Jack R. O'Brien

A Name At Any Other Price

 

I can still remember the $5 I was rewarded for naming the Syracuse University School of Speech Communications newsletter, Verbatim, in 1967. Little did I know such an exercise was worth so much more until I read about Ira Bachrach ("Name-Calling," July).

I am not persuaded that there is as great a value distinction between what a local creative resource could provide and what NameLab could.

Despite all the phonemes, morphemes, and computerized lists, there were a lot of NameLab names that had been thought of before -- for other purposes -- by someone else.

A creative use of language skills exists, believe me, in many an ad agency. You just have to accept the fact that a great name doesn't have to cost $30,000.