Nerdy and easy to pronounce: why we chose Apheros as the name for our technology start-up firm

"In the last year of my PhD, I knew I was going to start a company, so I started thinking about a name. I worked on it, old-style, on a sheet of paper for maybe an hour a day for a couple of weeks. It had to be a fast process, because I needed a name to meet deadlines for my first grant applications. I wanted to achieve three things with the name. It had to be something that is unique and that would pop up in a Google search; something that has a connection to the metal foams; and something a bit nerdy. Also, I wanted a name that you can pronounce."

"I've always been interested in languages. In secondary school in Switzerland, I studied Greek and Latin, as well as English, French and German, plus one year of Arabic. In most languages, iron and metal are the same or similar words. So, I started combining and playing with three words: iron, metal and foam."

"Aphrós means foam in Greek; Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty, is born from sea foam. The only people who can look at the company's name, Apheros, and know immediately are likely to be Greek scientists. The 'e' that I slipped in there is from ferrum, iron in Latin. So, the name means 'iron foam'."

Julia Carpenter founded Apheros in Zurich to commercialize patented metal foams for fluid-based cooling systems, building the company from her PhD work at ETH Zurich. She co-founded the company with Gaëlle Andreatta, now chief technology officer with a physical chemistry background. Carpenter developed the company name under time pressure during grant application deadlines and sought a name that was unique, Google-searchable, connected to metal foams, slightly nerdy, and easy to pronounce. Drawing on classical languages, she combined Greek and Latin roots: Aphrós for foam and an inserted 'e' from ferrum, yielding a name that means "iron foam."

Read at Nature