We realize that crazy names for digital startups are fashionable. The reasoning is that a weird word sticks in your memory and if it catches on, the recognition factor can be priceless. Google, anyone?

On the other hand, funky names can be a disadvantage if they are also disagreeable or hard to pronounce, particularly if you’ve created a product that you are hoping will supplant the sonorous and aptly named Kindle. That’s why, for example, we’re skeptical that the world is going to beat a path to a gadget called the Flepia. Discussing color e-book readers we recently wrote:

It’s hard to take an e-book named Flepia seriously. First of all, no one knows if it’s Fleh-pia or Flee-pia (it’s Fleh, I’m reliably told). Second of all, “Flepia” sounds like one of those junk fishes hauled up with a tuna catch.

The Flepia is made by Fujitsu, and if anything would induce us to utter the word “Flepia” aloud at the sales counter of an electronics store it’s the fact that it’s the first full-color commercial e-book reader. But it would still be embarrassing.

Another Japanese e-book reader named by a marketing genius with a tin ear is Panasonic’s WordsGear. It too is in living color, and comes in at half of the intimidating $1000 price of the Flepia. But it’s hard to see myself reading a book on something called a WordsGear.

The Japanese don’t have a monopoly on inept nomenclature for e-book readers. From a UK outfit called Interead comes the Cool-er. It boasts a number of advantages over the competition, among them price (at $250, it’s a third cheaper than Kindle and Sony) and weight. “The Cool-er weighs 5.6 ounces – compared to 10 oz of the Sony Reader and 10.2 oz of the Amazon Kindle 2,” writes Priya Ganapati for Wired.com’s Engadget. “That means the Cool-er is nearly 40 percent lighter than its biggest competitors.”

It also comes in eight colors. But does that make it a color reader? No, just the frames are colored. The text is good old black and white E-ink. Which brings us to the name. Aren’t consumers going to be confused by a b&w reader that sounds like “Col-or”? Or is it supposed to suggest the device is cool. Do you pronounce the word like the refrigerated water dispenser commonly found in business offices? Or do you come to a full glottal stop, thus: Cool. Er. No matter how you say it, it’s awkward, cacophonous and meaningless.

The dark horse in the Dumb Name Derby is the e-reader developed by Plastic Logic. Despite its imminent release it still doesn’t have a name. Because of its thin, flexible design – you can roll it up like a scroll – it is a keenly anticipated device. But what will it be named?

One hopes that the company’s management will learn from the unfortunates described here and give us a name we can utter joyously and proudly. Or how about a name we can utter at all.

RC