We might be missing our weekly dosage of competitive sport, but one prestigious competition has just reached the final – Name of the Year 2020.
What is Name of the Year, you say? Well, it’s a yearly competition to see who has the greatest name of the year, of course! And it’s all being decided through Twitter polls.
Founded in 1983 (when it wasn’t on Twitter), its mission is to: discover, verify, seed and elect great names.
Now before I start, I have to make sure that you realise that these are all REAL names that have been verified.
For the last couple of weeks, people have been voting in their thousands on who will take over the throne of Pope Thrower, who took the top spot in 2019.
We have now reached the final, with votes open until 7th/8th April.
The two finalists: Courvoisier Dingle vs Mathdaniel Squirrel
How did we get here?
Round 1
The first round threw up some competitive ties, which unfortunately meant that strong names would fall at the first hurdle.
Mystikal McGhee and Symetric Strong were lined up against each other in the Bulltron regional – which appeared to be the group of death.
Meanwhile, finalist Mathdaniel Squirrel made light work of Kermit Quisenberry, gaining a whole 76.9% of the votes.
In the Dragonwagon regional, Carmelo Mustaccio had no chance against Courvoisier Dingle who came through with 61%.
The real headline maker of the first round was Beanbag Amerika, in the Crotchtangle regional, who beat Colin Wolfswinkel with a whole 82.9% and probably became the bookies favourite early on.
Round 2
The next round saw Mathdaniel Squirrel faced with Hannah Moody-Goo. Moody-Goo entered the round hopeful, however, there was no competition as 74.5% of the votes went Squirrel’s way.
Billyjack Buzzard was the name taking on Courvoisier Dingle, but 72.6% of people had Dingle’s back and the name was starting to build real momentum.
Another name that was hitting the headlines was Kokain Mothershed, who swept Zebulon Vermillion aside in the Sithole regional.
I also have to say that my personal favourite, Jimbertson Vapor, was knocked out at this stage. Jimbertson is a 24-year-old football player from Curacao, and I will be following his career closely and possibly invest in him on Football Manager because of his name.
Round 3 – The last 16
Mystikal McGhee was seen as a potential threat, but when Mathdaniel Squirrel came calling, there was no chance. With the most dominant win in the last 16, Mathdaniel cruised through with 74.7% of the votes and the quarter-finals were waiting.
Courvoisier Dingle had to fight off Barron Cashdollar, however, there was no major threat there either.
Round 4 – Quarter Finals
In the Quarters, Mathdaniel faced its strongest opposition yet. Having won comfortably in all previous rounds, with 70%+ scores, Dr Reason Machete nearly ended the dream. In a fiercely tight battle, 56% was enough to put the name through to the semis.
Courvoisier Dingle was the only name that seemed comfortable in the last 8, with 65.6% of the votes against Dr Welcome Bender.
Round 5 – Semi-Finals
The semi-finals threw up some incredible ties that will go down in history. On one side we had Mathdaniel Squirrel versus Kokain Mothershed. On the other side, we had Courvoisier Dingle versus Beanbag Amerika.
Ahead of the tie, there was some controversy as rumours spread that Beanbag Amerika was not the person’s real name, so Beanbag himself had to come forward and clear things up. In a tweet, he said: “To address any name change complaints: While it’s true that the specifics of my name on my government ID is the result of a petition to the judge of probate, 1) that court visit happened 25 years ago, and 2) this photo—circa 1976—speaks for itself.”
In the end the committee reviewed all arguments and decided a legal name for 25 years is enough. On the 30th April they tweeded: “The NOTY Committee sides with @revbean (Beanbag Amerika. Legitimate name changes are acceptable. Longstanding precedent: Crescent Dragonwagon”.
Now, back to business. There’s a chance that the controversy had an impact on voters, and eventually, Beanbag lost to Courvoisier Dingle with a 56.4% – 43.6% split. In the other semi, Kokain Mothershed put up a brave fight, but Mathdaniel Squirrel proved too strong and booked himself a place in the final!
Votes close in 2 days, so head to the final poll to have your say on who is crowned the new champion of the world (or to see who won): https://twitter.com/NOTYtourney/status/1257011318961385473
This is one example of viral social media success. It’s an approach that could be used by businesses if they want to gain backlinks through media coverage.
For more information on our Social Media and Digital Marketing services, get in touch.