Naming is one of my specialties. But it is not because naming forms a portion of my livelihood that I must tell you this:

Never have a naming contest.

I have praised the name Toronto Tempo for the city’s new WNBA team. You can see my laudatory statements here.

Only recently, in this video conversation with Brand and PR star Megan Matthews, did I discover that the Tempo had a naming contest.

The Tempo said the name was “informed by both the inputs of those contributions” from the contest “and feedback and insights from a community council.”

Was the name Tempo actually submitted by someone in the contest? Maybe it was not, which makes the process look like a selfish waste of everyone’s time. Maybe it was, in which case the team got lucky.

Naming decisions should not be left to luck.

More in the video above.