Honey Bundt Cake (Wayne Ferrebee, 2013, oil on panel)
OK, I need some help from you. It’s necessary to build Ferrebeekeeper into a more consolidated online platform which combines my twitter feed, my art gallery, my Etsy store, and, above all this blog. The question is whether I should build outward from this extant brand or do I need to start afresh with a new name? Come to think of it, are you all even out there or am I talking to some nefarious WordPress algorithm that generates a random number of “views” every day?
The cropped version of William Hogarth’s “Gin Lane” which I have used as a banner forever
OK, let’s not get distracted by meta-questions and stick with the fundamental naming issue: Ferrebeekeeper is a sort of play on words concerning my surname “Ferrebee” and a place to keep things like a “file keeper”. Best of all, the roots combine together to evoke beekeepers! Long ago, my webmaster was crafting a site for the now defunct line of toys I designed. She randomly typed my name into a website which was selling names and it corrected her: “did you mean FERREBEEKEEPER?” Obviously that was no good for selling toys, but later on I adopted it as a provisional name for my personal blogging project and it has stuck…until now.
![Oh, no! [hyperventilating]](https://ferrebeekeeper.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/marketing.jpg)
Oh gosh! Oh gosh! [hyperventilating from generalized business anxiety]
Ferrebeekeeper Mascot?
On the positive side of Ferrebeekeeper, everyone knows what beekeepers do and they are well liked. Beekeeping is an ancient useful art stretching back to prehistory. It says something about the blog itself too: handling ideas is a complex craft which can yield sweet sweet results, but which can also result in mass attack by a stinging swarm. “Ferre” is a prefix which means iron. Iron beekeeper sounds pretty amazing. I could even have my own iron beekeeper mascot! Also I don’t risk losing fans and followers by making a transition to…to what exactly? Some tech-sounding one syllable name? They must all be gone by now.
The tech names WERE all gone other than “eferrebeekeeper” Hmm…people DO like the letter “e”
Anyway, please let me know what you think! I know how smart everyone is from all of your clever comments: now would be a good time to help out with your opinion…
ferrebeekeeper 
23 comments
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February 6, 2015 at 11:52 PM
Tutu Dutta Yean
If you already have a substantial following, I say keep to Ferrebeekeeper; rebranding takes a lot of time and effort. Although, Iron Beekeeper is great too. On the other hand, playful names like Apple and Baby Phat really catch fire… how about FurryBeekeeper!!!
February 7, 2015 at 1:29 AM
Wayne
Thanks Tutu! I like your handle, by the way, as well as your suggestions. I worry that if I take “Iron Beekeeper” as a sobriquet I am going to have to work out all the time and raise bees…although I guess there are worse ways to get through the world. Maybe ladies would really love me if I was all rippling with muscle AND had lots of honeyed desserts.
“FurryBeekeeper” is indeed amazing and people would definitely remember it. It could be some sort of animal-man who keeps bees (Tolkien’s Beorn springs to mind: see Iron Beekeeper above!) or it could be a “furry” which is “God bless us, a thing of naught.”
February 6, 2015 at 11:57 PM
Francesca
Yes, I really do read your blog and I love it! I promise I am not a bot. I don’t mind Ferrebeekeeper at all. Such an unusual name has the charm of promising something quirky and unusual which is certainly truth in advertising. In any case I have it bookmarked and I get the email so, even if I were to completely forget how to spell it, I can still find it.
February 7, 2015 at 1:48 AM
Wayne
Aww! I can tell you’re not a bot because you say such nice things (without even trying to sell me discount watches and internet dates). I like the idea of keeping Ferrebeekeeper as well, and, like you say, it’s easy to bookmark things in our age of thinking machines. It’s just that I know a Hollywood studio guy would be like “Wayne Ferrebee? No, no, no: you’re Chuck Trust from now on!” and the idea of making it big with my new trustworthy (fake) name tantalizes me.
February 7, 2015 at 2:22 AM
frithkin
I like the name Ferrebeekeeper .
Dont change it if possible !?!
February 7, 2015 at 3:38 AM
Wayne
Another strong vote for “Ferrebeekeeper”…and another commenter with their own cool name. Are you an Old English scholar or is that a Richard Adams reference (or does “Frith” have a meaning I kin nothing of in Australia)?
February 7, 2015 at 4:31 AM
frithkin
I found the name from a story by Craig Shaw Gardner . Frithkin was a character in the story . It was not till I did further research into the word that I realised the history around it.
June 26, 2015 at 8:00 PM
frithkin
Still loving your blog . Thank you for sharing all the great information you share with us all !!
