We've heard that our name, CEEALAR (Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research), is not the best. What would a better name be? To expand, there are potentially two names: one for the hotel building, and one for the charity. The charity name can't contain the word "hotel", and perhaps shouldn't contain "EA". And does "Athena" - the current name of the hotel - pass the reversal test? (Previous discussion on our Facebook group).
The Organization Formerly Known as Centre for Enabling EA Learning & Research (TOFKACEEALAR)?
(Sorry.)
More seriously, perhaps you could look into the history of utopian communities for inspiration? Some had nice names, such as Owen's 'New Harmony'. Another option is to use the form 'x House', where x is the name of some suitable person or idea (as an example, someone previously suggested 'Bentham House').
I like Athena, or Athena Centre!
I like Xenea, a combination of Xenia (ancient Greek concept of hospitality) and EA.
Other ideas that I've thought about but like a bit less:
How about something like LEARN? -- not intended as an acronym; just "learn" with the letters "EA" in it highlighted in some way.
One could even play with the fact that "EA" also appears in "research" and consider a logo where these letters are highlighted the same, shared, ...
My sense is:
Having a separate name for the org and the hotel unnecessarily introduces more confusion/complexity.
Defaulting to Athena because it happens to be the name of the building already, seems highly improbable to coincidentally be the best option.
For clarity, something that concisely describes the mission or vision of the org and place feels best to me. Arepo's suggestion of 'Center for Altruists in Residence' hits the sweet spot on the specific enough to broad enough spectrum IMO. It also has an acronym which people will all pronounce the same and spell correctly (C.A.R.)
Using the names of philosophers etc runs the risk of people having (potentially negative) ideas about the person in question, which don't align with the purpose/vision/mission of the hotel. So personally I'd avoid that to ensure people who should be attracted, are attracted.
I thought "EA hotel" was pretty great as a straightforward description, good substitutes might have a word for "ea" and a word for "hotel". So like:
Bentham's Base
Helpers' House
Swap with Lodge, Hollow, Den if alliteration is too cute
e.g. "Bentham's House", "Bentham's Lodge" both sound pretty serious.
Or just forget precedent and brand something new e.g. Runway (or Runway Athena)
Some "just kidding" alliterative options that I couldn't resist:
Crypto crib, Prioritization Place, Utilitarian's Union, Consequentialist Club, Greg's iGloo
I imagine most people reading your question don't want to list out a bunch of bad ideas. But I think that might be what's needed at this point, because the more we enumerate (and eliminate), the more clear it becomes whether or not CEEALAR is actually the best option. Or maybe seeing a bunch of bad ideas will spark a good one in someone's mind. Here:
Centre for Effective Learning, Centre for Learning Good, Blackpool Pastures, Hotel Hedon, Hotel for Effective Research, Maxgood Productions, Maxwell Hotel, EA Retreat House.
Yeah this is difficult.
Building: Athena House? Athena Centre? Charity: I guess it should describe that you give people funding and autonomy to focus on their high-priority work, together. Independent Research Centre? Impact Hub?
Effective Hospitality
I've been thinking about this name on and off, and Effective Hospitality was the name that my thoughts kept returning to. I'd use it first as a name for what CEEALAR does: doing the most good possible by hosting people.
The name generalizes very well, in my opinion. Specifically, CEEALAR and/or the hotel could become "EH Blackpool". The idea might spread, and there could soon be "EH Tokyo", "EH Munich" and others (just as today there are effective altruism groups that call themselves "EA <location>").
The other primary advantage is that the name is quite self-explanatory.
The other primary advantage is that the name is quite self-explanatory.
When I hear the name, I picture a hotel chain trying to provide excellent and efficient service. It doesn't feel like it gets to the heart of the EA Hotel for me.
I think the name CEEALAR grew on me by now, maybe because it is rewarding for me to be able to remember it correctly, and maybe because it has become kind of an inside joke that the name is a bit awkward. Random ideas anyway:
It could even be Altruistic Living and Building - Altruistic Labs! I feel like that name embodies what the organization does within it (enabling people to test various generally early-stage approaches to altruism) which would be a good idea whether the proposed name is an acronym or not.
Looking at similar organizations inside and outside EA (like Berkeley REACH) for naming inspiration also seems like a good idea.
For the sake of getting more feedback on existing suggestions, I'm going to post the eligible ones from the existing FB thread as responses to this 'answer', with clarifications about whether they apply to the hotel or the org (nb in cases where they could make sense for either, I'll post a separate entry for each).
Please up/downvote according to how much you approve of each, keeping in mind the acronyms they'll form (whether as a plus or minus) - I suggest using single up/downvotes, since regular forum contributors get to adjust karma more with strong votes, but don't seem any more likely to have a better sense of aesthetics than passers by. But feel free to comment on any you feel strongly for/against!
The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Do Altruism Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too