Lately, I’ve been fretting a bit about the name of this blog. When I started Pop Discourse, the name was perfect, given my original intention of musing about pop culture in my nerdy, academic sort of way. But eventually I found myself writing more on topics centered on my everyday life — family, self-care, blogging, etc. — and I’ve felt very happy and organic and fulfilled doing that.
All that writerly goodness aside, I haven’t been able to shake the dissonance between the current content of this blog and its namesake. So I wonder, is it time for a name change? Does it matter? It would certainly be easier if it didn’t matter, in terms of broken linkage and other technical matters. But even more daunting than the technical issues is figuring out what that new name would be.
I’m a person of words — I love the process of assembling them artfully and cannot even venture to guess how many words I have written in the past four years since I started blogging and writing professionally. In my work as a creative consultant I love helping clients narrow in on a domain/business name that is reflective of their intentions. But when tasked to think of a name reflective of my spirit and editorial trajectories, I find myself lost. I admire the poetic perfection of names such as Joy Unexpected and Velveteen Mind and Suburban Turmoil, and long for something that’s similarly conjuring of imagery, yet ambiguous enough to allow for inclusion of any number of topics.
So I guess I’m left with questions. Have you struggled with changing the name of your blog? Does it matter? If you did change your name, do you love your new name and was it worth the technical nuisance?
And of course I can’t help but ask: do you have an idea for a great name (or adjectives) that sound reflective of me (save Koh Beast, which is my awesome new running alias thanks to some of my Eat .Blog. Run. teammates)?
Any brilliance in this domain would be properly credited of course!
June 30th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
I changed the name of mine (Three Dogs and a Baby, how very short-sighted of me!) and it was definitely worth the technical hassle.
[Reply]
Christine Koh Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
And a nice shorter URL!
[Reply]
June 30th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
I feel you. I’m very literal and understand your desire to have a more accurate name for your blog. I’m currently trying to come up with a better tag line for my own. Sadly, I have no stroke of genius for you. I’ll let you know if/when I do.
[Reply]
June 30th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
I am really glad that I picked my name, since it seems generic enough to follow me through a variety of subjects. There is a joke in it, which is appropriate, but you won’t get it unless you know my real name. I like that, since it becomes this special secret if you actually meet me in real life.
Do you have any favorite words? Favorite images you could draw from?
[Reply]
Christine Koh Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
I so want in on that joke.
That’s a good idea… I should step away from my laptop and free associate for a while and see what I come up with.
[Reply]
June 30th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I wish I hadn’t been so quick to include the word ‘mommy’ in all my social media. I’m more than a mom and I write about more than ‘mom’ things on my site. ready for a change.
[Reply]
Christine Koh Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Keep me posted on your thought process, and good luck! I’m curious to see what you come up with!
[Reply]
June 30th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Kohmmentary
Weekly Kohs
Koh(in)dependent
Koh on a Hot Tin Roof
Birth of the Koh
Cut to the Koh
Hot KohKoh
KohKoh Puffs
Classic Koh
Kohmbover
Kohgitation
Cup O’ Koh
[Reply]
Christine Koh Reply:
June 30th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
You and Braden clearly have been talking (re: insertion of Koh into all words possible).
[Reply]
Angela at mommy bytes Reply:
July 7th, 2010 at 9:03 am
I’ll have to 2nd the Hot KohKoh. It is you!
[Reply]
June 30th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
I still like it. Even if I didn’t 100% love my blog name I wouldn’t change it.
I also will admit that I am more fascinated by a bloggers tag lines than the blog name itself (since getting exactly what you want as a URL these days can be a bear)
But the tag line is how a person is summarizing what they are all about. A musing that draws me in. I LOVE a great tag line.
[Reply]
July 1st, 2010 at 12:33 pm
i hear ya.
somehow i like the idea of including koh in the new name — if you go for the change.
i started at koh knows
then what koh know
then inner kohing
then how about just koh.ing?
or being koh
but really would you ever chose a name someone else thought of? i imagine you’ll come up with something perfectly you when you go off on that brainstorming retreat.
[Reply]
July 1st, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Ugh, I live in constant regret of my blog name, but I can’t change it! And I don’t think it really matters, and I am lazy, and in a lot of ways it still fits, just has a different meaning this time around…….
Steph
[Reply]
Christine Koh Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 8:17 am
Steph, I totally thought about our convo at Blissdom when I wrote this post!
Just curious — when you say you can’t change it, is that because of concern of all the technical breakage? I think that would be less of an issue for me since I’m not as well known as Pop Discourse (vs. as Boston Mamas) the way you are as Adventures in Babywearing.
