8.07.2006
What's In a Name. . .?
Will Safire is fascinated by names, naming and the ideology of language.
But he mentions the Bombay Company and Bombay Sapphire gin in his latest On Language column, without acknowledging that the reason these names have such staying power as brand-names is. . .they connote a certain air of Colonialism and the exotic. Bombay Sapphire gin has Queen Victoria's picture on it, for crying out loud! It's deliberately playing on that idea that "the sun never sets on the British Empire," isn't it?
They're not going to change it to Mumbai; Bombay is too valuable a connotation.
Will Safire is fascinated by names, naming and the ideology of language.
But he mentions the Bombay Company and Bombay Sapphire gin in his latest On Language column, without acknowledging that the reason these names have such staying power as brand-names is. . .they connote a certain air of Colonialism and the exotic. Bombay Sapphire gin has Queen Victoria's picture on it, for crying out loud! It's deliberately playing on that idea that "the sun never sets on the British Empire," isn't it?
They're not going to change it to Mumbai; Bombay is too valuable a connotation.
