The number of people in the Netherlands who apply to have their first names changed has steadily increased over the last few years. These applications do not come from people with awkward or strange names, but from people who have a nickname and want to make this their official name. Noah and Emma topped the list of most popular baby names in 2018. Goodluck, Dikshit, Lovelace, Genius, Narbys-Lenay and Rooney have been some of the more unusual baby names over the last few years.

Name tags collected over the years by Channel 9 Adelaide newsreader Brenton Ragless. (ABC News: Eugene Boisvert)

There are an inordinate number of men called Brenton in Adelaide, Australia. Brenton was in the top 100 baby names in South Australia in every year but one between 1944 and 1988. Since 1944, 3,325 South Australian babies have been named Brenton. The name is very common elsewhere in Australia. In the U.S., the name peaked in popularity in 1984. Why was Brenton so popular in the 1980s? This article at ABC News explains some of the reasons why:

No doubt the popularity of the name Brenton interstate and in the U.S. is down to the paddleboat TV drama All the Rivers Run, which starred John Waters as captain Brenton Edwards and Sigrid Thornton as Philadelphia Gordon. Brenton “is very clearly a Cornish name”, and a large number of Cornish people emigrated to South Australia in the 1840s because of a famine in Cornwall and a copper mining boom in towns such as Burra, Kapunda, and Moonta. Brenton is often a middle name also, after a boy’s mother’s maiden name. In South Australia, there were — and still are — a lot more people with the last name Brenton than interstate, at least per capita.

You might know that Wendy’s was named after founder Dave Thomas’ daughter Melinda (nicknamed Wendy), or that McDonald’s was started by two brothers of the same name, but where did the name Chipotle come from? Or Whataburger? This article at Reader’s Digest explains the origins of the names of 8 well-known fast food restaurants.

How many did you know? And what are your favorite fast food restaurant names?

Electric scooters are everywhere, and you might be wondering about their names. Why is one called Lime, and another called Spin? Which names are best suited to this new breed of transportation? This electric scooter name roundup from Catchword takes a look at the current crop of e-scooter names. Which one is your favorite?

What is the intrinsic (as opposed to trademark) value of short string domain names? It depends, of course. Rights holders have been willing to challenge domain name registrants even if they have no actionable claim for cybersquatting.

While consumers instantly recognize the letters “I,” “B,” and “M” are not arbitrary, they will not be faulted for failing to associate “D,” “V,” and “T” with Dynamic Visual Technologies. This issue of acronyms and arbitrary letters has a long history under the UDRP. A non-exhaustive list of short strings (some of which are infringing, others not) includes “adm,” “agcs,” “aro,” “ash,” “bper,” “clh,” “daf,” “dll,” “dkb,” “fxcm,” “jdm,” “ifo,” “irjll,” “iyzi,” “paa,” “snn,” “sog,” “ssx,” “usu,” “xrprf,” and more.

The ultimate question is whether any three, four, or five letter string has become so exclusively associated with the complaining rights holders that knowledge can be inferred. What do recent UDRP cases show?

To find out more about letter strings in domains, click through to this in-depth analysis by Gerald M. Levine at CircleID.