Phoenix rename proposal

[SilentJ]

The old Netscape README files said something like "Remember, it's spelt Netscape but it's pronounced M O Z I L L A". So why not spell it PX and pronounce it Phoenix?

yes! i like this idea, its very cool, PX is short and sweet, sounds good and will have a hidden meaning

[Memphis Foundry]

Arias sounds OK, though there is that Opera link there. That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the name before I read through the explanation. I don't dislike the name, but in that context the name seems kinda "me, too"-ish and I think of Phoenix as an innovative product that stands on it's own.

I'm glad to see Athena getting good support -- I still love the name but I can understand the point that several folks have made that it doesn't seem natural to give an anthropomorphic name to a browser product.

PX is pretty cool, too. It's short, easy to say, and has good legacy meaning. But it's main strength and weakness both derive from it being completely interpretable by the listener, including pronunciation, which may not be the best idea from a branding standpoint. But I really like the legacy thing.

So, I was rolling "Phoenix" around in my head trying to come up with something that is a new name and identifier for the product that has a concrete meaning but which alludes to the old identity of the product. Chopping out the middle of the word, I was left with Phox, or Fox.

Hm! Surf over to TESS and check a trademark search on "fox and software" and come up with only one hit, a dead MS patent for the FoxPro database system that expired in 1996.

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the name. Advantages:

- Good identification between animal and browser; both small, quick, cunning, sly, and intelligent
- Cute in appearance and would make a great logo
- Incorporates most of the current Phoenix color scheme (red, black, and white)
- Passes the one-syllable test and is easy on the tongue
- Not currently trademarked at all in the software field
- Plays well across the board to both genders and to both geeks and non-geeks
- "Phox" with a fox logo distances the product from Phoenix for legal reasons while maintaining some link to the past but keeps it from crossing paths directly spelling-wise with the Fox Media Empire(tm)
- Reinvents and revives a discarded MS trademark (how's that for guerilla marketing?)

Just wanted to throw this out there to see what everyone thinks. I don't want to inconvenience the devs as I know they are itching to get on with the next release, and speaking for the user community I can guarantee that we're itching to get it. But I think it is important to be a bit patient and get the best name possible at this point because with a little luck, we'll be using the chosen name a lot for a long, long time.


Top discarded suggestion:

cthulegal - "the browser which cannot be named (for legal reasons)"

[djnr]

I'm glad to see Athena getting good support -- I still love the name but I can understand the point that several folks have made that it doesn't seem natural to give an anthropomorphic name to a browser product.

I don't see the problem here - 1st of all, Athena was a God, not a person. And doesn it make any less sense than naming it after a bird (Like Phoenix) or a horse (Pegasus e-mail client). Mercury cars, the Apollo rockets - there's nothing about cars or rockets that it makes more sense to name them after a God than it does a web browser.

I looked up Athena and Browser at USPTO for the last ten years and came up with 7 entries - but none of them actually used the word Athena as their mark, and the word was generally used in refernce to Project Athena at MIT which used the technologies. Athena is the name of the MIT campus computer services system. This is neither a commercially distributed software product or in any way a web browser. The MIT Athena site, when searched for the terms "web browser" reports that "Mozilla is the default web browser on the Athena system".

It would be helpful of those who knew of a hard obstacle to the use of "Athena" or "Mariner" could point the rest of us to that information.

Athena, Swoop, PX, Echo, Mariner - toss a five-sided coin or something. Though I like Athena and Mariner the best still.

I think the main reason we ran into trouble with phoenix technologies was because they had the name phoenix.com. If the respective .coms and .orgs of our chosen name is not held by anyone that would resent us using this name then I think we'd have nothing to worry about.

[djnr]

Sorry, I also actually really like Fox. or "The Fox"?

Fox.com is the TV network. I just checked and "foxbrowser.org", .com and .net are all available

[djk]

How about Mozilla/browser, or m/b for short. ;-}

Seriously, I like Athena, though that name may already be overused, by the MIT system and the widget set.

[vande198]

Arias sounds pretty good to me. It's nice to keep with the reptile theme.

[Sho]

I very much like "Px". I think it's clever.

[djnr]

Asmera - sounds like Ass-smear or asthma. Sorry. And noone knows what it is or means.

"Sucks to your asmar" as the cruel little boys said to Piggy before they broke his glasses and killed him. (In "Lord of the Flies")

Generally I'm not too fond of names of obscure sumerian or celtic gods and goddesses (is that what asmera is?). Sure they may have some symbolism, but no one besides the person who was looking through the encyclopedia for names for Phoenix will know how to spell, pronounce or understand the name.

