What’s in a Name?

Big or small, all businesses need a name, preferably one that catches the consumer’s eye. In the Los Angeles Business Pages, one finds bracketed between A (a referral agency) and Zuyan Gift Shop a sheaf of curious appellations. Breakout Bail Bonds makes its case plain, but who’d want to stay at the Ho-Hum Motel? Have their ‘do done at BYO Hair? Hire a gumshoe from Fraudex Investigations (“Don’t live with doubts!”)?

Yet other names seem stoked by genius.

“Someone told me, ‘If you were in Marketing 101, you’d get an A+,’ ” says Rosario Schuler, owner of Oh My Nappy Hair salon in Los Angeles. Asked how she came up with the name, Schuler, who is African American, recalls a recurrent adolescent drama.

“Whenever boyfriends would come over, the girls would grab their heads and say, ‘Oh, my nappy hair! Give me a scarf!’ When I was naming the business, I wanted a word that would connect the African American community and hair, and ‘nappy’ is it.”

Though most people love the name (“It really sticks in people’s heads,” says stylist Erica Blevins), a few feel it’s mildly degrading. This does not pose a problem for Los Angeles County Business Filing and Registration, where all businesses are required to register their names.

“You can use any name you want,” says employee Frank Gamboa. “If you want to open a hamburger place called ‘McDonald’s,’ we’ll let you. It’s your responsibility to realize the existing McDonald’s is probably going to file a lawsuit.”

The county places only two restrictions on names: claiming a business is incorporated when it is not, and the use of profanity.

“But religious names are OK,” says registrar Rosie Cervantes. “If you want to call your restaurant ‘God’s Lunch Counter,’ that’s OK with us.”

Jeff Young, owner of the Rich Bum, wasn’t inspired by the Almighty, but the sea. “I saw all these boats at the marina, and thought, if I had a nice yacht, I’d name it the Rich Bum.” Instead, he bestowed the name upon his Los Angeles sandwich shop, and the eponymous cartoon character that’s become the shop’s mascot. Other establishments, like the Redhead Bar in Los Angeles, inherit a name and invent the genealogy.

“The guy who owned it 40 years ago, his wife had red hair, and he named it after her,” says an employee. “At least, that’s what they tell me.”

Some of our favorites:

Hair Salons

Exclusively Raw

Fanatic Hair Works (“People always ask, ‘What are you fanatic about?’ I think you gotta be fanatical about what you do. Every morning, I ask myself, am I fanatical? If I’m not, I rev myself up and get there. It’s motivational.”)

Hair Coop

Hair Dooz

Hair Hollow

The Hair ‘Em

The Jagged Edge

Jealousy Beauty Salon

Knots by Nell

Let It Whip

Mantrap Nails & Hair

N Tune 2 Beauty

Simply Raw Hair Designers (“It’s kind of a colloquial phrase. You come in the raw form, and you’re transformed, until you’re simply raw.”)

Whipp It & Clipp It

Bars

Albatross

Bob’s Frolic Room

Dragon Lady

High Class

Huddle Up (“It’s called that because the owner is a former Los Angeles Ram, Paul ‘Tank’ Younger.”)

Jumbo’s Clown Room

Lava Lounge

Little Joy Cocktails

The Smog Room (“The bar was originally out by the airport, so maybe that’s how it got its name. I’ve been in a different location 37 years now, and I have a big mirror, with a little man etched in there, and he’s smoking a big cigar, and the smoke spells out ‘The Smog Room.’ It’s cracked now, but I still keep that mirror.”)

The Smog Cutter

The Spike

Terminal Liquor

Clothiers

2000 BC (“We tell people the name means all sorts of things. That we’d like to retire by the year 2000; that we’re coming up to the new millennium and if we went backward it would be just the opposite; that the owners names are Brian and Craig. If you come up with any more, we’d love to hear them.”)

Denim Soul

Fashionia

Forever 21

Funky Jean Hole

Good Luck Fashion

Money’s Rite

No Reply

Pishy (“It means pussycat, in Persian.”)

Something Nice

Tall Passion

Used Cars

Bargain Life Style

Cars 4 U

Cheap Auto Sales

Dial-A-Car

Disco Auto Sales (“When we opened the business 20 years ago, on Melrose and Van Ness, we were surrounded by discos, so we called it that. Sometimes people dance into the store.”)

InstaCash

Nice Cars

OK Cars

Two Guys Auto Sales (“They couldn’t think of a name, and there were two of them, so they just called it Two Guys. A lot of people think we’re Italian, ‘cause of the name.”)