Names are important.   What we call ourselves and what others call us helps to define who we are and what others perceive us to be.   They can also influence what we become in the future.

I got thinking about this, in part, because a young woman I know, Lauren Charpio, wrote a cute book “You Can Call Me Hoppa!; The Grandparents’ Guide to Choosing a Name that Fits”.   It seems that baby boom grandparents are interested in their “brand” to their grandkids and want some input into the name they will be called.   One surfer grandfather wanted to be called “Grand-dude”.   A retired CEO wanted to just be called “Chief”.   Grandma and Grandpa just don’t cut the mustard anymore, I guess.

I also think a lot about the destruction that we have seen in the homebuilding and real estate businesses over the past couple of years and how many companies have been forced out of business in the process.   But, just as a forest fire can destroy a forest and make it look pretty ugly for a while, green shoots do start to appear and the forest begins to grow anew.  

New homebuilding businesses will form out of the destruction of the past few years, because the need for shelter is a primary need that will be filled.  

Those new businesses have a unique and one-time opportunity to name themselves whatever they choose.   In doing so, the founders have the chance to impact what people think about that company (and what that company’s future employees think about the company and themselves) for a long time to come, even before they create or sell their first product.

Over the past 50 years, the homebuilding and real estate industry has had a penchant to name the company after the founder (Pulte, Toll Brothers, Ryan, Del Webb, Drees, David Weekley, John Wieland, Simon, Hovnanian, and Trammell Crow, to name a few).   Inevitably, the persona of the company was linked to the persona of the founder in a direct way.  

When I look at other industries, I do not see this pattern.   Why was it Microsoft instead of Gates’ Software?   Or Apple instead of Jobs’ Computers?   Why do startups such as Google and Facebook choose something generic or a “new word” to describe their company?

My guess is that having the clean slate of a new name allows the company to create from scratch its own history, its own persona, its own culture….its own brand.   The founders of these new companies may not have directly thought that way, but that seems to be what happens. 

 I wonder whether the naming pattern for homebuilders was a good thing or a bad thing for the industry or for the long-term potential of those individual companies.   At least you have to consider the question.

So, it was with great interest the other day that I connected with one of my old project managers from my days at Arvida in South Florida (through Facebook).   Bill Petkoski is a superb manager.   Cut adrift from his last company, as so many have, Bill chose to start a small building company in North Florida and called it The Cottage Home Company.

I haven’t seen what he intends to build, but my guess is that it will be cottages that are nice homes.   That’s a nice mental image, isn’t it?   Not product.   Not SKUs.   Not inventory.   Not generic stucco boxes.  Cottages.

He could have named it Petkoski Homes, like many in the past have done, and no one would have blinked an eye.   But, instead, he took a new tack and did not follow the old template.   Maybe the influences from other industries are beginning to rub off?

Bill is still just starting up, but he has already made a great first decision; A new name that has a nice evocation to it.

It is a green shoot that has a great future ahead of it, I think.