What is in a name? As Shakespeare would say, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. Does that mean a name is not really important? I think thou jest with me!

Of course I am referring to a business name and I have a story to tell about how one jeweler struggled with a name.

The town of Virginia City, Nevada is living ghost town spawn from the silver mines discovered in the mid 1800’s. Today, downtown Virginia City looks much like it did 150 years ago. The various saloons, wooden sidewalks and six-shooter toting citizens, but I digress.

There is a goldsmith in Virginia City and when he opened his storefront, many years ago, his business signage read Virginia Goldsmith. Makes sense, doesn’t it. The town was named after Virginia and he is a goldsmith. The problem with the name showed up when people would start to come in and ask to see the woman named Virginia Goldsmith. Name change time.

The name for the store was changed to Highland Goldsmith. This made sense because Virginia City sits at over 6,0000 feet in elevation and of course, he was as goldsmith. This name also proved to be a problem when people would come in and say, “Oh, I thought this was another saloon.” Seems most people had no idea what goldsmith referred to in the name. There is a saloon called the Silver Queen!!

The name was changed again, but this time the name came from a television show via a good friend. Do you remember Bonanza, the show with Ben, Hoss, Little Joe and Adam Cartwright? The show was filmed at Lake Tahoe, Nevada some sixty miles from Virginia City. The movie set had become a tourist attraction, but later closed and the artifacts from the show were auctioned. The good friend purchased a sign from the original show which simply said “Jeweler”.

The signage and now name of the goldsmith shop is “Jeweler”. There seems to be no question about what goes on in the establishment, and Dave is now known as the town’s jeweler.

Such a simple name, Jeweler, and it smells just as sweet as Goldsmith…

Tags: Business name, Goldsmith, Marketing