[na85]

It's the new thing. Pick a noun or verb that's only marginally-related (or sometimes not even remotely related) to your product and take ownership of it.

Like Aerospike, or Uber.

[jlmorton]

To be fair, Uber was originally UberCab, but dropped "Cab" from the name after the MTA in San Francisco charged Uber with running an unlicensed taxi service.

[jkaunisv1]

At least Uber connotes that it's better than the competition. I was shocked to find out the other day about a CSS framework called Inuit. The mascot is a little inuit guy in a parka. Terraform seems much better in comparison.

[dictum]

You were shocked, shocked that someone would want to add a little bit of whimsy to an otherwise mundane thing as a CSS framework?

[jkaunisv1]

No, I was shocked they would appropriate a minority culture's name and caricature for their unrelated tech thingy.

[icebraining]

Is it any worse than taking control of a surname? Every MacDonald is now indelibly linked to awful burgers. At least rocket engines don't feel shame.

[na85]

Yes, actually.

McDonald's was at least started by two guys with the surname McDonald. It is/was their company so they named it after themselves. That's no different than "Frank's Burger Stand", which is again completely different than writing a clone of GCC in javascript and then calling it Patriot or something.

[oftenwrong]

Then take the noun and use it on its own as a headline so HN readers don't know what your product is until they follow the link.

[donaldguy]

For a lot of us (but obviously not everyone), the "(hashicorp.com)" was enough to understand what it was / who would care or not.

(this isn't to say it shouldn't have had a better title - but just to explain why a lot of people weren't bothered by it)

[huxley]

Whatever happened to suitably named companies like Apple or Commodore that clearly described what they were selling?