what's in a name?

For some obscure reason, the mobile telephone company I use has decided to change its name. It used to call itself "Tim", itself a fairly saft name for a company, but probably 
better than calling itself Keith or Malcolm.  
It has now decided to call itself "Wind", which means that 
thousands of  
users, when asked which company they use, , will be forced to reply 
"I have Wind."  

This unfortunate marketing ploy reminded me of a similar doomed choice of name by
an Athenian slimming company a few years ago. The company's main aim is to persuade
people
to lose a considerable number of pounds, both in the 
avoirdupois and financial sense of the 
word,
by availing themselves of its services. The enterprising company developed a marvellous 
machine
which could analyse your body fat electronically and inform you that you were 
overweight.
I can derive the same result by lifting my shirt up in front of a mirror and being brutally 
honest,
but technology is so much more fun.  The company needed a name for its device. 
Here in Greece, many new products are given an English name. It makes them sound
more trendy, more scientific, and so the company decided the machine would have an English name. Many larger than life 
posters soon appeared around the city featuring a slender woman with a huge smile on her face. And smile she should. Apparently 
she'd just spent half an hour on the "Analiser." I was ready to sign up 
immediately, but
unfortunately the posters mysteriously disappeared one night and the company
reverted to
calculating body mass indices with a tape measure and set of weighing scales.

My sister in law's job involves helping companies outside the UK to import their 
products
into Britain. She recently received a request for help from an Eastern European
company which manufactures a marvellous toy which offers greater mobility to disabled children. She was 
delighted to help, until she saw the name of the toy. 
The manufacturers had originally decided to use a beautiful German name, Spasswagen, which means "fun car".  In full awareness, however,  
of the fact that
the average Englishman has no ability to pronounce correctly any foreign word 
which is not 
associated with curry, they decided to anglicise the name somewhat. And thus, 
the
Spaz Wagon was born. Predictably, it was not to be a commercial success.   

Good night each, kalhnyxta kai nos da i chi gyd