Re: choosing a community name
From: Sharon Villines (sharonsharonvillines.com)
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2021 06:24:43 -0700 (PDT)
> On Jul 15, 2021, at 8:50 PM, Marcia Zuckerman via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Apparently it's common cohousing practice for a coho's public and legal names 
> to be basically the same (e.g., XYZ Cohousing in public,  XYZ Condominium on 
> the condo docs). In our case, we're also exploring the alternative: having 
> the legal name on condo docs be different from the name we're known by 
> publicly. So we'd really appreciate feedback from other cohousers.  

I’m not aware of this being common but then we don’t know what the legally 
registered names are! I suspect the truth is that it’s not unusual and often 
happens in business, particularly the initial investment comes from a different 
group, one with a business name. It is convenient to use an already 
incorporated name in the beginning — no upfront time and money. Or the project 
began as one thing and morphed into another. Financing might be easier to find 
as J R Engineering than Zebra Stripes Cohousing. In the end I would choose the 
Zebra but 80% will choose a “real” name.

Name confusion is horrible for everyone.

Tips:
1. Avoid long hard-to-spell names. Albuquerque is caling themselves ABQ which 
is perfect because people know what ABQ is and I think only the people who live 
there, know how to spell the name.
2. Do an Internet search to see what you might be confused with, world wide as 
we globalize. And be sure to check other cohousing names.
3. Make sure it can be pronounced and spelled without special knowledge of 
ancient languages
4. Make sure it is comprehensible in a domain name. If you have email addresses 
with the community name, this is important. sassystreettowers is just 
illegible. And too long.

Name Generators online
        • VisualThesaurus.com (gives you a visual around a keyword)
        • Shopify Business Name Generator (generates business name ideas and 
checks domain availability simultaneously)
        • NameMesh.com (provides a startup company name generator)
        • Naminum.com (allows you to generate names based on a theme)

Sharon
——— 
Sharon Villines, Editor & Publisher
Affordable Housing means 30% of household income
Cohousing means self-developed, self-governed, self-managed
http://affordablecohousing.com

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