The Name Game: Catalina

Help me name my future restaurant! I'd love to hear what you think of some names I've come up with... and I'd be tickled if you'd share your suggestions for a name. EVERY DAY I'LL POST A NEW NAME. Please express your honest opinions in the poll and leave comments. Thanks for playing the Name Game!

Before I introduce contestant number three, I want to give a shout-out to Eater SF for featuring the Name Game on Tuesday. Gracias, amigos!

Our third contestant (of seven) is Catalina.

The Story:

I grew up in Southern California with a view of Santa Catalina Island. I found my culinary muse in Catalonia. The name pays homage to both.

Pros:

Beautiful, feminine name: Spanish for Catherine. The island was named after Saint Catherine, patron saint of many professions, including educators, librarians, students, philosophers, and knife sharpeners (!).

Island: I feel strongly connected to the ocean and beaches.

Positive personal associations: to me, Catalina represents Southern California sunsets and warm nights (photo above by Kyle Collver).

Spelling overlap with Catalan: relatively strong connection to my cooking influences from Spain and her Mediterranean neighbors.

Easy to spell and pronounce.

Cons:

Kraft Catalina dressing. I never buy bottled salad dressings, so I'm not sure how strong the association is in other people's minds between the name Catalina and the salad dressing. If it's strong, adios Catalina. Let me know your opinion.

Southern California: Although I was born there, I no longer feel a strong connection to Southern California. Both my style of cooking and my heart and soul (and my restaurant) are rooted in northern Californian.

Potential negative reaction from locals to name associated with Southern California: for better or worse, many locals do not like the southern half of the state.

California connection, but not local Bay Area connection.

Does not reflect "field to fork" sustainability, seasonality values of concept.

Possible variation:

Catalana

What do you think? Take the poll and leave your comments. And remember, each comment counts as a raffle ticket in a drawing for a free dinner for two at my future restaurant (scheduled to open mid 2008).

Helpful links:

The restaurant's concept
Suggested guidelines for comments
Suggest your own name idea here

Comments

[Dan Lyke]

Hmmm... "Catalina" sounds like something that'd be near Union Square, maybe up near Pier 39. Certainly I'd expect a second or third location after a few years, eventually it could be a chain that'd rival Ruby Tuesday.

Seems a little to "LA" and touristy for my taste. I think you want something almost folksy, or maybe just a little rustic, and "Catalina" sounds like it should serve onion blossoms.

"Catalana" could work, but it loses the local angle.

[cookiecrumb]

I get too much of a SoCal smack from Catalina.
Catalana is nice.

[Towse]

I like what Catalina brings to mind -- the picture is perfect -- but agree with Dan Lyke.

Add Català to your variants for this one.

[jen maiser]

I immediately smiled when I saw this name. I like them both. But I love SoCal, so I'm not much help.

[ann]

It sounds more like a chain of restaurants to me - I'm not sure why. I think that you are looking for a more out of the ordinary - FUN - name.

[Chilebrown]

How about Katalina?
It got me to buy that issue of Playboy.

[Anita]

It sounds like a beachy restaurant. I'd expect fruity drinks with umbrellas, nachos, tortilla soup... :D

[Garrett]

I think it just sounds so pretty and Spanish. Really, it just rolls right off the tongue. =)

[Ken H]

My first reaction is that it sounds generic - nothing jumps out about your personality/menu/philosophy. If you want to elicit visions of an island oasis/paradise, I'd pick a more exotic location.

[Amy Sherman]

This might sound odd, but I don't get Catalonia from Catalina. I dunno, maybe I'm dense. I do like Catalonia or some version of it like Catalan or Catalunya.

[Morton the Mousse]

You're getting closer. I like the sound of the word and the feelings it invokes, but the context is off: too So-Cal, too Trader Vics. I think there is some potential for plays on the base word "Catalan".

[Conor O'Neill]

Instantly thought of "My Name is Earl". So I like it!

[Anita]

I get a SoCal vibe from it too...but it is nice-looking. I agree with others that Catalana might be better.

[Pep]

I don't know how it might sound in english. But.. What about Cal Brett?

[Erin]

Okay, I totally thought of Kraft dressing immediately. Yuck. Sorry! I like the name when you explain it, but you probably won't have much opportunity to explain it in such depth to potential customers. But, as someone said before, you're getting closer! Not sure if you will be serving this dish, but I think the name (and the dish) Baccalà is awesome. Just putting it out there...

[Tracy]

26 miles across the sea...

[Tracy]

26 miles across the sea...

[Tete_de_fromage]

I like the feeling of "Catalina" rolling off my tongue. Never bought Kraft Catalina dressing in my life! I think I would go with something closer to "Catalunya," though, just to be slightly more distinctive.

