I'm Not Sure What To Call This Post

Right now, Kitchener-Waterloo is planning a new light-rail transit system, and it's time to give the thing a name.  Apparently the name we've been calling it, "LRT," just doesn't cut it, nor does simply calling it "the train."

So a local PR firm was hired to come up with a name for the system.  They returned with three names for discussion and public input: Ion, Arc, and Trio.  That has me wondering: if you pay consultants extra for a name, will they create a name that doesn't sound like it was made by consultants?  With all the efforts our society puts into good presentation, you'd think we'd have developed the art to the point of being able to sound natural.  But maybe that's only for the underground, independent public relations firms.

At the other end of the bad-names-we're-about-to-be-stuck-with spectrum, Ottawa's new football team needs a name.  To refresh your memory, for many years their team was the Rough Riders, a name widely ridiculed for being just a space and a capital away from being the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  Then their recent short-lived team was called the Renegades.  Apparently the new team is not beholden to either of those names, though they may feel pressured to choose another name beginning with "R".  Well now it comes out that the new owners are leaning towards "Red Blacks."  See, one aspect of the new team that is surely not up for debate is the red-and-black colour scheme, which has been used by pretty much every team coming out of the nation's capital. 

Unsurprisingly, the fans don't like the new name, and are letting the owners know it.  But rather than rethink their preference, the owners are brushing-off the controversy with the (admittedly correct) claim that people would find fault with any name they pick.  No other name is taking the public's imagination (they don't want to be saddled with the Rough Rider jokes again, and the Renegades name wasn't around long enough to connect with people) so Ottawa football fans may well be stuck with a team named after its colours, dumbed-down to the point of not even using conjunctions.

Between these two incidents, we have the two sides of naming problems:  Trying to please everyone pleases no one, and the people whose job it is to please everyone are so out-of-touch they can't sound natural anymore.  And people with enough power that they don't have to listen to anyone, made worse by a society where complaining is so epidemic that we no longer have any way of communicating that ideas are truly bad.