What's in a name?

We've all heard examples of products with seemingly harmless names that translated poorly (example: Standard Oil sounded too much like a U.S. company to appeal to Japanese consumers, so they changed their name to "Esso." Esso, in Japan however, translates phonetically to "stalled car.") Read more examples.

But what happens when the name is invented, yet still has unintended meanings conveyed. In the pharmaceutical industry, trade names for new drugs are quite simply made up. In the quest for a unique name, sometimes things go a little awry. Take the new drug out for acid reflux disease, while it might do a great job of helping with the symptoms, the name alone is scary: AcipHex. Pronounced as-e-feks (yes, that's ass-effects for anyone that may be dictionary challenged). What were they thinking? Maybe they were taking a shortcut to listing the possible side effects, or maybe no one was sure how to pronounce it until the name was trademarked, but in any case, we are amused. Better luck next time guys.