[Sean]

I have to admit, the first thing I thought of was the salad dressing, and I winced. I do appreciate the linguistic proximity to Catalana, like the Palau de Musica Catalana, one of my favorite buildings in the world. I second Català as an option, so long as you commit to keeping at least some Catalan-inflected dishes on the menu full-time.

[Eddie]

I also grew up with a view of Catalina, and the name just *feels* Southern California to me.

[Eddie]

To play off the earlier comment as well (doh, double-commenting), "Català" is *great*.

[Adele]

"Catalina" is elegant, but doesn't strike me as warm or inviting. Then again, I'm biased - there's a very chic restaurant (the food, alas, is only middling) with the same name located on the water in Sydney.

[Diane]

Prefer Catalana to Catalina, but Catalina is OK too. It does have a wee bit of the SoCal life-of-privilige vibe, but still nice.

I like this one!

[Diane]

Prefer Catalana to Catalina, but Catalina is OK too. It does have a wee bit of the SoCal life-of-privilige vibe, but still nice.

I like this one!

[c]

I agree with those who find "Catalina" reminiscent of the island and the dressing, but not of Catalonia. Català (suggested by Towse) is lovely on the tongue and more strongly suggestive of Catalonia (even in the mind of one who hadn't heard the word before!)

A few more ideas to throw in the ring:

Amistad - "friendship" in Spanish, to highlight the convivial ambiance of your eatery.

¡Ánimo! - This Spanish expression means something like "take heart!" and is used to raise someone's spirits and give encouragement. Related to the English word,"animate", it conveys liveliness and warmth, two qualities that a fine meal aspires to inspire.

¡Á la Mesa! - Yet another Spanish expression, literally "to the table!" meaning "dinner's ready!" Envision a gracious host (yourself, of course) exclaiming this with a grand sweep of the arm as he urges his guests into the dining room...

~c

[SlobDog]

I like the sound and the Spanish-ness of the name but it's not esoteric enough and doesn't connect to your cooking enough.

Diane has some great ideas!

[SlobDog]

EDIT - I meant the above post by -c had some great ideas. No offense to Diane :-o

[gwinn]

My fave thus far. And it doesn't say SoCal to me, although I grew up on a farm in Kansas so what do I know.

I do, however, know bottled salad dressings all too well (see: Kansas heritage noted above) and interestingly, I would've never made that connection. Now, if you wanted to name your restaurant Dorothy Lynch or Green Goddess, then we'd have a problem.

[Tea]

Yeah, it does smack of So Cal a bit. It also feels just a little dated to me (is that the salad dressing, perhaps?). But it's at the beginning of the alphabet, which I think is another pro.

I'd prefer some variation--Catalunya or Català.

[Catherine]

Like Catalana, don't like Catalina.

[Brett]

You all are super! You even got the accent correct on Català. Impressive. I have to admit I am pretty luke warm on this one myself, but I thought I'd include it any way to gauge other people's reactions. I like Català, but I think it may be weird to name a restaurant after a language, It would be like calling a restaurant Español or English. Plus, I don't speak Catalan fluently and the dishes I will be serving are not purely Catalan by any stretch of the imagination.

[Catherine]

I like Catalana better than Catalina (and I'm a Catherine). Not unique or interesting enough, is my general feeling.

[Hilda]

I don't think Catalina is distinctive enough, nor does it really speak to the Spanish influences in your cuisine, it says SoCal more than anything else. But Catalan, Catalana, or Catalunya work.

[Rachel]

What about Catalunya/Catalunia? It pays better homage to the type of food, I think, plus, there is that pretty, latin-derived part of lun, meaning moon, which could make for nice graphics.

[Rachel]

What about Catalunya/Catalunia? It pays better homage to the type of food, I think, plus, there is that pretty, latin-derived part of lun, meaning moon, which could make for nice graphics.

[Rachel]

What about Catalunya/Catalunia? It pays better homage to the type of food, I think, plus, there is that pretty, latin-derived part of lun, meaning moon, which could make for nice graphics.

[I-Chant]

I've been to Catalina, and it's a lovely place. And I like that it's got a phonetic connection with Catalan. But I just don't see it as *you.* Olallie and Castropoda and Bocarte all seem like they came from you, but Catalina seems wrong somehow.

[rachel]

There is nothing objectionable about this one, but nothing YES about it either for me. I love the A la mesa suggestion, as well as maybe SImpatico? But I understand the not wanting to tie yourself too much with Spanish..

[JenR]

Brett - Thanks for letting us play along! My Midwest roots are showing... Catalina means bad salad dressing to me. Some of the derivations suggested in the comments show potential.