Analysis of the name ’23andMe’
As you all know, I have high hopes for the genetic profiling company 23andMe. Although 23andMe has not officially launched a product available to the public, it turns out that the founders have chosen a great name for their company.
Nancy Friedman, a name developer and corporate copywriter based in Oakland, has written a lengthy analysis of the name ‘23andMe’ on her blog ‘Away with Words.’ She suggests that the name was deftly crafted and is even better than the oft-suggested name ‘46andMe.’ Ms. Friedman’s post is also the first place I’ve ever seen a pronunciation for Anne Wojcicki’s last name (which is wo-JIT-skee). Turns out I wasn’t too far off!
July 31st, 2007 at 10:15 am
Thanks for the link and the kind words! One correction to what was probably a typo: the alternative I suggested was “46andMe” (the actual number of chromosomes), not “43andMe.”
July 31st, 2007 at 10:27 am
Nancy,
I thought it was a great post! Thanks for the typo correction, not sure how I missed that one!
August 5th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
There are two drawbacks to the name 23andme:
1.) It may limit the company to human genetics. This is OK; however, if the company has a Google like ambition to organize all genetic knowledge, it should have a different name.
2.) Within humans, the name is exclusionary since it does not take into account conditions such as Klinefelter’s syndrome (esp. xxyy). In other words, 23 could be a rather simplistic view of a “me”.
February 26th, 2008 at 3:01 am
[...] to name the company ‘23andMe.’ I wrote about the name on the blog a little while ago (here). Related Posts: 23andMe – A Biotech Startup Aimed at Helping People Manage and [...]
April 21st, 2008 at 1:37 am
Is this a publicly tradeb stock? Thanks.