The naming and branding blog

There’s Something About Vajayjay

Posted by John on December 16, 2007 at 5:52 pm | 1 Comment

something_about-maryAttorney Marty Schwimmer reports on The Trademark Blog that an application has been filed to register the word mark VAJAYJAY for Goods and Services beauty, hair care and personal care products.

“I think vajayjay is a nice word, don’t you?” asked Oprah, when she used the neologism on her show as a euphemism for vagina, according to an article in the New York Times discussing the popularity of vajayjay.

The swift adoption of vajayjay is not simply about pop culture’s ability to embrace new slang. Neologisms are always percolating. What this really demonstrates, say some linguists, is that there was a vacuum in popular discourse, a need for a word for female genitalia that is not clinical, crude, coy, misogynistic or descriptive of a vagina from a man’s point of view.

“There was a need for a pet name,” said Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, and the chairman of the usage panel for the American Heritage Dictionary, “a name that women can use in a familiar way among themselves.”

As Marty says, “This will be interesting.”

1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Dydy // Jan 21, 2008 at 7:39 am

    What would you say with the Name”LEADIAHA”?

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