Crowdfunding is one of the miracles of the internet age: put even the wackiest idea in front of a bajillion people and enough of them will pledge money to make it happen. So I wasn’t entirely surprised when Luigi sent me a link to Peterson Pawpaws Go Global. R. Neal Peterson wants your money to help him sell his pawpaw varieties. He needs $20,000 to trademark names for six of the varieties he has bred, so they can be sold in Japan and Europe. And he’s doing pretty well, with almost half of his goal and 16 days to go.
I’m not here to argue the rights and wrongs of asking folk to help defray what I would have thought were normal business expenses. I am concerned about that name. Of course, Peterson’s Pawpaws has a nice euphonious ring to it, but then so do melonette and strawberry peach, but you won’t find those names on any grocery labels.
You will, however, find kiwi fruit, though not in all its diversity, and the story of how the Chinese gooseberry came to be first a melonette and then a kiwi fruit is fascinating. ((If you’re interested, start with Wikipedia.))
I happen to think that, for all their attractive alliterative allure, Peterson’s Pawpaws could use a little kiwi style re-branding. ((And thanks again to Luigi for reminding me of the classic quote from Good Morning Vietnam.)) Not that I have any great ideas. I just think that what with mountain pawpaws and papaya, which lots of people know as pawpaw, there’s just too much room for confusion.
What to call it? Banango has a certain misleading ring to it. Peterson’s varieties are all named after rivers, most of which in turn borrow from native American names. That’s why I quite like rassimin, apparently a native American name that is reflected in the genus Asimina.
You can surely do better.