When I found out that Apple’s tablet was called the iPad, I thought it was a funny name, and probably a poor choice, and immediately made a few iMaxi jokes to assorted friends.
I knew it was juvenile humor, and lots of words mean lots of things — but still, it was honestly the first thing I thought of when I heard the name.
I figured I would get over it. Then the extraordinary Sarah Haskins tweeted this:
iPad is a funny name, but not as funny as the word Period! Which means menstruation and the end of a sentence and sometimes a unit of time!
And it made me think more about the issue, and I tweeted this:
@sarah_haskins somehow iPad is different. iPhone, it’s a phone! iPod… wtf is a pod? who cares! iPad… not emotional. it’s an object.
@sarah_haskins do you say “pad” to refer to “pad of paper” nearly as often as you say “pad” to refer to something in your purse?
@sarah_haskins Therefore, it is funny.
To which she responded:
@johnjoseph I haven’t carried or talked about pads since I was 12. And yes. I do say “pad of paper” and “padlock” and “pad thai”
And this is actually the point I am making — you don’t say “pad” to refer to a padlock or to pad thai. I responded:
@sarah_haskins Great, now whenever I eat Pad Thai I am going to think of it as Are You There God, it’s Me, Margaret Thai. Thanks.
@sarah_haskins anyway, my extremely important point was, do you ever say “pad” to refer to a pad of paper? Or do you say “pad of paper”?
To which she responded:
@johnjoseph I just say pad, because I assume context will inform the listener whether I am holding a pen b/c I want paper or a menstrual pad
[hahahaha, I ♥ Sarah Haskins.]
Okay, so, really that’s the reason why you can theoretically always use any homograph for a brand. “Pad” really sticks out to me because it it is so rarely used standalone to mean anything other than a feminine hygiene product. I don’t know, maybe some people say “Can you bring 5 pads to the conference room for the meeting?” all the time when referring to pads of paper (which is presumably the concept which Apple intends to invoke with the name iPad). But somehow that usage seems very odd and uncommon to me.
Where else is “pad” used? Keypad… signature pad… ink pad… landing pad… I cannot think of a single usage where it is used standalone, other than for sanitary napkins. But of course, I’m writing a blog post to make this point, so I might be inclined to not think very hard about counter examples.
So I ask you, dear reader:
- Does it seem weird to refer to a pad of paper as a pad?
- Can you think of any other cases where we say “pad” by itself to refer to something?
attenuator for an audio signal – usually preceded by a decibel value, e.g., 15db pad
also see it used for commercial real estate, but never figured that out.
1. No.
2. used to be “place to stay” back in the linguistically embarrassing 60s and 70s: “I’m going over to Suzy’s pad, man, we’ll get stoned and groove.” Or something like that.
I’m digging the new look/feel elements in the blog page. Haven’t been to the webpage in a bit.
Uses I’ve actually heard the term pad used in real life:
- pad of paper / sticky notes
- music (drum pad)
- mitigating social interaction (pad the conversation)
- place to stay (as per thomas – also used in the 80s, though not much after).
- web design? (padding)
I have never heard a girl refer to personal items as pads, not that it’s a big topic of conversation.
There also was a short time when a non-stop running commercial for Stridex Medicated Pads (for teenage acne) made everyone think of that commercial when they heard the word “pad.” Perhaps that commercial helped kill common use of the word.
While I’m very much not happy with the product name iPad (terrrrrible choice, but mostly because anything that starts with a lowercase i will sound as dated as bell-bottom pants in about 2 years), it’s only cute / unfortunately that it has some vague association with feminine hygiene products for some people (which would have been lost on perhaps all guys had some quality mockery not popped up even before that name was actually used by Apple).
Perhaps in 2 years all you will think of is electronic hardware when you hear the term pad.
you people are missing the point
WHY IS IT CALLED THE IPAD
WHAT IS THE METAPHOR?
Rectangular shape with some relatively thin depth; as in pad of paper or pad of butter. I’m sure the “paper” part of the “pad of paper” is also a nice association for a device they hope to become a core reading device. Pad is a word not in much use, but that may be seen as a plus to them.
To answer your #1 question above, no it doesn’t seem that weird, if not common.
A pad of butter, got it…
the metaphor
IPod < IPad
the 1st and only thought came to my mind !
pad must be one of the most heavily overloaded words in the English language. Just guessing.
I was chair of an organization until last week – we gave away an iPad in a drawing. The winner wasn’t present, but he lived in Houston (even though the drawing took place in Ft. Worth) – I had the pleasure of chasing him down via voicemails (“you just won an iPad!”). All I needed was his bank account number to make the transfer… Anyway, he eventually drives by my office where I’m waiting on the street to hand off the rectangular shape with relatively thin depth box, and I make the transfer.
See, I call a pad of paper a notebook. That could really cause all kind of technological confusion. The only cause for serious confusion with the name iPad is when a dog says it, though this eventuality is unlikely.
@Josh: It’s actually “pat of butter”, not “pad of butter”; a common mistake.
i am self-studying web design coz building websites is my passion-,”
Thanks for your article, Now there is more reason to comment than ever before!