[Reply]
July 1st, 2010 at 9:41 pm
TOTALLY! When I started my blog my career in the water industry was the biggest part of my life, despite having a brand new baby. I never realized how much life could change in six years, or that any body else would want to read it! So it kind of makes no sense now, since I never talk about my job on the blog, but still I never change it.
Also, when I moved from Mainline Philly to Texas I thought about changing the pseudonym. Nobody here has a CLUE what it means, they think I’m some heroine addict or something. But again, through twitter I’m still pretty connected to my Philly peeps…so I didn’t change it. *sigh*
[Reply]
Christine Koh Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 8:15 am
Ha! I totally didn’t think heroine addict when I first learned about you. My first thought was that it was a geographical reference actually.
Or I also though mainstream.
I think that ambiguity is OK!
[Reply]
July 1st, 2010 at 9:45 pm
I think I was lucky in that I landed on a name that was generic enough to work through a variety of topics. In a sense, it has nothing to do with what I write about. And yet, it doesn’t *not* have to do with it, either. I think a good name says something about the writer, not the writer’s current state of mind/profession/parenting/etc. Something that isn’t likely to change and become outdated.
That said, I got nothin’ for suggestions. I’m terrible at them. Do you have a favorite song, lyric, book, or quote that you could do some kind of play on words?
I am currently debating moving my quilting blog. I named it “teeny tiny quilts” in a very shortsighted move, and it really doesn’t fit. I’m considering just making it a subset of my primary blog (”Goddess in Progress Quilts” or something), but I agree that the moving can be a hassle. And yet I can’t shake the pull to do it, so I know what you mean about finding a name that fits.
[Reply]
July 1st, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Will definitely try to come up w/something more specific. But the words that make me think of you: zen, awesomeness, writing, goodness, organic, brilliant, creative. Did you have a nickname in college? What about incorporating names of yoga poses?
[Reply]
July 2nd, 2010 at 8:58 am
Oh, how I wish I had googled the name of my blog before I bought the domain name. Lots of inappropriate sites come up that I would never have imagined. I’m not ready to change it though, since it fits with what my blog is all about.
[Reply]
Christine Koh Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 8:13 am
Oh. dear.
But yes, your name is perfect for your content — I agree that you should stick with it!
[Reply]
July 3rd, 2010 at 6:17 pm
A friend pointed me to your post, because I recently changed the name of my blog. I went from “On Being a Sports Girl” to just sportsgirlkat.com, which was my address the whole time (and it’s also my Twitter handle.) I felt the name pigeonholed me into only writing about sports, and I have a lot to say about my full-time career in higher ed administration and communication as well. So I changed the name, and it got me writing so much more!
Sometime it’s time for a rename - it jump starts your creativity!
[Reply]
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:01 pm
I, too, have come a long way form whee I started out and wound up in an expected place. If you change yours, I’ll have to change mine…and move from Blogspot. But it’s hard for some of us to let go.
From the suggestions above Koh(in)dependent is intriguing. What about simply ChristineKoh.com. It’s you and what you make of it. Unless you have a theme you plan to stick with for the long-term (or until you get a book contract on the topic) perhaps your name is a solid (if not very exciting) choice.
I look forward to seeing how the site evolves.
[Reply]
Christine Koh Reply:
July 5th, 2010 at 8:12 am
Thanks Kim — I do have ChristineKoh.com as my main landing page for all of my work, but a personal blog didn’t quite seem to fit there.
If you ever move from Blogger, it is super easy. Truly!
[Reply]
July 5th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
I love Cynthia - she can read my mind from 3,000 miles away!!!
And though I have no blog of my own (ha! free time?!) I can empathize with the naming angst, you know how I struggled with names for my kids, I can’t imagine how I would name a blog..
[Reply]
July 7th, 2010 at 9:09 am
It took me a year to come up with my blog name and another year to regret putting “mommy” in it. But it still fits. Besides loving cynth’s Hot KohKoh (I would never put “hot” in my own blog name, so my guess is that you wouldn’t either), my suggestion would be KohJo. Doesn’t look quite right, but sounds cool.
[Reply]
July 7th, 2010 at 11:21 am
what about Mo’ Koh?
[Reply]
July 9th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Koh Lumn?
[Reply]
July 14th, 2010 at 7:30 am
How about Posh Prose? Seems like it is in the same coolness factor as Pop Discourse……Still thinking….
[Reply]
November 5th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
[...] up the name of this blog, which I’ve been fretting about intermittently since publicly asking whether I ought to change the name back in [...]