Firms grab attention with unusual names.

Cow, Bash Boom Bang and Voodoo/Crush/Stompbox want your business.

These are not high schoolers selling snowboards, but the latest wave of local companies that have created names meant to grab attention and convey a message.

When it comes to producing a name for a new company, the rules have definitely changed. Names used to convey a sense of stability - as in International Business Machines or Reliance Steel & Aluminum.

But the advent of computers and a change in cultural values have led to names that could have come out of a comic book (or software programming code): L@it'2d, iXL Holdings, W-3 design, ChatCom Inc., Vyvx, Digital Facades and LawNMoweR.

The object is to sound hip and cutting-edge, especially when the company is in a creative or technical industry such as advertising or multimedia. More important, say many recent entrepreneurs, is coming up with a name that has an attitude.

"In a name, one can reflect a personality," said John Bashew, founder of Bash Boom Bang, a Pacific Palisades-based sound-effects firm. "We do music, so I wanted something that reflects music and sound effects. (Bash Boom Bang) implies noise."

Michael Terpin, head of a P.R. agency in Marina del Rey that specializes in high-tech clients, says a snowball effect occurred a few years ago when Internet-related companies with names like Yahoo!, Excite and others began taking off.

"You try to sound like what the successful competition sounds like, so you can emulate their success," Terpin said.

To Scott Mednick, founder of advertising agency Think New Ideas, the trend has more to do with a change in cultural values. People began seeking spiritual meaning in their lives, looking for things that connected to them on a more personal level.

"Do you, as a person, want to be confronted with a faceless conglomerate, or something that has more meaning?" asked Mednick, who said the name "Think New Ideas" was the perfect expression of his company's meaning.

Some of the most unusual names use symbols or types of punctuation that would be instantly recognizable to a Web-using audience.

Many entrepreneurs go for the high-tech feel by using intercaps - capital letters in the middle of a name, a linguistic format long used by software engineers to name their products. ChatCom Inc. and LawNMoweR are examples.

Other companies use unconventional spellings to convey a message. The name of iXL Holdings, an Internet solutions company, is meant to suggest "I excel."

Still others wish to connote a philosophy. Bryan Dorsey, co-founder of Cow, a Santa Monica-based Web-site design firm, said the name came out of a need to simplify high-tech jargon.

"One of our partners would just confuse everybody, no one knew what he was talking about," said Dorsey. "My other partner said, 'Hey, could you just say Cow, speak English, keep it simple.'"

Initially, said Dorsey, the name caused some concern when it was time to raise capital for the fledgling company.

"My biggest concern was going to investors and asking them to invest in our company. I thought, these suits aren't going to understand this," recalled Dorsey.

Even if the name had been met with frowns, said Dorsey, whose company was originally called The Multi Media Group, "I wouldn't have changed it. It came down to, if Apple could name their company after a fruit, we could name ours after a big hairy animal," he said.

Unconventional names can cause a company problems., a designer of titles and graphics for the entertainment industry, is pretty hard to find in a phone book because of the @-sign in the middle of its name.

"With L@it'2d, we wanted to use the @sign because ... we knew that the Internet was going to be very potent," said co-founder and Creative Director Water Kerner.

Ironically, does not work as an Internet address because it doesn't follow the proper format.

"We were so disappointed," chuckled Kerner, whose Internet address is. "When we hooked up (to the Internet), we were like, 'My God, we can't use the @-sign?"

Cathy Touber, co-owner of Vidiots, a video store in Santa Monica that specializes in hard-to-find films, said some people have told her that the name is "horribly derogatory." Since it opened in 1986, however, the store has tripled in size.

"I think it's an unfortunate trend," said S.B. Master, head of Master-McNeil, a Berkeley-based company that specializes in creating names for companies. "If your main objective is to be too cool for words, OK, but you may not be in business next year."

The Name Game

Can you match the company name with its industry?

1. Bash Bang Boom          A. Titles and graphics designer
2. Cow                     B. Advertising agency
3. Vidiots                 C. Web-site designer
4. L'@it2'd                D. Sound effects studio
5. Vyvx                    E. Video rental shop

Answers

1-D, 2-C, 3-E, 4-A, 5-B