How To (Re)Name Your Blog
Posted on 02. Nov, 2007 by The Gimcracker in Blogging
Finally, after a day of waiting, B has unveiled its new name:
The Gimcrack Miscellany
You wish you would’ve thought of that, don’t you. Why am I not surprised.
I have received a bit of resistance to the rename, and it’s because of the strong nostalgic ties we all have to the old B4 game, the Beratings, and whatnot. I understand. But you must also understand my reasoning.
B is, as the Tickler put it, “fitting, pert, sustenant and healthy,” but so is a Snickers bar and you don’t see a lot of blogs out there called Snickers Bar Blog. Maybe that’s because it’s trademarked, I don’t know.
And don’t try to say a Snickers bar isn’t healthy. I guarantee if you gave one to a starving child in Africa he’d live at least 2 days longer than he would’ve if he’d gotten nothing. That directly equals health in my opinion, cause living’s healthier than dead.
So now that we’ve established that, although some adjectives are seemingly appealing in and of themselves, such as “pert” (probably why they named a shampoo after it), they shouldn’t necessarily be used to describe a blog title. More accurately, a blog title should meet at least 2 of the following 5 criteria that I just came up with while I was writing this sentence:
- It should be descriptive of its content
- It should contain a clever twist on a word, phrase, or idea
- It should be humorous
- It should contain obscure verbiage, loquacity, mellifluousness, or whatnot
- It should reference an existing phrase or expression
So, let’s dissect B’s new name.
The – establishes uniqueness. This is the only one of whatever it is, of which I know not.
Gimcrack – no, it’s not short for “give him crack”. As an adjective it means “showy but useless.” Plus it’s a funny word, especially in it’s longer form: gimcrackery. I’ve made a point to try to use it more often in day to day conversations.
Miscellany – generally it means “a miscellaneous collection of somewhat unrelated items.” It also commonly refers to “a miscellaneous collection of articles or entries, as in a book.”
When you put them together, you approximately get “an authority on a bunch of unrelated articles that ultimately have no long lasting meaning or effect,” or you can shorten that to “the blog of miscellaneous gewgaw and bric-a-brac”, or, even more abbreviated, and in it’s purest form, “The Gimcrack Miscellany”. Ah, there you are, Peter.
If you reference my criteria for a successful blog name, you’ll see that it actually meets 3 of the 5 criteria. 1) It’s as descriptive as you can get of whatever it is that I write about; 2) It’s funny; and 3) Unless you’re an old prospector from the wild west, it contains obscure verbiage and mellifluousness (it’s fun to say). Just take a look at Gus Chiggins if you don’t know what I mean:
Follow my simple set of criteria and you can have a blog that reeks of spending more time coming up with the title than actually writing posts, too!
Wow, Brian.
You have won me over to the gimcrack side, simply by the eloquent and clear defense of your new name. I commend you.
‘B’ will always live on in my heart; but now it will exist simply as a memory, like a vintage wine on an old dusty shelf that has become forgotten…or simply as something nameless that you can’t even touch because you realize it is so sacred that it has become intangible…
…chateau de oubliette…or something of the kind.
I almost feel inferior now. You see, my own blog title really only follows about 1.4 out of the required 5 B-blogal criteria for renaming blogal aliae (plural for alias).
Speaking of gimcrack, I think I have just realized how gimcrack I have truly become through the inane ramblings of this here comment.
I’ll shut up now. :^(
Don’t fret. Your blog title meets the requirements. I believe “By the Narrow Gate” falls under criterion #1 since it’s descriptive of the content that you write about.
I would also argue that it falls under the realm of criterion #5. While not necessarily “common”, the phrase “by the narrow gate” is a reference to scripture.
In fact, after actually pondering the Bri-teria for Better Blog Bynames for longer than the time it takes to type one sentence, I have decided that I will remove the “common” stipulation from criterion #5.
BTW, I LOL’d on “B-blogal criteria for renaming blogal aliae”
Bri-teria almost looks like Bacteria.
My head hurts. That was way too much for my brain after 5 hours on the road. But I like it… even though I’ll probably always just call it “Brian’s Blog”.
Gimcrackery…. lolz.
I’m thinking about changing my blog theme as well. Or at least making the header image randomly rotate between 5 or so different images. That idea was directly inspired by the awesomeness that is Brad’s blog.
i really enjoy the new name. very clever and aptly titled to suit the content. also, the word “gimcrack” makes me think of pirates (for reasons unknown); therefore, i find the title and banner image pairing classy and complementary.
It must’ve been an unconscious decision to use that image because, because gimcrack makes me think of pirates too, but I hadn’t thought of it until just now.
great minds, b…great minds.
also was wondering, if you are going to continue the use of “B” for your alias on your blog, or if you were going to be create a new identity such as the “gimcracker” or “gewgawer”? after typing those out, perhaps sticking with “B” is good and pays homage to your blog roots etc.
and, the image is awesome. it’s very “weathering the stormy seas of life”…which is good for a blog.
I was planning on sticking with B, although if I was the Gimcracker that would be sweet. I guess I don’t know yet.
If I can figure out how, I’ll make that top image rotate between 5 images, all of which will feature the same sort of “weathering the stormy seas of life” feel.
After a few moments of contemplation I realized why “Gimcrack” reminded me of pirates. The “Cracken” was the monster that ate Jack Sparrow at the end of the second “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. *whew. mystery solved…at least for me. Gimcrack could remind you of sea criminals for a very different reason.
I’m glad you found your reference. I’m still trying to think of mine. Maybe something about gin, I’m still not sure.
So this is really really late coming, but I really like the new name (I’ve been reading from the iPhone, and it’s kind of hard to comment from there).
Thanks! I spent way too much time coming up with the name.
[...] is his hilarious post about changing his name. If you ask me, it’s all a gimcrack waste of time. (Just kidding, [...]