Why do you think these popular websites like Fluther, Twitter, Facebook etc. have such odd names?

I can see “Twitter” because they’re little people-chirps. And Facebook, since it was supposed to help you keep track of people you met.

But on the whole, perhaps it’s because other names are already overused, or somehow under copyright protection? My employer recently wanted to patent a technology under the name of a common noun, only to learn that the word was so general as to be unpatentable. That sort of thing. It has to be unique – which those names certainly are.

Our Fluther names are like that too, since we have to differentiate enough from other people to be recognizable. Why don’t we have 30 guys named “John,” since we probably really do have that many in real life? Instead we end up with names like “laureth” or “mollypop” because they’re unique, and can help tell us apart.

fluther is not popular
there is not even an entry on google trends

@Sebulba Because Google trends is life.

If websites aren’t unique with their names, how are you going to remember them?

Facebook isnt so weird

ok maybe not all of these are weird or popular, but aren’t some of them kind of random?

Because their creators are innovative?

Nearly every single non-compound English word has already been prospected by domain squatters. That’s why.

@andrew who came up with the name?

Ya Andrew….did you come up with it, did Ben, or somebody else?

I think sometimes it is because the obvious domain names are already purchased and then you have to start getting creative.

As a side note, I’m nearly positive twitter had to be bought from a squatter. Usually domains like that cost 5 figures. Since we didn’t have venture when we started, that wasn’t an option

@delta214 Ben suggested it after a visit to the Monteray Bay Aquarium. It was the first name in six months that was open and we both could agree on.

Facebook isn’t a strange name at all. There is a long time tradition at many colleges to give incoming freshmen a book with a pictures of all the other incoming freshmen. A book with pictures of their face. A face-book. It was even called the face-book at my school. It is often called that unofficially, but officially called something more formal sounding. Anyway, Facebook took that concept and ran with it, so they took the name as well.

Having a “unique”, “creative”, “simple”, and/or “short” name probably just makes the name easier to remember. Imagine all of the sites were named something like “AskQuestionsHereAndGetAnswersHere.com” or “SocialNetworkingSiteToKeepInTouchWithFriends.com”. Those are both long names that sound totally boring and neither of them show much creativity at all.

These names are much better than something like Assbag or Shitcentral.

What makes a name strange? All names are strange, if you look at them a certain way. How about “bug” or “Marilyn”?

The name Fluther is much more interesting in my opinion than something that describes the site directly. Questions&Answers.com would suck. I probably wouldn’t join this site if it had that name. Or YourQueries.com, they are probably taken. I’m not bothered typing them again into a browser for fear of falling asleep. But fluther….thats just fun.

Its nice to have a theme

I think these are all cool names, little tweeting birdies on Twitter, or fluhering on Fluther, or the obvious Facebook. But, yes they are strange, no question about it, but now my question is, why did they think of Twitter, or Flutter for example? I got Facebook, I guess that it a pretty easy one, but Fluther. It’s a type of jellyfish, or Twitter, just a rephrased word from Tweet-er. I think they’re cute, but why would it be Twitter, or why would it be Fluther?

@mollypop51797 Why would your screen name be mollypop51797? I don’t get it. :) Anyway, I was thinking about this and realized that a lot of people think screen names like mine are boring. However, a lot of you have interesting screen names. Why do you guys choose the screen name you chose? It may be for a similar reason. It may be to show a certain type of personality. Maybe the people behind these web sites wanted something unique to them and wanted some personality and flavour and this was their way to achieve those things… also, the more unique they are, the less likely (I would think) they are to get sued or blamed for copying other web sites.

Dang it’s good to see @rangerr here!
Maybe this question should be put to Andrew? Where did they come up with the name? And what do Octopi have to do with anything?? Why not, say….Unicorns or…something?

@Val123 . . . <AHEM> Jellyfish. . .

@Blondesjon Oh. Jelly fish. Of course. Now THAT makes sense!....?

@Val123 – I think what @Blondesjon means is, look up, and you will see that @andrew has already been here and done that. ;)

@laureth Ah, thank you! Answer is simple, as always!

Because no one would visit Gossip, Whiner, or Instigator.

Most of the names come out of the “computer site names” book and a few are the brilliant inventions of their inventors.