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What makes for a good name?


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What makes for a good name? Do you prefer descriptive, clever, or something else? Does the name influence if/when you visit a cache? How much effort do you put into picking a name?

 

Which of the following names do you like? Do you have a better idea? It's for a stop-along-the-way cache at a tiny rustic wayside in the township of Norton. There's a sandstone geographic feature in a rural wooded setting along the highway.

 

Norton TWP

Norton, Honey

A Whole Lotta Norton

Much Ado About Norton

Norton To Write Home About

There's Norton To See Here

Norton Is As Simple As It Seems

Norton Is Free

A Stop Along The Way

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Hmmn. Not sure.I like to let the cache name itself. I go out to the site and hide the cache and go with whatever name comes to me. Usualy. I have one cache that the name came to me at the same time as the idea for the containers. Then I had to find a home for it.

 

All that and I don't think I helped you any.

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What makes for a good name? Do you prefer descriptive, clever, or something else? Does the name influence if/when you visit a cache? How much effort do you put into picking a name?

 

Which of the following names do you like? Do you have a better idea? It's for a stop-along-the-way cache at a tiny rustic wayside in the township of Norton. There's a sandstone geographic feature in a rural wooded setting along the highway.

 

What is in a name? If there is a clue that can be planted in the name then do it, otherwise the name might as well be Cache # 24601.

 

When I create a cache and web page sometimes I use the cache name for a hint, sometimes I change who placed it (Loch Cache and John D.) for a hint and other times I will add a user web page link that is meaningful but not mention it.

 

One thing to think about for names is what will the GPSr software shorten it to? What will the smart name end up being.

 

One suggestion for a funny twist:

Not McAfee

 

Loch Cache

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Is it an earthcache or a traditional cache?

 

For earthcaches, I like at least a partly descriptive name so I know what I am going to see. I named one of mine "Indiana Beachfront Fossil Zone" to let people know they could expect to see proof at that spot that southern Indiana was once the shoreline of a great inland sea.

 

For traditional caches I like a name that makes it stand out in some way. Seeing "Our First Cache" or "Park Cache" as a title doesn't make me as curious as seeing something like "George Washington Never Slept Here" or "We Sell Hard Ice Cream Pizza Too" (So OK, that wasn't a cache, that was an actual sign I saw on a store one time, but it has stuck with me for 30 years now, so it must have made an impression).

 

like names with a twist of some sort on either the location or the type of hide. I love some of the suggestions in this thread. There's Norton Here to See struck me as being very funny.

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We try to name all of our caches after songs or lyrics. Your ideas were all pretty good along the 'Norton' theme, so here are a few more.

 

Norton Else Matters

Norton Better To Do

Norton Really Matters To Me

 

For the record, Norton Hears a Who is both timely and timeless, and will bring in lots of families.

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So many good ideas and comments. Thank you, thank you.

 

I am going to list the names from this thread in the cache description in an AKA (also known as) section for visitors to see. They are too creative not to. For the published name we are going to use Norton Hears a Who, though it's still really a coin flip. I'll keep an eye on this thread in case anyone else has a clever name to add to the list.

 

As an aside,

 

All this also made me wonder if a good travel bug would be an AKA bug that had some base criteria/constrants and each finder would suggest an alternate name on each hop.

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I like names that hide a clue, hit my funny bone, or express there is something there special to see.

Ditto that. And yes, a good name can definitely draw my attention to a cache. A good cache is an adventure, and a great adventure ought to have a fitting title (and if adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones!)

 

I used to give a lot more thought to my names:

 

Hop To It - island hopping cache

 

Higher Education - I was especially proud of this. It was on a college campus, so it seemed straightforward. But it was also on top of an 8-story building, and the location was such that that wasn't the obvious place.

 

Beside the Point - On the side of a hill named Pinnacle Point.

 

N42...Something Something Something - memory-loss themed "reverse multi" puzzle cache

 

But sometimes being clever isn't necessary. My replacement for "Beside the Point" is simply "Pinnacle Point". I decided that the name of the location itself was good enough, since it was the reason for the cache in the first place.

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I like several of the ones you are thinking about. But like others have said, the cache really has to name it's self. I won't submit a cache for review for several days after making the hide. Sometimes I have to wait for the name to come to me. Some of my caches are kinda lame-named, and others use clever play on words that just fits it's surroundings.

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I like your list. Pick the one that feels best to you. Sorry, no help there.

 

Our hides have all pretty much named themselves so that is the method we work with. When we have tried to come up with something too clever we always seem to end up with something really lame. Then we have to start over.

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For traditional caches I like a name that makes it stand out in some way. Seeing "Our First Cache" or "Park Cache" as a title doesn't make me as curious as seeing something like "George Washington Never Slept Here" or "We Sell Hard Ice Cream Pizza Too" (So OK, that wasn't a cache, that was an actual sign I saw on a store one time, but it has stuck with me for 30 years now, so it must have made an impression).

 

 

The only cache hide I've made is named Byron Coulters Slept Here. The cache tells a local story that not many people know, and I was hoping that the name would entice people to an area where there aren't a ton of caches (yet). When I'm browsing a cache list, I always look for the imaginative names. Chances are, the cache itself is going to be more enjoyable if someone has invested time in it. A creative name shows me someone has given a cache hide some thought.

 

Ken

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What makes for a good name? Do you prefer descriptive, clever, or something else? Does the name influence if/when you visit a cache? How much effort do you put into picking a name?

 

Which of the following names do you like? Do you have a better idea? It's for a stop-along-the-way cache at a tiny rustic wayside in the township of Norton. There's a sandstone geographic feature in a rural wooded setting along the highway.

 

Norton TWP

Norton, Honey

A Whole Lotta Norton

Much Ado About Norton

Norton To Write Home About

There's Norton To See Here

Norton Is As Simple As It Seems

Norton Is Free

A Stop Along The Way

 

I follow my muse. Sometimes it's german. "Norton Standstone". Sometimes it's a play on words. (A Nightmare on Elm Street for an upcoming Nano...an exception for my anti micro policy is being made to use the name...) and so on. Sometimes the name would be a clue. InKom for example The name is the clue for a potential cache in Inkom. One cache I named "The Two Trip UMC" So far about half need to make two trips to get the cache. My names are all over the board. Some are better than others.

 

You seem to like puns. That may be your style and that's not broken (though the best puns only make the groans louder). Run with it.

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Make sure to include "cache" in the name. Otherwise, how will people know they are looking for a cache rather than, say, a liquor still? And 55,000 cache hiders can't be wrong.

 

Calling it a "cahce", however, will put you in elite company -- only five in the world. I've found Buddah's Belly, and read about a "watertall" cache. This kind of thing will make people remember it.

 

Couple days ago I found Lonely Barbeque. I noted in my log that the word "lonely" in the name was a good way to get my attention. Only 254 (IIRC) Lonely caches in the world, and only 133 Lonesome caches.

 

Edward

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