PX is okay, I'm just concerned about the geek-factor.

[Memphis Foundry]

I'm glad to see Athena getting good support -- I still love the name but I can understand the point that several folks have made that it doesn't seem natural to give an anthropomorphic name to a browser product.

I don't see the problem here - 1st of all, Athena was a God, not a person. And doesn it make any less sense than naming it after a bird (Like Phoenix) or a horse (Pegasus e-mail client). Mercury cars, the Apollo rockets - there's nothing about cars or rockets that it makes more sense to name them after a God than it does a web browser.

I agree with you -- I think the natural prohibition about naming a product after a Being is based on the idea that references might get confusing when the product is used in an environment where a Being shares its name. I didn't (and still don't) think that Athena presents this problem because the name in question is not one commonly given to people, at least not that I'm aware of. But I can see where this naming prohibition has perpetuated itself and kinda taken on a life of its own -- to the extent that because, in the past, products haven't typically shared the names of Beings, now the idea of naming a product after a Being sometimes "sounds funny" or "doesn't quite fit". It's natural.

I looked up Athena and Browser at USPTO for the last ten years and came up with 7 entries - but none of them actually used the word Athena as their mark, and the word was generally used in refernce to Project Athena at MIT which used the technologies. Athena is the name of the MIT campus computer services system. This is neither a commercially distributed software product or in any way a web browser. The MIT Athena site, when searched for the terms "web browser" reports that "Mozilla is the default web browser on the Athena system".

It would be helpful of those who knew of a hard obstacle to the use of "Athena" or "Mariner" could point the rest of us to that information.

I was kinda curious about that, too. I don't know of any specific browser-based implementations of the Athena name. Every once in a while someone will crop up and say "Whoa" but not provide details about why the caution.

[Exegesis]

but it's also the plural of "aria", "an elaborate song for solo voice"

Forgive me for nit-picking, but it seems to me that "aria" is Italian, descended from Latin, so wouldn't the proper plural be ariae?

FWIW, I do like the name Arias...

[Nate]

I like the idea of an anthropomorphic name. It gives the browser a personality. I like Athena because it implies beauty, but on the other hand it makes me think of Stoicism. Stoic: a member of the ancient Greek school of philosophy founded by Zeno; "a Stoic achieves happiness by submission to destiny". It sounds austere. (I actually don't know if Athena was associated with the Stoics but it's the ancient Greek connection).

Overall Athena is the best name suggested and I'd be happy to see it used. I really liked Arias until the Opera connection was pointed out.

[Kamui]

but it's also the plural of "aria", "an elaborate song for solo voice"

Forgive me for nit-picking, but it seems to me that "aria" is Italian, descended from Latin, so wouldn't the proper plural be ariae?

The Latin or Italian plural, maybe. But even if it <i>were</i> the English plural (and I can't seem to be able to verify that right now), I think most people would still only see that word instead of the gecko, simply because they don't know it. And that's my point: either use something that, even if no one knows its real meaning, doesn't come close to some English word that we wouldn't necessarily want people to associate with Phoenix, or use something whose meaning is commonly known (like Phoenix).

[Kamui]

FWIW, "me too" on Athena - I really like it. However, I would prefer "Magellan", as a "Columbus replacement". Also, Athena might be associated too closely with the Athena widgets, and Phoenix doesn't have <i>anything</i> to do with them. That's not a patent issue, however, and wouldn't bother me much.

[flii]

Yes, I know some people dont like Athena. Face it, we are not going to be able to please everybody with the name change. Thats why I said I would be fine with Arias. Is it the best possilbe in my opinion? No. But it is acceptable, and doesn't make me wince at the thought of it, like "newt" does.

i wish it was as easy as everyone was agreeing. lol. what a perfect world. i know "newt" makes a lot of people wince, which is why i dropped that name from my favs, even though i personally like it. i know most of you would say that's cause i'm a girl. but still. however, athena is one that makes *me* wince. it's a tv show, i swear!

i know firebird and px aren't the best names, but ty for pointing out the language difficulties in px. i hadn't known that. phoenix is the best name and everyone knows it. at least arias, while i don't think it's perfect, is decent and i could live with it. i was hoping the main name thread would go more along the lines of good names instead of everyone not reading it and repeating all the names, but obviously this wasn't possible. meanwhile, i'll keep sticking around there hoping to see a perfect name suggestion. "it could happen!"

[djnr]

All the athenabrowser.tlds are available. I'm also e-mailing the owner of athena.org to see if they would be open to donating/selling the name, just to find out if that would be a possibility.

Any word from the dev team on what names they currently favour? Are Blake or Asa still following this thread?