July 1, 2015 at 12:00 AM
Wayne
You’re the best frithkin. I really appreciate your comments too!
February 7, 2015 at 3:41 AM
Teknitula SpaceNoise
You keep on musing and we’ll keep on reading.
February 7, 2015 at 9:26 AM
Val Fullard
I think Ferrebeekeeper is charming, and it’s certainly well-supplied with “e”s! If you’re looking for something shorter though, you could do worse than Ferrebee. And I too love your blog! It is one of the bright spots of my day.
February 7, 2015 at 2:04 PM
Wayne
Thanks so much, Val! That comment was a bright spot in my day! I guess if I wanted to be avant garde I could take out all the consonants and rename it “eeeeeee” or was that already a dot-bomb company in the late nineties?
February 8, 2015 at 4:14 AM
Lisa Tiller
I’ve only just discovered your blog and in truth was intrigued by the name. I like it and what I have read so far too. I think you’re on the right track with everything you’re doing, including the name.
February 8, 2015 at 1:42 PM
quinn
Well, since you are asking for an opinion, I will try to say something useful.
I like your blog a LOT and have been reading it for a long time. You write so well, and your illustrations are always impressive…and you write about such diverse and interesting topics! So I am likely to continue following regardless of what you call it. But that really isn’t what you’re asking, is it?
I don’t know how I stumbled upon your blog, but it certainly wasn’t because of the name, and I never had a clue what it meant. It was a long, long time before I had any idea of your last name, because it doesn’t show up in the reader; just “by Wayne.” And honestly, I prefer a blog name that I understand the meaning behind, and that I know how to pronounce so I can tell other people about it without an apology or explanation. (For example, in a blog with “beekeeper” in the name, I would expect to be reading a LOT about, you know, keeping bees.)
And the ideas you are now playing with seem even more esoteric and personal-jokish than the name you use now. Which of course is fine; it’s your blog! But if you are looking at this decision from a marketing perspective, I think you would do well to consider what your blog is “about” or the underlying philosophy/intention/goal or whatever you want to call it – and name the blog accordingly in a short, clear way. Make it easier for people to find you and remember you because of your name, or at least, not in spite of it.
Just my 2 cents 🙂
p.s. Maybe consider “rhombus”…for all the lovely associations you’ve recently pointed out 🙂
February 9, 2015 at 9:40 PM
Wayne
Thanks so much for the informative and thoughtful answer, quinn, and thanks even more for being a loyal reader (despite the lack of beekeeping tips 🙂 )! I started this blog back when I was being crushed by a bad business partnership, and some of the themes and style are deliberately in antithesis to the scalpel-like focus which business has on pragmatic maximization of resources. I wanted freedom to explore the baroque, the sublime, and the esoteric–particularly in the natural world. Nature is brilliant at maximizing resources in endless extravagant ways without the crude reductionism (and pointless magpie aquisitiveness) of MBAs.
Yet, now, suddenly, I am talking about to simplifying and rebranding! What am I thinking? Hmm, even if I keep the name, maybe I can figure out a better way to characterize the nature of this project. That way you can at least tell your friends what it is about (even if it still has too many “e”s). Thanks again!
February 9, 2015 at 7:44 AM
blackberryjuniper
I say keepit as it is. I love the name, and I love the blog!
February 9, 2015 at 9:08 PM
Wayne
Stay the course, eh? I hear you well, blackberry juniper!
February 9, 2015 at 11:27 AM
Zeke
I vote for keeping the same name. It’s unique. It has Google juice. Superficially clever tech-y names will go out of fashion eventually.
February 9, 2015 at 9:46 PM
Wayne
Thanks Zeke. I hope you are feeling better! I might have been joking a bit about tech names (“enames”? “namez”? “names³”?). However, my fear that people have a hard time with “Ferrebee” is well founded, and getting people to recognize that name bears on my lifequest as a weird allegorical artist!
February 10, 2015 at 1:49 PM
Bot475
Scanning…. filling content….proceeding to next site….
February 10, 2015 at 7:58 PM
Wayne
Well, at least you are a friendly little spambot. I feel like Google might have scanned the post out of my brain…before it was written.
February 11, 2015 at 4:14 PM
Matthias
As I am concerned I recommend to keep the name. I am no Bot, I like to read what you write. On the other hand: I once found you, so I’ll probably find you again.
February 12, 2015 at 10:01 PM
Wayne
I didn’t think you were a bot, Matthias! I appreciate the vote of confidence about the name though. Don’t worry, it’s apparently not going to change soon…