Oh, I absolutely agree about picking childish names! It's not particularly effective, and it does tend to lose your audience. Made-up names can be done with a

Oh, I absolutely agree about picking childish names! It's not particularly effective, and it does tend to lose your audience. Made-up names can be done with a wink-and-a-nod when punching up for great effect ("We had particular issues integrating with a vendor who we won't name but are a bit fruity--we'll call them Orange for the sake of comparison"), but usually it's done by people who aren't particularly bright. At the same time, there is kind of an open question as to how much power a name has. If we only ever use the proper trademarks for these folks, are we not always granting them a certain amount of legitimacy and respect?