3 ms·

Yeesh, that name! What the heck were they thinking? "Hey, what if we combined Zit and Citadel!" But seriously, now I want to know, what are the most unfortunat

Yeesh, that name! What the heck were they thinking? "Hey, what if we combined Zit and Citadel!" But seriously, now I want to know, what are the most unfortunate technology or startup names my fellow HN'ers have encountered? I'd bet a moderate sum there are some wild examples to be found in SV history.

config_yml 4y ago
Mongo DB takes the cake, which is a slur for someone with down syndrome in my part of the world.
- jsiepkes 4y ago
  Well don't leave us hanging, in what language?
  - krautsourced 4y ago
    German
    - k_sze 4y ago
      In Quebecois French as well, "mongol" can be a pejorative for someone with DS. (That's because "Mongolian idiocy" is the obsolete medical term for DS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_idiocy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_idiocy)
  - im_dario 4y ago
    Spanish, for instance.
  - carapace 4y ago
    English. It was named after "Mongo, an immensely strong, dim-witted, yet philosophical henchman" in the movie "Blazing Saddles" (which is hilarious but would probably get Mel Brooks burned at the stake if he tried to make it today.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Saddles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Saddles Anyway, "mongo" is short for "mongoloid" which was a derogatory word for folks with what we now call Down Syndrome, and also racist in re: Mongols. So yeah, not a great choice of name.
    - E4YomzYIN5YEBKe 4y ago
      I've heard of "mong" as short for "mongoloid" but I've never heard of "monogo" being used that way. Searching through Google books most of the results for mongo refer to the Mongo people of the Congo. The second most common source is the fictional planet Mongo from the Flash Gordon comics.
      - carapace 4y ago
        Maybe Google is being Politically Correct? https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mongo https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mongo
EarlKing 4y ago
Zitadel: Popping the competition! (Sponsored by Clearasil) Honestly, how does this name even remotely relate to what it does? Sometimes I really despise the trend towards "quirky" names in open source projects.
piaste 4y ago
> what are the most unfortunate technology or startup names my fellow HN'ers have encountered? A few years back there was a Github OSS project by an Asian developer who couldn't speak English at all - I think it was a Ruby or Node utility library of some kind. I don't remember the exact details anymore, but he intended to call it something like 'childlike' or 'so simple a child can use it' - unfortunately the machine translator he used interpreted the input phrase in his language as 'one that likes children'. So he was very, very confused at the loud community reaction when he made a post announcing the 0.1 release of his new 'pedophile' library.

config_yml 4y ago

Mongo DB takes the cake, which is a slur for someone with down syndrome in my part of the world.

jsiepkes 4y ago
Well don't leave us hanging, in what language?
- krautsourced 4y ago
  German
  - k_sze 4y ago
    In Quebecois French as well, "mongol" can be a pejorative for someone with DS. (That's because "Mongolian idiocy" is the obsolete medical term for DS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_idiocy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_idiocy)
- im_dario 4y ago
  Spanish, for instance.
- carapace 4y ago
  English. It was named after "Mongo, an immensely strong, dim-witted, yet philosophical henchman" in the movie "Blazing Saddles" (which is hilarious but would probably get Mel Brooks burned at the stake if he tried to make it today.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Saddles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blazing_Saddles Anyway, "mongo" is short for "mongoloid" which was a derogatory word for folks with what we now call Down Syndrome, and also racist in re: Mongols. So yeah, not a great choice of name.
  - E4YomzYIN5YEBKe 4y ago
    I've heard of "mong" as short for "mongoloid" but I've never heard of "monogo" being used that way. Searching through Google books most of the results for mongo refer to the Mongo people of the Congo. The second most common source is the fictional planet Mongo from the Flash Gordon comics.
    - carapace 4y ago
      Maybe Google is being Politically Correct? https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mongo https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mongo

EarlKing 4y ago

Zitadel: Popping the competition! (Sponsored by Clearasil) Honestly, how does this name even remotely relate to what it does? Sometimes I really despise the trend towards "quirky" names in open source projects.

piaste 4y ago

> what are the most unfortunate technology or startup names my fellow HN'ers have encountered? A few years back there was a Github OSS project by an Asian developer who couldn't speak English at all - I think it was a Ruby or Node utility library of some kind. I don't remember the exact details anymore, but he intended to call it something like 'childlike' or 'so simple a child can use it' - unfortunately the machine translator he used interpreted the input phrase in his language as 'one that likes children'. So he was very, very confused at the loud community reaction when he made a post announcing the 0.1 release of his new 'pedophile' library.