There is a magazine called Y’all. The knowledge has made my afternoon. It’s described as “the magazine of Southern People”. As if the tagline were necessary.
It now ranks as one of my favourite magazine names, alongside Jane (no longer being published), as well as Jane and Jane Magazine.
Picking a publication name is perhaps one of the most delicious (great magazine name btw) of all the editorial tasks. Creative, best when caffeine-fuelled and much easier than writing the damn thing. (In fact, having always coveted a career naming lipsticks, it’s no surprise that this feels more like pleasure than work.)
Which is why Crikey staff recently spent a dedicated afternoon throwing around ideas for a funny, Crikeyish name for a women’s group blog that wouldn’t offend the target audience. It was surprisingly hard. All the best ones were a bit dirty.
We filled three notebook pages with names:
The actual creation of the blog has been put on hold while we work out how to do it in a non-token, non-ghettoised way and with a style all of its own. Think something like Double X (yup, nice name).
When it comes to great glossy descriptors, one-name mags seem to punch above their weight: Monocle, Wallpaper, Bitch, Tatler, Word.
A quick survey of the Crikey-Smart Company office throws up some more faves:
Talk – Crikey publisher Di was a fan of Tina Brown’s short-lived magazine’s title. Ditto the name of her most recent venture, The Daily Beast, if not its content more generally.
Scrotum – editor Jonathan Green’s initial suggestion though we’re not sure it exists and are unwilling to Google it. He later nominated Horse & Hound and the Australian Hoofs and Horns.
Vanity Fair – brilliant book title and equally brilliant magazine title (which is why it’s been used four times)
BUST magazine — now there’s a women’s title that’s ballsy and has a sense of humour. So does the magazine.
Larvatus Prodeo — the Australian political blog that proves you don’t need to understand a name to like it.
Is Not Magazine – the little poster that could.
Three Thousand — email mag for Melbourne hipsters (postcode 3000) that’s spread to Two Thousand and beyond.
A couple of Crikey staff also proposed the names of previous publications they’ve worked with. Namely, Gas Today and Bacon Busters (for pig shooters).
But sometimes, as intern James notes, the best names are fictional. To wit, American Bitch, the dog magazine featured on mockumentary Best in Show.
12 Comments
My school Annual was called Saga. While I think the intent was to represent a bold, sweeping story on multi-faceted school life, unfortunately for us editorial plebs it was just a saga getting it published…
I saw Bacon Busters at a servo once; it came with a free calender with every month featuring a different girl in a bikini, holding a gun and standing next to a dead pig. Very odd.
When I wanted to start up a women’s mag I was thinking of calling it “Slag” – I like it because you can slag people off but also because it’s reclaiming a derogatory word for women…
St Ruth!?
Ahh Bacon Busters…with its annual calender “Babes and Boars!” Classic. Hang on – someone at Crikey actually worked there?? They ‘fessed up to that?? Hmmm…
Names for the blog…please please not “Because you’re worth it”. How about… umm… “The Pouch of Douglas”?? Ha ha no not really don’t call it that.
Is it best to now name a website/blog/magazine as something so bizarre and distinctive that it’s not a name commonly used in everyday conversations? Makes it easy to search Twitter to see what people think about it (if anything!). A name like *ahem* Crikey is used far too often in the Twittersphere to qualify.
http://twitter.com/#search?q=crikey
StRuth(Strewth)
Front bumps
How does front bumps get throught but strewth doesn’t?
Come on Crikey, surely you can find an Aussie name:- Sheila, Ockerina (Ockette?), Better half, Old biddy, Good sort…
Given your suggestions for the title of a women’s blog I’m not surprised you get so few female subscribers. Do you really think women like being called token, princess, ladies or bunny boilers?
How about Feminist Majority or 51% (roughly the proportion of the population who are female).
Speaking of which, why isn’t The Stump – the newest blog – at least half female in its contributors?
I suppose Jam Rag is out of the question