[Foundation-l] The names of the Wikimedia projects

Sun Oct 10 18:07:00 UTC 2004

Walter-
> A good name must be possible to pronounce in many languages and
> perferably mean something relevant. This is very difficult, i know.

When it comes to meaning, it is not just difficult, it is impossible. With  
regard to the name Wikinews, I would say that the word "news" is probably  
more international than the word "encyclopedia" (or the suffix "-pedia"),  
not least because people are familiar with it from English language news  
sources like CNN (Cable News Network) or EuroNews. Indeed, a Google search  
for the word "news" in the jp domain yields 4.4 million hits, while  
"encyclopedia" only returns 93,000.

I'd say our worst naming choice so far was "Wiktionary", because the word  
"dictionary" isn't really that well known, especially in its mutilated  
form. Something like "Wikiwords" would probably have been more  
appropriate.

Regards,

Erik