What's a Xoova?

One of the first questions I field when I tell people I work for a company called Xoova (pronounced ZU-vah) is, "Why are you called Xoova?" Hmmmm...I could say that we engaged a multitude of branding experts. I could say we hired a multi-national ad agency to perform strategic consulting.

Or I could tell the truth: As "DoctorsDirect" we got some great press. Maybe too much great press, because shortly after we scored a front page article about DoctorsDirect in a major daily, we were contacted by an enormous hospital system claiming trademark infringement (they had registered Direct Doctors or something similar). We decided it would either be an expensive legal battle or that a new name was in our future. Like, immediate future.

So after many days of discussing "What do we want our brand to convey?" and sleepless nights typing every possible word permutation into domain search engines, we landed on Xoova. And liked it. XO = hugs and kisses. OO = "you," as in, "this site is for you, you people out there seeking medical care and you doctors out there who wish to share your philosophy of care." Ova is both a Latin word for egg and a medical term for what happens to be the largest cell in the human body.  And Va?  Va means "go." As in, "Now that you've done all that medical research online, go see your doctor." (Serendipitously, the word "Zoova" is defined by the Urban Dictionary thus: "To go into motion quickly or in an otherwise preferable pace or manner.")

Of course, we're not alone in having a rather fanciful name. In a recent LA Times article Michelle Quinn writes about the trend of inventing Dot-com names, including the phenomenon that X is the new Z. Dot-com names get dottier

So meet Xoova. I'm Miriam Bookey, VP of Communications, manager of a team of fine editors whose blogs you'll also find here, and sometime Girl Friday. We're looking forward to interacting with you. Come visit at www.xoova.com.