CatchThis Naming Company Blog

Respire: Not Quite a Breath of Fresh Air

Hyatt is offering a very helpful and appealing new type of room, designed for allergy sufferers: “Respire by Hyatt — Hypo-Allergenic Rooms.”

Having just accompanied my 13-year-old through six months of weekly allergy shots, I love the idea and think Hyatt will attract plenty of new guests. It’s a distinctive offering that sends the message of caring about the customer and responding to unserved needs. Also, the rooms sound very, very clean — and if you’ve ever watched an episode of CSI, you know how hard it is to look at a hotel bedspread these days.

But I’m having trouble getting past the name. Respire. Too much like expire. “The poor dear respired because of breathing difficulties.” Or: “They tried to respire her, but to no avail.”

For this one, I think a slightly coined name like Respira or Espira would’ve helped. Or a prefix that doesn’t connote the need to restart respiration — Wellspire, Bonspire, TruSpire, Onspire, Vitaspire, that sort of thing.

Best of luck to Hyatt, though. I’m hoping this offering sticks around!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted: Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 at 10:00 am

Maria Cypher

Naming industry innovator and Catchword co-founder
  1. Rachel D.

    I agree on the poor naming choice. The verb “respire” is used in the medical field, and while the verb itself does mean to breathe easily, I doubt any hotel wants their guests to feel like a hospital patient.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>