Questions about names have pursued me throughout my life. As someone with the first name Sunshine, I am constantly asked about it. As if defying the laws of probability, they are always same two or three questions:
1. Is that your real name?
2. Were your parents hippies?
3. That must be a lot of pressure. Do you ever wish you were named cloudy day? (Variation: should I call you overcast?)
Now that I’m doing work for a company called Ocarina Networks, I often get a series of questions about that name, which stands out as a not-so-techy sounding alternative to the Zloobs and Creacraws of the Web three dot oh era. These questions, too, tend to be the same:
1. Where did you get the name Ocarina?
2. Does the name in any way relate to the company’s optimization technology? (Variation: Do musical ocarinas shrink anything?)
3. What exactly is an ocarina?
The last question has been somewhat less frequent since the introduction of the ocarina iPhone app.
So, what are the answers to all these questions? To just answer would be giving it all away. However, I do encourage you to contact your high school music teacher to see if you can learn about the history of the ocarina. It’s an amazing little musical device. And, if saving millions on storage isn’t enough incentive, Ocarina’s customers get a free ocarina as a gift.
