What's a pirate's favorite letter?
March 1, 2018 2:23 PM Subscribe
A family member is starting a group whose name is a sea of Cs and Rs. The name itself is fixed, but can you help us figure out some less unwieldy acronyms?
Lets pretend it's the 'Center on Cats and Common Raccoons' - CCCR. It's a nonprofit (about humans, not animals.) We need to both pronounce and write this acronym in some form. 'See see see arr' is a mouthful, and sounds like a former Soviet organization , 'See-three-arr' sounds like a robot. 'See-cubed-arr' is right out (and very likely to be elided to see-three-arr anyhow).
Do you find any of these less bad than the others? Are there other options we haven't considered? Creative ways to collapse, abbreviate and/or pronounce 'Center on Cats and Common Raccoons' would be greatly appreciated!
Lets pretend it's the 'Center on Cats and Common Raccoons' - CCCR. It's a nonprofit (about humans, not animals.) We need to both pronounce and write this acronym in some form. 'See see see arr' is a mouthful, and sounds like a former Soviet organization , 'See-three-arr' sounds like a robot. 'See-cubed-arr' is right out (and very likely to be elided to see-three-arr anyhow).
Do you find any of these less bad than the others? Are there other options we haven't considered? Creative ways to collapse, abbreviate and/or pronounce 'Center on Cats and Common Raccoons' would be greatly appreciated!
Treble-See-Arr? Triple-See-Arr?
(Also, in answer to the titular question: "You'd think it were 'Arr!', but his first love be the sea.")
posted by sourcequench at 2:28 PM on March 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
(Also, in answer to the titular question: "You'd think it were 'Arr!', but his first love be the sea.")
posted by sourcequench at 2:28 PM on March 1, 2018 [5 favorites]
Yup, Triple-C R. Like the DCCC (D-triple-C).
posted by General Malaise at 2:28 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by General Malaise at 2:28 PM on March 1, 2018
Some organizations can turn an acronym into a pronouncable word. In your example, it could be CeCaCoRa (pronounced see-ca-co-ra). Or CoCaCoRa (um, a little too close to a brand name). Obviously this varies depending on your exact words.
Can you add one word at the beginning as the main name, and add the 'The Center on Cats...' as a tagline after the name? Like: "Hive - The Center on Cats..."
posted by hydra77 at 2:30 PM on March 1, 2018
Can you add one word at the beginning as the main name, and add the 'The Center on Cats...' as a tagline after the name? Like: "Hive - The Center on Cats..."
posted by hydra77 at 2:30 PM on March 1, 2018
Three-See-Arr? (bonus points because it sounds a bit like C3-P0)
posted by pseudostrabismus at 2:34 PM on March 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by pseudostrabismus at 2:34 PM on March 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
data point: the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), the biggest conference in my spouse's academic field, just goes by four Cs ("four seas") to its attendees -- or, more commonly, just Cs.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 2:38 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 2:38 PM on March 1, 2018
Cuyahoga Community College goes by Tri-C...Tri-C-R?
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:53 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:53 PM on March 1, 2018
“Caesar”? (Cs + R)
posted by tomcooke at 2:54 PM on March 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by tomcooke at 2:54 PM on March 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
I would leave the acronym as CCCR and pronounce it like 'seeker'.
For comparison purposes only, I'll note that SCCA, Seatlle Cancer Care Alliance, is known affectionately to patients and family as 'sicka'.
posted by jamjam at 3:06 PM on March 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
For comparison purposes only, I'll note that SCCA, Seatlle Cancer Care Alliance, is known affectionately to patients and family as 'sicka'.
posted by jamjam at 3:06 PM on March 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
Cicero.
posted by kevinbelt at 3:13 PM on March 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by kevinbelt at 3:13 PM on March 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Is it too late to change the name of the group? Or reorder the words? If not, what about "Cats and Common Raccoons Center" and then "CCR Center" for short? Or just "The Center"?
I discourage small organizations I am involved with from using acronyms, even if they have unwieldy names, because they hinder public comprehension. Short word-versions of the names are better, if you have to make it short at all. If you insist on the acronym, avoid it in headlines and email subject lines.
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:19 PM on March 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
I discourage small organizations I am involved with from using acronyms, even if they have unwieldy names, because they hinder public comprehension. Short word-versions of the names are better, if you have to make it short at all. If you insist on the acronym, avoid it in headlines and email subject lines.
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:19 PM on March 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Sorry, now I see you say it's too late to change the name. "The Center" would still work.
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:20 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by Mo Nickels at 3:20 PM on March 1, 2018
Seconding "seeker", or "c-ccr", since that's what I came in to say!
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 3:25 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 3:25 PM on March 1, 2018
"See three Raccoons" (C3Racoons) and your logo is three adorable raccoons. Well, assuming your "R" is in fact a noun that lends itself well to a charismatic drawings.
posted by teremala at 3:25 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by teremala at 3:25 PM on March 1, 2018
Oh, sorry, I see I got lost distracted and forgot about the cats. In retrospect, that might turn out to be a common enough problem that you'll want to emphasize them, rather than potentially letting them drown in the C sea.
posted by teremala at 3:29 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by teremala at 3:29 PM on March 1, 2018
See-er. No need to articulate all three Cs as they are jointly just pronounced SEE anyway.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:16 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by DarlingBri at 4:16 PM on March 1, 2018
Building on tomcooke's suggestion above: Three Caesar.
posted by Graygorey at 6:47 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by Graygorey at 6:47 PM on March 1, 2018
Canadian here: we have a lot of CC.* organizations, because we do love our Canadian Centres for This, That & the Other. CCCR would be a walk in the park compared to CCLCS and CCOHS. It kinda helps that the first two Cs in Canadian Centres are pretty much assumed to be one word, so I'd expect “seesee, seeYAR”.
posted by scruss at 3:13 AM on March 2, 2018
posted by scruss at 3:13 AM on March 2, 2018
You could change the name to 3CR, like my local non-profit 3CDC (instead of CCCDC).
posted by jabes at 9:08 AM on March 2, 2018
posted by jabes at 9:08 AM on March 2, 2018
A friend worked at a science-y company and they were something like M-squared-H-C-cubed, MMHCCC, so C-cubed-R if you like geekery.
posted by theora55 at 9:46 AM on March 2, 2018
posted by theora55 at 9:46 AM on March 2, 2018
I like TRY-see-er, sounds like pricier. Or if you want 2 sylables, try-sler, like Chrysler, or try-sir?
posted by Pig Tail Orchestra at 10:41 AM on March 2, 2018
posted by Pig Tail Orchestra at 10:41 AM on March 2, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Miko at 2:27 PM on March 1, 2018