Sunday, September 21, 2008

SB Master's masterstroke

Whodafuck is SB Master? you may ask. Well, she's the founder of Master-McNeil, the naming company that owns the domain name naming. Actually, that's not their only claim to fame. They've named a lot of brands including PayPal. Master-McNeil was founded in 1988 by a lady named SB Master (haven't figured out her initials). Now, here comes the interesting part. Instead of playing with names like Masterminds or Masterstroke, our lady plucked McNeil from thin air and attached it to her surname. In her own words, "I chose 'McNeil' largely because it had a substantial sound. From day one, potential clients have always assumed we were big and important, even though we weren't when we first started. So it's been a very effective name for us." Smart. Don't you think? I picked this trivia from a 10-year old article in Mother Jones. Go read it.