Lots of people have asked us “why did you pick the name Bill Monk? Are you that obsessed by the Stumbling Monk?”
It is true that we came up with the name while at the Monk. But this was after several days of struggle to come up with a GREAT name for the site. (Point of clarification: the Stumbling Monk is a local pub in what used to be a typewriter factory. It features a constant rotation of Belgian ales and local Belgian-style ales. It is our home away from home; though we have learned the hard way that a 12.5% beer does, in fact, have twice the effect of normal beer.)
These were our criteria for our venture’s name:
- It must be easy-to-remember
- It must be short
- The domain name must be available
- It should convey the following:
- 3rd party neutrality
- friendliness
- trustworthiness
- We’d prefer to avoid torturing exsiting words into made-up forms, as is the current vogue with Web2.0 apps (for the record, I’m not a fan of the term “Web 2.0″)
- Ideally, it would be a noun that could be verbed
I’ll not subject myself to the shame of telling you some of our early ideas. But when Gaurav (I think it was him? the memory is fuzzy; see above re: 12.5% beer) said “hey, Bill Monk!” it was like clouds parting, sunshine streaming down (this image is very powerful for us Seattle types) and angels singing. It was one of those “OF COURSE!” moments in life. It came from nowhere and landed in our laps.
I love the name Bill Monk. It’s a bit weird, but it’s different and memorable. It clearly has something to do with money since it has the word “bill” in it. It personifies the character of impariality and trust; monks! Who wouldn’t trust a monk? We can do great things with developing a character to represent the site (today’s bald-headed blissful guy in our logo will grow to a full-fledged person, sometimes jolly and sometimes somber). And the domain name billmonk.com was available — and so was bmonk.com!
Our only concern is that some people might be vexed at possible stereotype of a monk, especially that of an Eastern monk bordering on the exotic Other. We intend our Monk to be neither an Eastern nor a Western monk. He’s just the Bill Monk. It’s what he does. He wants you and your friends to be happy and not worry so much about money.
January 25, 2006 at 7:38 pm |
Great concept. Great name. I like the multiple currency idea you’ll be implementing. As for offending people… only Lawyers, Hollywood Altruists, and people with no purpose in life get offended. Monks never get offended. It’s part of what makes Monks so cool and friendly. They can roam the world, use any currency, keep their debts balanced, and be neutral to everybodies perspective on life.
June 6, 2006 at 4:53 pm |
As you can see my name is Bill Monks. I think by adding the S it gave the name a certain ring.
Of cause when i went to school I was called Monkey Monks.
When my son started school I warned him the other kids were going to make fun of his name.
When he came home he was crying. “My name is Billy not William. He had never known his name was William.
February 23, 2007 at 2:03 am |
Will the real Bill Monk please stand up, LOL? Checking to see if the domain was available (and why wouldn’t it have been… ordinarily?), I discovered your concept. I provide the hospitality IT arena with point of sale systems… imagine if my solution could be integrated into that of billmonk.com’s!
March 8, 2007 at 12:55 pm |
October 26, 2007 at 2:47 pm |
I cannot reach http://www.billmonk.com is it gone?
April 24, 2009 at 10:55 am |
Not that I’m impressed a lot, but this is a lot more than I expected for when I found a link on Digg telling that the info is awesome. Thanks.
June 14, 2009 at 4:36 am |
Look at this….
Sweet site dude, check out mine when you get a min……