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Ask HN: What are the worst names given to employees of specific companies?
At PagerDuty, employees are Dutonians. At New Relic, they are Relics. At Amazon they are Amazonians.
What are the worst names given to employees of specific companies?
- jlarocco 4y agoMy current company, Anark, we would be "Anark-ists", but we don't actually refer to ourselves that way. Personally I can't stand that type of name, and think the whole idea is silly and cringy.
- whoibrar 4y agoNot necessarily bad name, but the company where I'm currently in is itself called "CAW", short for "Chimps At Work". The founder is ex-Microsoft and apparently, Chimp was a title given to Microsoft employees working on new projects.
- cratermoon 4y agoAt Metal Toad they are Toads.
- jmartens 4y agoThat's bad, but I am sure there are worse!
- version_five 4y agoThere has to be some weighing for if/how they are actually used in the wild. For example, metamates is objectively horrible, but I'm not sure anyone actually uses it. Xoogler, noogler objectively are neutral, but end up sounding super douchy because of how often they get thrown around by actual google people Also, domosapien https://www.domo.com/company https://www.domo.com/company
- jmartens 4y agoGreat point and examples!
- ryeights 4y ago>domosapien LOL. The only one of these I’ve actually liked
- MollyRealized 4y agoIn a theoretical world where "domosapien" was related to a company named after "Mr. Roboto" -- say, a company called Kilroy -- I cold really dig being called that.
- upghost 4y agoAtos. Astros. Heh.
- effnorwood 4y ago[dead]
- logicalmonster 4y agoFacebook = "Metamates" = Peak cringe
- lokokokonut 4y agoShould've just called them Mates
- kojiromike 4y agoMissed opportunity to call themselves "metahumans" and get the DC Comics lawyers after 'em.
- Sevii 4y agoPlease tell me they used to be called "bookies" before that.
- robofanatic 4y agoOr faces
- aristus 4y agoIt was "facebookers" in spoken talk, "fbers" written. Former employees are generally referred to as "ex-fb". Many private discussion groups with that in the name.
- hooverd 4y agoThe pivoting pivots of Pivotal Software. gong noise
- renewiltord 4y agoResearch in Motion : rimmers SAP: saps Snowflake: Snowflakes Workday: Workers Microsoft: Softies Intel: Intelligentsia Adobe: Dobes Broadcom: Broads IBM : Bummers PayPal: Charge Friends Uber: Uberalles Atlassian: Shruggers Marvell Technology: Kree Dell: Dellions
- jmartens 4y agoRimmer might be our winner
- DonHopkins 4y agoHey, are you some kind of a holophobe??! ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Rimmer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Rimmer
- ComputerGuru 4y agoDid you just make these up? Good job quick thinking! > Atlassian: Shruggers Ayn Rand? > Marvell Technology: Kree Stargate?
- klipt 4y ago> Marvell Technology: Kree More likely a reference to the recent Captain Marvel movie.
- ComputerGuru 4y agoI prefer my sci-fi aged and esoteric, like a fine wine. (Haven't watched most of the Marvel movies after it became sequel after sequel six months apart.) "Jaffa! Kree!" is timeless (though with no connections to MRVL).
- xnx 4y agoUber: Ubermensch
- masenf 4y ago
- rl1987 4y agoScoot Pte Ltd: Scooties.
- moomoo11 4y agoJust call them dorks. - also called something dorky at my job lmao I like it tho even if it’s a bit cringe. At least we all on the same mission while we working together.
- Hellion 4y agoCredit Karma’s Karmanauts. Oof.
- shoo 4y agoi hope their compliance department goes by "karma police" internally
- Turing_Machine 4y agoTweeps.
- fatih-erikli 4y agoAtlas, Atlassians?
- jaggederest 4y agoFunny story about New Relic: The name is an anagram of the CEO's, "Lew Cirne". Not sure if that's widely known, but he just used it as a placeholder while working as an entrepreneur in residence at a VC fund for his next project, and it stuck.
- mynegation 4y agoFWIW I think New Relic is an awesome name. It has rhythm and slight hint of controversy to it.
- pc86 4y agoI'll be honest, I have no idea what a "hint of controversy" is supposed to mean in this context.
- positr0n 4y agoProbably the juxtaposition of terms New and "Relic" when relics are supposed to be ancient objects.
- quickthrower2 4y ago“New Relic” describes most code committed in the last week!
- asplake 4y agoHint of paradox?
- mynegation 4y agoSorry, cannot edit original comment. As an ESL I fell into a classic “false friends” trap. I meant “paradox”, not a “controversy” (that in English usually means something akin to “bad rep”).
