The Name Inspector is a dude in Seattle who writes a blog about brand names and company names. He says these names are “literary miniatures: nanopoems,” among other things:

The Name Inspector takes a close look at names and tells you what makes them click (or clunk) from a linguistic point of view.[...] He is concerned with the linguistic essence of names: how they feel and sound when spoken, what they look like when written, and the meanings and moods they evoke in their contexts. [...] The Name Inspector has a finely tuned ear for names. A sharp eye. A delicate palate. He has a PhD in Linguistics and years of experience as a professional namer and name analyst. Let him show you the inner workings of names.

He analyzes names of companies in the same sector as well as individual names. In his analysis of groups of names, he divides them into these categories:

1. Real Words - (del.icio.us, )
2. Compounds - (AnswerBus, )
3. Phrases - (Windows Live Mobile, )
4. Blends - (, )
5. Made up or obscure origin - (yubnub (Ewok “hooray�; no, this does not belong in Real Words; )
6. Tweaked words - (WIKIO (wiki),
7. Affixed words - (GIGABLAST )
8. Made up or obscure origin -
9. Puns - (scirus (cirrus, ci –> science) )
10. People’s names (real or fictitious) - (mrquery)
11. Initials and Acronyms - (TWERQ (The Web’s Effective Result Query; also from QWERTY))

He also has the eclectic “Mixing the name types in mashonyms” category.

I find this stuff super-interesting. I think I’ll do some name analysis on my list of companies. I haven’t read all the posts, but I haven’t read his description of naming his own site.