great product - lousy name

roman2 · Post by **roman2** » 07 Aug 2006, 12:34

When I showed Servant Salamander to my coworkers, they liked it a lot but said the name was bad.

AbteriX · Post by **AbteriX** » 07 Aug 2006, 16:09

@AltapStuff
BTW, out of curiosity (i can't understand i had never ask this bevor

)

what is the meaning of "servant salamander" ?
where does this name belong/ come from?

@roman2
just tell your co-workers this tool calls "Altap Commander"

BTW my wife have a lousy name too, but here pancakes are fantastic
so no matter about the name, SalaCommander, err ServantCommander
is one of the best and this is what count.

Happy servantSalamandering.

KNUT · Post by **KNUT** » 08 Aug 2006, 09:16

AbteriX wrote:BTW my wife have a lousy name too, but here pancakes are fantastic so no matter about the name

ROTFL

omega · Post by **omega** » 08 Aug 2006, 14:55

So what is the name of your wife?

Post by **Jan Rysavy** » 31 Aug 2006, 10:48

http://www.kickstartnews.com/reviews/ut ... 5_ksn.html
First off, we're going to ignore the product name because it just doesn't do justice to a powerful and classy piece of utility software.

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CommentVi ... 88dbdc5a27
You should really take a look at Servant Salamander (yes, I know - very strange name for a file manager).

http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/tec020898.html
It's called Servant Salamander, which takes the prize for the craziest name so far this year for a serious Windows program.

http://www.millkern.com/cmug/newsletter ... age11.html
It’s called Servant Salamander and I don’t know why. While the name is goofy...

http://forum.altap.cz/viewtopic.php?t=708
great product - lousy name

OK, we are listening to you.

A question for native English speakers: what about proposed Altap Salamander?

+better abbreviation: AS instead of SS
+could be better acceptable for corporate customers
+shorter name
+better position at alphabetic lists

-conservative users don't like changes
-broken logo (text part)

PepaR_cz · Post by **PepaR_cz** » 31 Aug 2006, 11:59

I think, that current name is ok... Why change something what is great.

MartinS · Post by **MartinS** » 31 Aug 2006, 12:08

Well, I'm not native English speaker, but all people I know here in Moravia call this great program just Salamander (or Salam).

So I think that changing the word Servant is OK.

Martin

omega · Post by **omega** » 31 Aug 2006, 13:00

I think the reason many people don't like the name because of the name salamander. Changing to Altap Salamander won't make much difference i think.

Post by **Jan Rysavy** » 31 Aug 2006, 13:09

omega wrote:I think the reason many people don't like the name because of the name salamander. Changing to Altap Salamander won't make much difference i think.

Are Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Opera, Tortoise better names? We don't think so. It looks like the problem is in Servant part of name. It is not common word if you look at product names.

ino · Post by **ino** » 31 Aug 2006, 16:38

Jan Rysavy wrote: Are Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Opera, Tortoise better names? We don't think so. It looks like the problem is in Servant part of name. It is not common word if you look at product names.

Great product needs great name and Salamander has both. Name Salamander is pretty cool! Everyone who know Salamander even me are saying "salamander" or shorter bur rarely heard about "servant". I hate double "S" as short name for it I simply use "Salamander" (same in case of great browser Opera I use siply Opera;). Your suggestion for new name is good as well:

ALTAP Salamander

the File Manager

JohnFredC · Post by **JohnFredC** » 31 Aug 2006, 19:53

It would seem very important to maintain the Salamander part of the name. The software's identity is "Salamander" and you risk harming whatever market awareness and trust you have earned by renaming it.

Better to come up with some sort of mythology behind the name to justify it. A parable, a fable, an "old wive's tale" about birth, and growth, and how the fire annealed something born of the earth into this great, fire-proof piece of software.

Or something like that.

PS. Thank goodness you guys didn't pick a name that ends up being abbreviated to "Dopus". In English, the connotations of "Dopus" are downright hilarious and none of them complimentary!

PPS. "Salamander" might abbreviate to "Sally" in English. "Sally" suggests a sturdy and trustworthy young lady from the Midwest, or perhaps a fun-loving blonde...

roger · Post by **roger** » 31 Aug 2006, 20:13

Jan Rysavy wrote:
omega wrote:I think the reason many people don't like the name because of the name salamander. Changing to Altap Salamander won't make much difference i think.
Are Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Opera, Tortoise better names? We don't think so. It looks like the problem is in Servant part of name. It is not common word if you look at product names.

True, just Salamander would be good.

omega · Post by **omega** » 31 Aug 2006, 21:22

Because it's not common that's why it's unique. I'm conservative and prefer to keep the original name. If the name is gonna change just hope it's not going to get worse lol

WillM · Post by **WillM** » 31 Aug 2006, 22:23

I always use just Salamander myself. Directory names, shortcuts, etc.

SvA · Post by **SvA** » 31 Aug 2006, 23:15

Jan Rysavy wrote:It looks like the problem is in Servant part of name. It is not common word if you look at product names.

I think you are right with this observation, though I cannot find anything strange with this myself, but rather with completely unrelated names like Firefox, Tortoise and the like (Salamander included).

I would not change the Salamander part, though, since by now, it carries the products's identity.

Altap Salamander seems to be ok. It promotes your company's name, which can help you later on to market other products. Still the stress is on the Salamander part, which most of us seem to be using on it's own to refer to the program.

With Altap Salamander, the change seems to be more slight than if you drop the Servant part without any replacement. Adobe did a similar change with its Acrobat Reader, which now is Adobe Reader; hardly anyone noticed.