By Tiffany McCallen
National Community Manager
What’s in a name? Everything, apparently.
I recently learned that naming the newest project of the Religion News family is akin to finding a name for a child. We researched. We studied. We opened book after book to ponder phrases, meanings, synonyms, antonyms and any other “nyms” ad nauseum.
From there, the lists began, where our team of name-finders would add, delete, promote and demote suggestions until we were left with just a handful of possibilities.
Then the questions began, often sounding like the pages of a Dr. Seuss book. Is it too stuffy, too stodgy, too fancy, too frilly? Too trite, too right, too boring, too silly?
In the end, the name came more from left field than right, and we—happy to finally have something to call ourselves—began to settle into our new moniker with an exhausted sigh.
So what did we choose?
SpokaneFAVS, WilmingtonFAVS, ColumbiaFAVS.
FAVS, which rhymes with raves, stands for Faith And ValueS, a phrase we want folks to identify as non-sectarian coverage of all beliefs, creeds, faiths and spirituality. We hope the name, with its bit of edge and bit of tradition, will grow over time as a trusted and unique source for community religion news.
Until then, do what we’re doing: roll the name around on your tongue for a while. Practice it out loud and let it hang there a while. Read it on our construction blogs, our snazzy new logo, our social media sites and here on this site. Let it become your FAV.
In other news
- Stay tuned as we officially soft launch SpokaneFAVS.com and WilmingtonFAVS.com in the next three to six weeks (unforeseen delays excluded). We’ll share the news as soon as they go live and ask our early readers serve as our official site testers.
- Interviews are underway for our Athens, Ga., hub, and applications are being accepted for our Hartford, Conn., site. If you know someone who would like to apply, direct them to our online application.
- Our next round of community editors will begin in June and July. I look forward to introducing them to you at that time.