When the research agency Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung was founded in Nazi Germany, the founders probably didn’t imagine how the name would sound once the main association with Germanness became dehumanized bureaucratism leading to death factories. The organization then preferred to use the acronym GfK and today explains its name as an abbreviation for Growth for Knowledge.

From the first wave of digitization, we have preserved names that referenced the fact that a given project was just an internet version of the original template. The internet was still a novelty for most users, so names were derived from what we knew before the internet. The internet phone was iPhone, internet daily press was iNews, internet music store was iTunes. As the internet spread, available domains became scarce. And when no word is available, you have to invent one. Authors took inspiration wherever they could. They used word corruptions—Twitter, onomatopoeia—Yahoo, typos when searching for available domains worked too—Google, or unexpected word combinations—Socialbakers. As the internet came with its own qualities unlike anything else, the first internet suffixes appeared like -fy and -ly (Spotify, Embed.ly).

At a certain point, the internet became so normal that even the division into online and offline stopped making sense. This was roughly the moment when major e-shop pickup points began transforming into showrooms and when traditional retail chains finally offered full-fledged online sales. A new era of digitization arrives, and with it a new naming fashion. But this time, new digital projects try to be brands in a very traditional sense. They have their internet address, but in reality they want to settle mainly in our heads. And typos and corruptions don’t suit that. Enter startupio.

Find anything that’s still done offline and digitize it. That’s how you could summarize the recipe for today’s business success. Computer, AI, internet, mobile app will replace something and promise it will then somehow do itself. The symbol of this automation became a letter that even looks like a symbol of self-movement—the letter “o.” Basically, you just add “o” to the category name, and if it sounds bad, you add “io.” Just randomly, through a Twitter query I found Liftago, Carvago, Donio, Survio, Ušetřeno, Dodo, Sporlito, Presto, Tapito, Betino, Twisto, Teamio, Manulo, Mixano, Legalio, Mapio, Navigo, Accomango, Dataddo, Yieldigo, Sanitino, Sotio, Digitoo, Soulmio, Unuo, Slido, Festo, Inhubo, Apiary.io, Collabito, Hardwario, Tuito, and Xixoio. Just think of some sufficiently international word and you’ll find the corresponding o-name promising automation. Including Sexio—a Czech e-shop with sexual aids, Sleepio—a platform for improving sleep. Except for startupio itself. That exists only as startup.io.

The advantages are clear. Startupios are easy to pronounce. It’s a neologism, so there’s a better chance of finding an available domain. The name is a promise that the startupio will digitize something that previously reeked of old offline. And perhaps thanks to that “o” at the end, they affect us more like kindly bouba than sharp unpleasant kiki. But their dominance might lead to them not knowing how to age, becoming exactly what the next generation of names will define themselves against. Names are subject to fashion and can sometimes age unpleasantly, just like Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung.