Is a floor littered with discarded clothes, a student’s bedroom or is it a clothing storage system known as a floordrobe?

Is the manipulation of photographic or video images to convey a false representation of events, an admirable skill or is it fauxtography?

Is this just an excuse to list some examples from the Macquarie Online Dictionary Word of the Year competition or is it highlighting an untapped source of naming ideas?

Slang words rarely feature in naming because of their informality, their potential to become uncool very quickly, and their failure to fit into corporate branding protocols. But the point here is they should not be ignored.

They represent a rich source of inspiration because, of course, they are names themselves. Names created by public opinion and trend leaders; names which reveal public attitudes, behaviours and crazes; names which show how people think about things. All this can be fed into the naming of other product and services.

One would hope that the essence of innovative products and services is that they are of the moment and looking to the future. So what better way to start thinking about a name for them than by considering those street–based “names” that reflect the true zeitgeist of the moment?