Month: October 2014

 

Term of the day: brand: a distinguishable mark; to distinguish with a mark or words.

Thoughts:

There are so many concepts and ideas surrounding the subject of branding, unfortunately many of them are not good. I won’t go into a long draw-out debate about slavery, but branding was taken to a whole new level during that tragic time of U.S. history. Needless to say, not all brands have to be physical or visual marks. Sometime a name is all that’s need to convey the meaning and essence of a complete entity. When that happens, it’s a sure sign that someone truly understands the power of branding.

You don’t have to see the golden arches to know what I’m referring to, but when you imagine them and actually see them, I bet it makes you hungry for fries and burger. And what about that name, McDonald’s? I don’t think anyone has said, “I don’t like McDonald’s” and then there was a debate about who or what McDonald’s is.

Names, images, and even descriptions can be brands. As a writer, I’ve been told and taught that I too  can become a brand. I’m still leery, but steady working on it. I just don’t know how often one truly becomes a “Martha Stewart” or a “Tyler Perry”. Like them or not, these names, these people, have become more than who they are and what they do. They are brands.

Name of the day: Rebecca Tinsdale.

Breakdown and meaning:

With Hebrew origins, Rebecca means “servant of God” or “knotted cord/strong”; the name also means captivating. I like the name Rebecca because it is commonly shortened to “Becca” as a pet/nickname, but that’s a topic for another day. Rebecca is the name of the main character in my upcoming romance, It’s Like the Full Moon, though this isn’t a traditional romance.

Then there’s the name Tinsdale, similar to Tisdale, but not as popular. I originally picked the name because I liked the sound of it.  In my search I found that Tinsdale was associate with fine craftsmanship and some type of, what I assume is, a purification process called Tinsdale Argar Base. I guess I should have paid more attention in chemistry class; I could be totally wrong about this. Also, I did find in my research another use of the full name, Rebecca Tinsdale, in a romance from the mid-90s. While my character is in no way associated with that one, I like the idea that this character’s name is unique, although, not completely original.

Well, that’s it for Day 7. See you tomorrow.

Go back to the beginning to see all the posts in this series.

Outside of my own personal search throughout the years, basic meanings and definitions of the terms used here can be found at the following websites: http://www.meaning-of-names.com/, Google search http://en.wikipedia.org/, and  http://dictionary.reference.com/.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords