The Name Game: Our Rebranding Poll Asks Readers to Weigh in On Recent Startup Name Changes

What’s in a name? Well, an awful lot, of course, and perhaps especially when it comes to companies and their brands. A good name evokes what the company does, and it is memorable—creating a virtuous cycle that reinforces the brand and leads to increased sales and other good things.

I got thinking about this, specifically as it relates to New England companies that had recently rebranded themselves, in connection with a private breakfast Xconomy held last week around health IT.

One of the firms present was mobile health technology company Healthrageous, which recently changed its name from HopSkipConnect. Correspondent Ryan McBride and I got talking about the name change, and that sparked the idea of surveying readers about that and other moniker reboots. A quick canvassing of our editors, and behold the list below of eight New England companies (two, TaskRabbit and Vidly, have now moved to the Bay Area) that have rebranded in the past year.

I personally think some are home run changes, while others…not so much. But we’d like to see what you think, and I’m sure the companies would, too. (Right, companies?) So take the poll and we will review the results in a few days with the help of some expert commentary as we look at which companies were most successful in their rebranding, and which might have fallen short of the mark.

And in the meantime, if you know of any other examples of notable name changes—for better or worse, and in any of our Xconomy cities of Boston, Detroit, San Diego, San Francisco, or Seattle—please send them along to [email protected]. We might just use them in a future poll.

Here are the companies, old name first, with the new name after the hyphen, followed by a brief description of what they do. You choose whether the new name is better than, worse than, or essentially the same as the original.

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Thanks for voting. Again, answers and commentary coming on Thursday.

Author: Robert Buderi

Bob is Xconomy's founder and chairman. He is one of the country's foremost journalists covering business and technology. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT's Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT's Technology Review, then a 10-times-a-year publication with a circulation of 315,000. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign editions, electronic newsletters, and highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek's technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for The Quality Imperative. Bob is the author of four books about technology and innovation. Naval Innovation for the 21st Century (2013) is a post-Cold War account of the Office of Naval Research. Guanxi (2006) focuses on Microsoft's Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) covered a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness-sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC's Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation at many venues, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.