Both my friends Prentiss Riddle and Coulter George
have suggested that I resolve my software name quandry by looking for placenames in Julia Brumfield's diaries. I like this suggestion, since it retains the connection to the project's origin and has potential for uniqueness. The most frequently mentioned placenames in the diaries are "Renan", "Straightstone", "Mount Airy", "Long Island", and "Cedar Forest".
Long Island and Mount Airy are probably each so common that they'll have the same problems that Julia does. Renan, on the other hand, has a neat connection to collaboration: Ernest Renan is now most famous for his definition of a nation as "having done great things together and wishing to do more."
So maybe "Renanscript" or "Renanscribe"?
Like “Renan”, hate “Renanscribe”. “Renanscript” is slightly better. What about “The Renan Project”? (I like those sorts of project names — it makes it sound like an adventure movie!)
What other words would be a good combination with Renan? Script, scribe, collab, collaboration, transcribe, transcription, write…
Is it just me, but why would you get a picture of a family tree from the people trying to sell the renan.com domain? Unfortunately, renan.org is already taken.
Hmm. Renan Project was apparently a rural ISDN rollout in France. Renan System, however, is not taken as a domain name, nor is Système Renan.