What's in a name? Part one

Sometime two years ago, I stumbled on a nugget of information which I thought was just awesome. Tucked in a feature on Australia's most iconic game studio, Beam Software, was an explanation of where the name Beam originated from. Who knew that it had nothing to do with radiating light or something obvious like that but was a name made up from the initials of Beam founders, Alfred Milgrom and Naomi Besen? It made me wonder how many people that worked there perhaps never knew that!

So what were the origins of the names of other studios in Australia and New Zealand? Were there any interesting anecdotes on how their names came about, and did their chosen names have any meaning behind them? We certainly have a range of developers with some very intriguing names, so I thought it would be great to see if we can get some explanations!

The name 'Acheron' comes from classical Greek mythology, where Acheron is one of the rivers in Hades. It is the Acheron across which Charon was said to ferry the newly dead to the underworld. These classical allusions are clearly reflected in the company's logo, which shows a ferryman and a lake or river of some sort.

Managing director Lewis Strudwick has suggested that the name 'Acheron' was as mispronounced as 'id Software', with the preferred pronunciation being 'ak-uh-ron', or 'ack-uh-ron'.

Athol Birtley, Acheron Design

As for Endgame, we started in a different era, where it was essential to have a web site, and that industry of purchasing every conceivable domain name one could dream up was thriving. If we wanted a company name that would directly translate to a simple domain name, it would significantly cut down the options. That was one of the main criterion for our company name, as well as something that would be obviously a game developer, and of course something somewhat unique that would stick in the mind of people, whether it was because it was funny or just a little different.

I remember one of the names we thought of was Magic Numbers, but I believe the URL panned out to be an online casino (not too surprising in hindsight). The idea was a bit of a nerdy programming joke, probably not the best direction really. And then of course there was the idea to call ourselves Taurus Games...

Oddly enough, I can recall the exact moment we came up with Endgame. We were on a train on the way back from a city meeting with Multimedia Victoria to discuss what options were available to new devs and how they could help. It just popped into my mind and I said to Nick "Hey what about Endgame??" He was immediately taken with it, so we looked it up when we got back and the URL was available (amazingly).

The meaning of Endgame? Daniel Visser keeps insisting that we're named after the famous Beckett play, but I'm afraid it's nothing so sophisticated. Really, it's more in the sense of the endgame of a game, for example chess. Hence the logo being a chesspiece king on the side. We liked the name because every game (video or otherwise) has an endgame, and of course it has the word 'game' in the name. We both thought the word endgame was a commonly known word, but I'm constantly surprised by the vast number of people who address the company as "End Game Studios" or "End Games". Why would we call ourselves "end games"?! Despite this, I find that the name does stick well in the mind of people as well as the chesspiece king logo. Some people I've only met once years ago will exclaim that they remember as soon as they see the logo on the business card.

Grant, Endgame

We had two priorities for the name. First, we wanted a short, evocative name that would convey a sense of energy and creativity. We didn't want something too descriptive that would limit the directions in which we could take the company in the future. Second, we also wanted a unique, trademarkeable name for which we could get a simple .com registration without having to add "-games" or "-studio" or similar. We wanted something where if you search for "The Name", you would just get us and not lots of unrelated links.

We spent many, many hours brainstorming words and syllables in various languages, and we ended up with a database that literally had hundreds and hundreds of entries. There were many we rejected on closer inspection even though we initially liked some aspects of them. For example, "Category 5" seemed like a cool name at first, but it didn't fit because it's all about destruction instead of creation. We also thought about the associations we would have to deal with if there was a natural disaster. This is a long time before Katrina and Ike of course, but let's just say we haven't regretted ditching that idea!

We ended up with a shortlist of 5 or 6 that we took around the studio for everyone's input, and in the end Firemint was the name we selected. Everyone thinks the "mint" is a reference to the plant, it's actually meant to be a reference to the process of minting, as in, creating something really valuable and energetic... but the name is starting to stick in the industry, and to us we don't really think about the meaning of the individual words "fire" and "mint" anymore. It's just "Firemint" :)

Alexandra Peters, Firemint

Halfbrick's meaning is a mystery ... well not really. I get asked this question all the time but the simple answer to how the name "Halfbrick" came about is that a couple of the founders had way too many beers late one night while they where coming up with names for the company. I'm surprised that they could even remember it the next day but that was the one name that stuck in the other founders minds. We decided to go with the name "Halfbrick" for that very reason, people seem to remember it.

