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Some of the names are thought out! Kijiji means village/small town in Kiswahili and gives a sense of locality.

by dskhatri 19y ago

mattmaroon 19y ago
That's fine if your audience is a village in Africa. If you're targeting English speakers, it's essentially nonsense.
- dskhatri 19y ago
  Not really. Words from such languages are commonly found in the West. Microsoft named their Silverlight search front end Tafiti which is also derived from Kiswahili (tafuta - to search). Kiswahili is a widely spoken language in East Africa. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language). There are many other occurrences of the language in popular American culture! It makes sense to borrow words from other languages when there is "just no good option left" as you yourself say.
  - mattmaroon 19y ago
    Tafiti is gibberish too. Any word I haven't heard and can't squarely place the language of is gibberish to me. And given that like 8 people who own a computer have ever even heard of Kiswahili, Kijiji is gibberish.
- zaidf 19y ago
  I agree with Matt. If you are going to use a word from another language, don't do it because it means something relevant to your business. The only people that will know it means something are people you meet and share the story of your name with. Vast majority of your customers will have no idea of your name's meaning. ie. last year over summer vacation I would see kijiji ads behind rickshaws all over Bombay. Only now I know it means something. Before this, I always thought of it as a lame name. Knowing it means something makes it slightly less lame--but not a whole lot. It's much better to go with a memorable name versus a cryptic name from another language.
tlrobinson 19y ago
I feel like if either: 1. Given the spelling there isn't one obvious pronunciation of the name or 2. Given the pronunciation there isn't one obvious spelling the name probably isn't he best choice.

Some of the names are thought out! Kijiji means village/small town in Kiswahili and gives a sense of locality.

mattmaroon 19y ago

That's fine if your audience is a village in Africa. If you're targeting English speakers, it's essentially nonsense.

dskhatri 19y ago
Not really. Words from such languages are commonly found in the West. Microsoft named their Silverlight search front end Tafiti which is also derived from Kiswahili (tafuta - to search). Kiswahili is a widely spoken language in East Africa. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swahili_language). There are many other occurrences of the language in popular American culture! It makes sense to borrow words from other languages when there is "just no good option left" as you yourself say.
- mattmaroon 19y ago
  Tafiti is gibberish too. Any word I haven't heard and can't squarely place the language of is gibberish to me. And given that like 8 people who own a computer have ever even heard of Kiswahili, Kijiji is gibberish.
zaidf 19y ago
I agree with Matt. If you are going to use a word from another language, don't do it because it means something relevant to your business. The only people that will know it means something are people you meet and share the story of your name with. Vast majority of your customers will have no idea of your name's meaning. ie. last year over summer vacation I would see kijiji ads behind rickshaws all over Bombay. Only now I know it means something. Before this, I always thought of it as a lame name. Knowing it means something makes it slightly less lame--but not a whole lot. It's much better to go with a memorable name versus a cryptic name from another language.

tlrobinson 19y ago

I feel like if either: 1. Given the spelling there isn't one obvious pronunciation of the name or 2. Given the pronunciation there isn't one obvious spelling the name probably isn't he best choice.