- blululu 4y agoPinployees at Pinterest Twilions at Twilio Coinbaes at Coinbase
- DonHopkins 4y agoAs if the name of the company "Wedge Computer, Inc" wasn't bad enough: "Wedgies". https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28803672 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28803672 https://groups.google.com/g/comp.windows.news/c/VpdsNfxERQQ/m/PJO1eqF9TdAJ https://groups.google.com/g/comp.windows.news/c/VpdsNfxERQQ/... https://books.google.nl/books?id=Cj8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=%22Wedge+Computer%22+2+Winter+Street&source=bl&ots=OGpCZs4j0N&sig=ACfU3U1oSnZnfDv98YkK9EUOYxBmM8EAqA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiV1KP73eH8AhVThv0HHboHAnwQ6AF6BAgjEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Wedge%20Computer%22%202%20Winter%20Street&f=false https://books.google.nl/books?id=Cj8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA31&lpg=PA...
- napsterbr 4y agoStripe: strippers?
- haneefmubarak 4y agoNo, the formal name used is "Stripes".
- joshxyz 4y agoRolls out of the tongue very well.
- killjoywashere 4y agoArmy - Soldiers (nailed it) Navy - Sailors (nailed it) Marines - Marines (nailed it) Air Force - Airmen (eh, okay?) Coast Guard - Coasties (I mean, sure. Welcome, our DoT brethren) Space Force - Guardians, complete with Star Trek outfits and staring upward into the distance. /sigh
- defrost 4y agoSpace Cadets would've been the polite goto in Australia .. given collectively the US forces are often referred to as seppos.
- techdragon 4y agoWhile we’re talking about government versions. The NASA astronaut recruits have arguably one of the worst. Their official title is “Astronaut Candidate” but as nothing so long can go un-abbreviated at NASA, they are simply referred to as (even in many official documents) as ASCANs, pronounced “Ass Can”.
- 5555624 4y ago> Coast Guard - Coasties (I mean, sure. Welcome, our DoT brethren) During peacetime, the US Coast Guard is now part of the Department of Homeland Security. (It was part of the Department of Transportation fro 1967 - 2003.)
- molsongolden 4y agoXero - Xeroes
- blululu 4y agoOk I really like this question which got me digging and someone made a pretty comprehensive and somewhat verified list: https://mikepope.com/blog/AddComment.aspx?blogid=2354 https://mikepope.com/blog/AddComment.aspx?blogid=2354 Personally I would say Microsofties is the worst.
- WalterBright 4y agoI've heard Redmondians a lot.
- open-paren 4y agoAdobe employee. I keep trying to get "Adobos" or at least "Adobians" to catch on, but it hasn't yet.
- cirrus3 4y agoplease stop trying
- quickthrower2 4y agoTry “Acrobats”
- WalterBright 4y agoWhen I was at Aph around 1978, we all trooped off to some electronics convention. Since my job there was assembling prototype boards, when I was getting the badge at the ticket booth, and I was asked my job title, I said "Gnome". The guy creating the badge was horrified. He asked me several times if I really wanted this, and I confirmed. The Aph people behind me then gave their job titles as "Wizard", "Nerd", and some other fantasy terms. Attendees would read our badges and exclaim they should have done the same thing. Thereafter, this became commonplace. I don't know if I started this trend, but it seems like I was the first. I wish I'd kept the badge, but who knew?
- d23 4y agoReddit is snoos. I don't think it's that bad though.
- gedy 4y agoCitrix: Citrites
- cperciva 4y agoI don't know what YC employees are called, but I really hope they're "Combinations".
- jahewson 4y agoSurely they should be functions?
- yuppie_scum 4y agoIt’s so cringey
- downvoteme1 4y agoMetamates. Microsofties.
- panda88888 4y agoMicrosoft - microbes
- paxunix 4y agoIf you're in a building at Amazon, sure, Amazonians. If you're out on the street in Seattle with regular people, it's often Amholes.
- rcarmo 4y agoInnies, in Severance? :)
- 0xbadc0de5 4y agoThey're all terrible. You're a human being with dignity and a name, not a farm animal. Any employer who tries to name you as the latter should be politely asked to stop.
- soneil 4y agoI think they're a lot more natural than you make it sound. I mean we have denonyms from placenames. Some of them are fairly rote (newyorker, londoner, dubliner), some take some imagination (okie, mackem, geordie). I really don't see why this is any different?
- taldo 4y agoBending Spoons -> Spooners