Lost In the Prairies.....Found by God

This last month I have been hearing the best titles of songs or books. I am not talking about ones that make you think or are quirky, I'm talking about ones that make you want to sit down and laugh. I often wonder what people are thinking when they title something. It's like naming your kid. Take for instance Gwenyth Paltrow and Chris Martin, they named their first child Apple. What were they thinking? Is it an inside joke. Is it that they are hoping that their kid will be sweet like a Golden Delicious (hoping she doesn't grow up to be sour like a Granny Smith).

I know when I name a blog title, I take some thought in the process. What is the blog about? Is it serious? Is it silly? What do I want people to come away with? The same applied when we named our children. Nicole, Thomas and Samuel. We wanted names that weren't that popular. That were traditional and strong names. Names that people would remember. I also wanted names that had strong meanings:

Ok, so Thomas' entomology isn't necessarily a strong meaning, but I have always loved the story of doubting Thomas. Sometimes we need to question so that the answers can be revealed to us.

Sometimes words mean different things for different cultures or regions. Last week while Sam was watching the Wiggles I heard them singing “Let's Have a Barbie on the Beach.” I had to think about it for a minute. What were they having? I thought this show was rated G. Then I remembered in Australia and England barbie is slang for barbeque, not an anatomically incorrect doll or the name of some girl. I had to phone my girlfriend up to tell her what they were singing (she's a linguist major) and we both had a good laugh.

May favourite title though has to be a book I found on Ereader News Today. It was called “If my Body is a Temple, Then I Was a Megachurch!” AMEN brother!  I had to post that on Facebook PDQ when I saw it. I bet from the title you can tell what he was writing about. When I posted it, everyone loved it. It struck a nerve (the laughing one) with many of my friends. How could you not want to read this book? Now if it was called “How a Christian Lost Weight” or “Christians are Fat Too” would it have intrigued people to read the book? Probably not. I notice that the title of a blog post can increase my readership for the day. The more funny or intriguing a post is the more readers I have. With so many of us having 100s of blogs in our Reader, we need to quickly decide what to read, just like a book. If the title doesn't grab me, then I'm not going to pick it up or click on it. Sorry, it's true. I bet you have never thought of it that way. Why do you pick up books? Because either the title intrigues you or the artwork does. Same with a blog. I've written some great posts, only to see that no one has read it. Unfortunately, we are in “buyers market” in the bloggy world. If we can't “sell” our posts to our readers, they won't get read. Good thing that I'm in a year of contentment and just being able to post is good enough for me.

Have you heard of a good post, song or book name lately? What are you're thoughts on naming posts?

Come link up with the randomness today.