Victoria", for a British Guv'nor based design.

[EBK]

The last circuit I "designed" (i.e., cobbled together bits and pieces of existing circuits), I named for how I felt it sounded -- sweet, rich, and warm morphed into the name Honey Butter Biscuit.

Edit:  I completely forgot about "The Cagey Bee's Pi", which I'm still hoping to see built by someone someday.  I'm not sure how that name came to me though. 

[digi2t]

Wikipedia and Webster's are my go to sources. That, and a vivid imagination. We run into this dilemma with every project we release at DEFX.

A good example is the Ibanez EM5 PCB. I was looking for a name that would exemplify the echo aspect of the circuit. Googling the word "echo", I came across the Wiki on the Inchindown oil tanks in the UK. The hold the world record for the longest echo in the world, so, we found it fitting to name the project Inchindown.

Some names are indicative, while others are fanciful, and may not initiate the same vision as ours, but hey... have fun with it. We do. After all... what's in a name?

[BetterOffShred]

Think like a 6 year old.

Compressor:  Python squeezer

Distortion:  Turbo Fasty Shred

Delay: Magic Beam Deliverer
Etc..   

But you're right, it's hard not to sound douchey and pretentious naming devices.  And the ideas to have it be representative of sound is a good one, you may just have to get off into the weeds to find something that you like..

[bean]

75% of the time: first thing that pops in my head.
25% of the time: thesaurus. It's seriously helpful.

[stallik]

Sometimes a word comes to mind which I think would be an awesome pedal name. Unfortunately, I never think to write them down. Not much good when you have a memory like mine

[amptramp]

I have one called "Here Come the Fuzz".

I have plans for an isolation unit called "Alcatraz".  I may have to find a new name for "Delerium Tremolo" because I think it's already taken.  I have plans for a phasor called "Moonquake".  And "Log Arrythmia" is another specialized distortion.

[BluffChill]

I might be in the minority, but I tend to think of names (without meaning to) and then make something that sounds appropriate and fits. For example, I was playing the game Hyper Light Drifter, which has a very atmospheric, bitcrushed soundtrack by Disasterpeace which I really enjoyed, and so I made a pedal which was a delay with ringmod on the repeats, and called it the HyperLight! Pic for reference

[Mark Hammer]

Much of the time, I'm simply adapting an existing design.  Though I don't build specifically to sell, I do sometimes sell things I've grown bored with, or want to improve on a subsequent build.  So I try to anticipate another owner, and give things names that allude to the original, but don't pretend to be the original.


And sometimes, the strongest influence is what letters I have left in my ever-dwindling rub-on lettering collection.  There's a little bit of "Nope, can't spell that".

[deadastronaut]

naming is the hardest thing ever...whenever i think of a name,

you can guarantee someone else had it...

even brian came up with a 'dreamtime delay'' too recently..(nice btw ) great minds think alike..

i posted this very same name way back in april......so yup, it really is a pain and hard to come up with an original and relevant name.....

https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=120165.msg1124441;topicseen#msg1124441

[bcalla]

I got this idea watching a GEICO Insurance TV commercial while building the Echo Base.

[duck_arse]

play with words. I get bored of straight correct english, so when a non-english first language speaker posts, you get a sense of the fun can be had with the wordings. then play with the word sounds. translate them to latin to see what they become, maybe. pay tribute [oooh, latin!] to some influence or other, mess the original circuit name about, try to obscure the origins of the name. and each time, write what you come up with on your scribble copy circuit.

Rutabaga Bob was debugging his uglyface, and I decided I'd better build one to understand the problems. and facia is latin for face, a rutabaga is a vegtable, so why not "the facia baga"? and, when I say here's my facia baga, I don't get the "yeah your ugly face" gag come back at me.

[antonis]

"PUSPIN"
(Puttanesca Spaghetti Inside)

[vigilante397]

I pass the job on to someone else I have a friend that I've played with that always has the coolest band names and coolest album names, so I call him my "marketing director" and he names all my pedals

[bluebunny]

Whatever your next pedal is, call it "The Marketing Director".  You'll know what it means, we'll all be in on the joke (thanks Nathan) and no-one else will be any the wiser.   

[vigilante397]

Whatever your next pedal is, call it "The Marketing Director".

Consider it done

EDIT: Just finished the block diagram for the Marketing Director, I'm putting together a Mouser order now so I can get some parts for prototyping. Looks like the Marketing Director in this case is going to be a micro-amp similar to the EHX 44 Magnum (actually using the same power amp chip), but with a JFET preamp in front. I may even have boards available in the future

[bluebunny]

I kinda meant Marcelo, but since you thought of the name, Nathan, I guess you can use it!      Will be needing pictures, of course...

[vigilante397]

I kinda meant Marcelo

I mean it's not like I'm going to trademark it, he can still use it too

[marcelomd]

I'm loving all the ideas here. Really cleared things up for me. Thanks.

And Marketing Director is a great name =) Specially in a 'corporate positions' theme.

[alanp]

The thing with pedal names is that it can get annoying sometimes, when the knob labels and the pedal name give no useful info as to what the thing actually does.