> So you think if people keep saying cockroach a lot, suddenly cockroach will magically become some nice clean creature in people's mind?
Something like that. People will associate the name with the database, not the insect. This does happen, over time you almost forget the the original meaning.
Some examples: when somebody says Oracle or Delphi, I'm thinking databases and Pascal successor, not ancient Greek stuff. When somebody says Pascal, I'm thinking programming language not the French mathematician. Fedora is a Linux distribution (and also a type of hat), Twitter is a social network (and also a type of bird vocalization) and so on.
You really think those analogy is relevant to this case? All the examples you pointed out all have either neutral or positive connotations. What you should have presented was any example of (if any) a successful tech brand with a name that brings strong negative feelings.
Cockroach not only has negative connotation, but the negativity scale is pretty strong.
Bring me a single person who will say they get good emotion when they hear "cockcroach". Sometimes you need to be stubborn about your business decisions, but if you're being stubborn about naming your business after a word most of the population will get negative feelings the first time they hear, then you're doing it wrong. It's not even a subjective thing, with a bad name, people are less likely to talk about your brand than if you had a positive name.
OK, how about: I would not like ants crawling my room the same way as I would not like cockroaches crawling my room. But I don't mind using Apache Ant.
Or, for a not-exactly-elegant name: Ubuntu 4.10 Warty Warthog. You are launching a brand-new Linux distribution, why not call it after a warty wild pig. Worked OK for them.
Ant and warthog do not universally evoke negative emotion. In many cultures ants are in fact associated with creatures that work hard, some people when they hear ants they think of the emergent behavior their colonies manifest. Warthog is more of a neutral term. Hearing that word gives me neither good or bad emotion, so it really depends on the context you use it.
"Cockroach" on the other hand, like i said, I know of absolutely NO one who would get positive emotion upon hearing that word. Just like "rape", or "nazi" don't evoke positive emotion for anyone.
I'm honestly curious: what does it matter to you? You keep comparing it to very extreme things and generally seem to care a lot, but I just don't get what the big deal is. "Cockroach" is just not such an offensive word that it's worth getting so worked up about.
Something like that. People will associate the name with the database, not the insect. This does happen, over time you almost forget the the original meaning.
Some examples: when somebody says Oracle or Delphi, I'm thinking databases and Pascal successor, not ancient Greek stuff. When somebody says Pascal, I'm thinking programming language not the French mathematician. Fedora is a Linux distribution (and also a type of hat), Twitter is a social network (and also a type of bird vocalization) and so on.