I wish had some advice here about how to name products in general, but I don’t. So I’ll explain how I came up with the name Faza, because I didn’t. So this is going to be a short post…
After coming up with the sci-fi metaphor of space aliens and human survivors, early on my wife suggested I look for the word ‘alien’ in Farsi. I didn’t even get a chance to have a list of interesting and unique words or phrases shot down by my significant other.
She provided the initial direction to explore words in Farsi (since I also speak Farsi, the native language of Iran) and began listing out phonetic translations (so I got to create a list after all, but it wasn’t in English). After listing these words, I found the majority of the words too difficult for an English audience to pronounce, except for one: Faza.
Faza is a phonetic translation of the word “space.” The first “a” sounds the same as the “a” in “cat,” and the second “a” sounds like the “a” in “wash.” Faza has come to be the name of the alien species human players encounter in the game.
In retrospect, I guess I do have some advice for naming products – ask my wife.