In February 2018 I wrote a list of company names for this thing that would later come to be called Yak Tack. The list included:
- Lenguify
- Stackhog
- Stickidiom
- Wordcork
- Wordsnare
- Word Sticker
- Word Whale
- Yak Tack
I wanted a practical name; something that stood for what I wanted to do, which is help people remember words. While it's a household name now (and a verb), "Google" is a prime example of what I think of as an impractical name. It doesn't relate to what the company does.
I also wanted to borrow part of the name and use it as an action that describes the process of remembering words. Word Sticker might have been a great choice as it is literally what we do; help stick words in people's minds. Alas, the domain name was taken.
There's a song from the 50's by The Coasters called Yakety Yak. In addition to being a hairy animal with horns, yak also refers to "noisy talk." And, it rhymes with tack, which is "the quality of being sticky." Coming back to aforementioned point about wanting an action in the name, "tack" could become tacking. Indeed, if one were to look through the source code, one would find "tack" everywhere.
In the 26 years since people have been hoarding domain names, yaktack.com hadn't been taken. So, I swooped in, grabbed it, and formed Yak Tack, LLC.
I'm not entirely happy with the name though. People often misspell "yak" as "yack" when looking for the site. Or they think it's called "Yak Attack." Boo.
I suppose it's too late to switch to Word Whale.