Contest inspiration: fare card names from other places
October 18, 2010
Contest inspiration: fare card names from other places
October 18, 2010
In the naming contest post from last week, Chris passed on this handy list of fare card names from other places! I took a look through the list and highlighted names with interesting backstories, in case they might inspire winning contest entries…
Card | Place | Name explanation | |
Oyster | London, UK | Chosen as a fresh approach, unrelated to transit. The word Oyster had connotations of security and value. | |
Octopus | Hong Kong | Octopus references number 8 which is very lucky in Asian cultures. 8 also means “many” and “reaching everywhere.” | |
Myki | Melbourne, Australia | Sounds like “my key” to represent having a key for a new lifestyle, and also makes the card a character (“Mikey”). (Explanation found here!) | |
Clipper | San Francisco | Named after Clipper ships: the fastest mode of transportation during the Gold Rush. This card used to be called the TransLink card! | |
CharlieCard | Boston, Massachusetts | The CharlieCard is named after a fictional character in a folk music song often called “Charlie on the MTA”, which concerns a man trapped forever on the Boston subway system (then known as the Metropolitan Transit Authority, or MTA) because he can’t pay the 5-cent surcharge required to leave the train. | |
ORCA | Seattle | ORCA (“One Regional Card for All”) Card | |
Suica | Tokyo (Japan Rail) | Stands for “Super Urban Intelligent Card”, and is also a pun on the Japanese word for watermelon. As well, Sui Sui means smooth and Ka is an abbreviation for card. | |
Sugoca | Japan (Fukuoka prefecture) | The name is an acronym of “Smart Urban GOing CArd”, while sugoka (凄か?) in the local Kyūshū dialect means “great”. | |
NicePass | Japan (Entetsu Railway) | The name is an acronym of New Intelligence Card of Entetsu Personal and Smart System. |
From this I detect some general strategies:
- Pick a name of a sea creature with useful alternate meanings
- Pick a word not generally related to transit that gives the card some human features
- Acronyms: the more complex, the better.
- Puns, homonyms, and double meanings! The more the merrier!
Also, to be honest, my favourites are the non-acronym, non-punny, unrelated to transit names. Oyster! Myki! There’s something kind of bold about choosing a name like that and sticking with it. Enter the contest!
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If the Tokyo card’s name is a pun on the Japanese word for “watermelon” and also stands for “smooth card,” what on earth does a penguin have to do with all that? (I ask rhetorically…just wondering aloud.)
Sewing: I don’t know, but a quick Google search reveals that there’s a ton of merch available for the Suica penguin! Here’s one link: http://8tokyo.com/2008/08/20/suica-penguin-part3/
I think I prefer the simple ones: SL in Stockholm, for example, call theirs simply ‘SL Access’. When you’re replacing the old ticketing system rather than marketing a new competitor (like the Oyster card still is, and Toronto’s Presto will probably be for a long time) you don’t really need a special brand identity for the card itself.
Montreal’s Opus card is also a pun:
As in the Latin “Magnum opus” but it also sounds like “carte à puce” which is the French way of referring to a card with a chips in it.
Toronto’s is Presto…
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2007/06/25/to-presto-card.jpg
In Washington DC, they have the SmarTrip. Not very creative, but thought I would throw that out there! Also, the MTA (Maryland Transit Administration) has the CharmCard. So, names with no spaces between words, but with capital letters seem to be popular, too. (Like NicePass and CharlieCard in Chris’ list)
Question for Jhenifer: is there a limit on how many names you can enter for the contest?
Thanks!
Can you enter more than once if you have two different answers
emily, 4nthony: There’s no limit on how many names you can enter for the contest. You can enter as many times as you like!
Can we enter a name in the contest that’s already in use?
Ric,
I don’t think we can enter a name that is already in use.
[…] more inspiration, check out this earlier post on farecard names in other places. And then of course, enter the […]
Yokohama, part of greater Tokyo, implemented their own called “Pasmo” and it is now totally inter-changeable with the Suica right across Tokyo. I like it because it encourages people to use it “mo” (more) -> Pass + More
That is why I entered “RideMo” -> Ride + More
[…] you need contest inspiration, here’s a list of farecard names from other places, and the top 10 most entered names in our […]