The world has learned a lot from Boaty McBoatface. If you don’t know what (who?) that is, according to the New York Times, it’s a $287 million dollar “polar research ship” that the Natural Environment Research Council of Britain (NERC) has asked the Internet to name. What were they thinking?
Maybe they weren’t thinking, because the current front-runner is “R.R.S. Boaty McBoatface.” Beautiful name for a research vessel.
But back to what Boaty McBoatface has been teaching us. We’ve learned that boats are #relevant and #newsworthy. We’ve learned that an unknown, former BBC employee James Hand (the guy who submitted the name), can rise from the ashes to do important, life-altering work in the world.
Most importantly, we’ve learned how to name really official large things. Take a lesson from the best. Next time you need to name something really important, just take the following steps to ensure you come up with a name as successful as “Boaty McBoatface.”
- First, find something the equivalent of $287 million dollars! That shouldn’t be hard.
- Then, entrust the most public element of that thing (for example, its name) to the most unreliable group of people you can think of (for example, the Internet.)
- Wait for said unreliable group to pick a beautiful, professional name for your beautiful, professional object.
- Live with the consequences of said name for the rest of your life!
Hopefully, the NERC will make the right decision and skip this final step. According to NPR, the NERC reserves the final right to decide on the name. But Boaty McBoatface is currently 89,144 votes over its nearest competitor. If you want to try to influence the course of history, check out the naming website here. Help make bad names happen. Vote Boaty McBoatface.
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