The Name Game

I'm in Lubbock, Texas promoting Blurt and just go on the air with Jeff, Kelly and Mudflap at KLLL radio. They are very fun people who know how to have a good time. Of course, Mudflap is not Mudflap's real name, but it elicited a smile from me when he introduced himself.

In college I was known in different circles as Stork, Stretch, and Slim. The locker room is where many names originate and we had a Weegie, Lord, Fish, Laz, Tank, and a Peach. It's funny how some names stick and some don't.

When WHAM-O decided to license a plastic disc from Fred Morrison (who, by the way, was "Walt" to his friends), the toy was released as the "Pluto Platter Flying Saucer." But a funny thing happened on the way to toy immortality. Kids in New England were referring to the new toy as a "Frisbie." So WHAM-O decided to incorporate that name into its toy and rechristened it the "Frisbee Pluto Platter Flying Saucer." We all know which name stuck.

When I first had the idea for a game where players read out definitions to a group of kids to see who will blurt out the correct word first, I thought the game was all about the clues, so I dubbed it DeFUNitions. In play testing I soon found out that I was wrong and that the game was all about the blurting. I changed the name to BLURT! I am so thankful.

There are many stories of toys that were almost called something else.

L'Ecran Magique (Magic Screen in French) became Etch A Sketch

Rainbow Modeling Compound became Play-Doh

The Little People became Cabbage Patch Kids

Word-Cross puzzles became Crossword puzzles

Power Drencher became Super Soaker

Whoopee Hoop became Hula Hoop

Bouncing Putty became Silly Putty

Instant Life became Sea-Monkeys

Muff Ball became Nerf Ball

Lexiko became Scrabble

Pretzel became Twister

In toy biz a good name can become a trademark and a good trademark can become a brand and a good brand can be very valuable indeed. Every successful inventor I know has a "name" story around something they created. It's fairly rare for a designer's name end up being the final name of a product, but it does happen. Here's an inside peak at one of my new games coming to a store near you this summer.

I hope you like Wild Peas, er... Brass Balls & Nerves of Steel!