As a side note, one of my uncles came up with an awesome meaning for thename "Halfbrick". I acted cool and pretended as if that was exactly why we named the company "Halfbrick". Unfortunately, I forgot about it the next day and haven't plucked up the courage to ask my uncle the meaning again :)

Shainiel, Halfbrick Studios

Infinite's name has a very short, but unusual story...

Originally, when we were part of SSG in the 1990's our company was called Icehaart Software, named after a favorite old Dungeons & Dragons character of mine, Sirian Icehaart the Paladin. However, with the move away from SSG in 2003, we decided to rebrand with a more recognizable (and spellable) name."

A friend of mine was starting a IT support company for the superannuation industry at the time and we were sitting down, having a few drinks, thinking up names for both of our new ventures. We got the list down to Astral and Infinite. We flipped a coin - he got Astral Software - I got Infinite Interactive.

Steve Fawkner, Infinite Interactive

The name was chosen by Tony Lay my business partner. Even though there's a Hong Kong movie called "Iron Monkey", the name was chosen from a list of 'whacky' names that Tony had come up with. I believe a deciding factor was that the domain name ironmonkeystudios.com was available as well, but I could be wrong - Tony would have to correct me here.

Sorry I don't have a more interesting story, but at the time we were keener on getting the business up and running and making games rather than spending too much time on choosing a name.

Toby, IronMonkey Studios

Kukan Studio is named for the Japanese description of space. It is sometimes translated as 'slack'. Its not as literal as that though. I have read a Japanese fighting master describe Kukan as the slack space in between blows in a fight. He says "by correctly understanding the intent of your opponent, you can place yourself in the correct position and therefore, gain yourself the time to reassess the scenario and ensure yourself a successful outcome"

The same master also goes on to say that "people should give themselves some slack in their lives" I guess I will translate to say we all need a little Kukan in our lives :)

Karyn Lanthois, Managing Director, Kukan Studio"

The original name of the company was 'Pacific Isle Entertainment' which we soon realized was boring and hence set about changing it. But not before we had given some of early tools names like 'Pacific Isle Graphical Editing Tool' (or Piglet for short.)

This spawned an entire 'pig' based naming system for tools, which still exists at Tantalus today.

I had always used a theasarus for finding names for my previous projects, and I also liked Greek mythology, so that's where I found 'Tantalus'. He was a Greek demi-god who was a bit naughty and was punished by the Gods by having to stand in his neck in a pond and when he reached for food or drink it would retreat from him. It is the word from which 'temptation' was derived, so we thought it was a good fit for video games. A Tantalus is also a locked drinks cabinet (for the same reason)."

Tantalus co-founder, Andrew Bailey"

The name was chosen carefully but there's not much of a story to tell. I set down a number of parameters first that the name had to fit into. These were:
1. The name had to be 5 letters.
I still don't know why this was included.

2. The name had to be appropriate for a small company or a big company.
There aren't too many large corporations with names like Speedy Sloth Inc.

3. The name should say what we do.
This mostly worked except that a lot people think that we make board games

4. The name shouldn't fit the current trend in naming conventions.
At the time this was Interactive but then changed later to Entertainment. I wanted something that didn't get involved with this.

5. The name should be more or less abstract.
A Torus is an inner tube shape. Apparently, this is the only 3D model in space that can represent a 2D screen that wraps both vertically and horizontally.

6. Get the spelling right. There is definitely No Bull At Torus!

Bill McIntosh, Managing Director

The name "Nnooo" came about when I was working for Supersonic Software in Leamington Spa, UK. My colleagues and I used to play multiplayer games at lunch time. Whenever I saw something cool, was handed a humiliating defeat or expressing some other form of suprise I always used to cry out "Nnoooooo" in my Scottish accent. To whit I thought it would be a good name for a games company.

Nic Watt, Creative Director