Yell, which publishes Yellow Pages, is changing its name to Hibu, after seeking ‘an identity to tell our story’. It prefers to spell hibu with a small h. It admits that hibu means nothing (though to me it looks like a mis-spelled French owl), but it knows how it is pronounced: high-boo. If it were a real word it would certainly be pronounced hee-boo, for reasons too prosaic to find room for here.
Yell is a good enough name. In America it is commonly used instead of shout (‘Quit yelling at me’). Its origins are ancient and go back to the same root that gives us the gale in nightingale. Who’d have thought it?
Changing trade names in the hope of prosperity is a fool’s errand. The Financial Times noted recently that no positive results followed upon Ofex changing its name to Plus Markets, Debt Free Direct changing to Fairpoint or, more mysteriously Moneybookers, an online payments group, to Skrill, which sounds like a kind of shrill krill.
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