Cendant Real Estate Services Announces New Company Name: Realogy Corporation [RISMedia] [1]
We coined a new word for our new company [Realogy] [2]. Realogy results from the fusion of “real estate” and “-logy,” the suffix meaning “the science or study of.” The company’s new logo includes a stylized “A,” representing the company’s position as the investor’s doorway to the real estate sector.
There’s a lot of name changing going on in real estate [Inman] [3] these days. Perhaps its part of the New Year’s resolution process, changes occur as companies reorganize after the new year. Realogy seems too cute for a big real estate conglomerate, doesn’t it? Perhaps I just need to get used to it.
Here are two others:
Homestore -> Move, Inc.
(sounds like a relocation company or possibly the Philadelphia radical group’s home that was firebombed in 1985 by police [NYT] [4])Cendant Mobility -> Cartus
(a relocation company that now sounds a little like a garbage collector)
Guy Kawasaki’s Blog calls this The Name Game [5] and provides guidance to companies who re-name their company or product. Realogy doesn’t seem to follow his advice. He mentions this hysterical Salon.com post from a few years ago also called the name game [6].
Here’s a great post on how they named companies [day2day activities] [7]. My favorites are: Apple, eBay, Mozilla Foundation, Nike, Pepsi, Sprint, Volvo and Yahoo!
So whats in a name? Apparently a lot.