[dirtyaura]

Great names often have some negative connotations.

Caterpillar is such an excellent name, that almost everybody remembers it once they have seen it. That can't be said about many other building machinery brands. But you can bet that when that name was proposed, somebody raised objections because "you can't name our powerful machines after an insect"

Virgin Airlines has very negative connotations ("Virgin communicates that we are inexperienced and not safe to fly, and that's a show-stopper in airline industry, Mr. Branson. shouldn't we consider another brand for our airline subsidiary?")

It takes balls to pick a great brand name, because almost all names have minus sides.

[kamjam]

Just an FYI, you do know that the Virgin Group has been around a lot longer than the airline company right?

The brand name "Virgin" arose when Branson and a partner were starting their first business, a record shop. They considered themselves virgins in business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Group

It is a very British story so most of us in the UK probably know the success story a lot better.

[dirtyaura]

Yes. I've read a couple of books by Sir Branson. Virgin Airlines was used by Igor Branding agency in their naming guide of something that somebody might object even if Virgin prefix is an obvious choice for any Branson's company

[kamjam]

Yes, I totally get your point. A bit of a double edged sword really!

[philwelch]

Another example: "iPad".

[bitwize]

"Wii".

Oh, how the jokes flowed when the name was announced. Then the sales numbers came out, and people stopped joking.

[nuclear_eclipse]

Some of us still didn't stop. A bad name is a bad name, regardless of how good the product might be.

[pbhjpbhj]

In part the "bad" name helped to spread the word of the product initially; it was a hook for many stories that would otherwise not have been written IMO. Thousands of media outlets poked fun at it all the while informing the world about a revolutionary new Nintendo system.

Genius.