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Background

For my thesis I wrote a program that performs calculations on galaxy models. I named it easy_galaxy. My adviser thought the name was too long, and asked me to shorten it. I came up with EzGal (pronounced exactly as you think: "easy gal"). Under that name, the application was finished, it was being distributed to (and used by) the broader community, and a paper was published all about it. It is also on my github profile by its name. I never once thought about the name (nor did my collaborators, apparently), but I mentioned it in passing to my wife. She gave me a funny look and asked me if I actually named this program "easy gal". I had, and it is far too late to change the name.

The problem

The trouble is that it comes up in a professional context. It came up frequently when I was interviewing: it wasn't the most difficult part of my thesis, but it was a good solution to a common problem and is (for the community in question) widely used as a result. It is also publicly available, while most of my professional work has been private and locked up in closed-source-software, which made it an important talking point when I was interviewing. I enjoyed the project itself, so if I'm talking about past work with colleagues I bring it up from time-to-time because it is my little pet project.

Unfortunately now that it is clear to me that the name is mildly suggestive, and that is probably more obvious to others than it was to me, I hesitate to bring up the project itself. Once or twice I've brought it up and explained the name (and that it was an innocent mistake), but sometimes I think that doing so makes a mountain out of a molehill. Then sometimes I mention the project but don't comment on the name, and spend the rest of the conversation wondering if the other person thinks I'm a womanizer. It is especially awkward when the other person is a woman.

Any suggestions on how to discuss this past project of mine that I'm fairly happy with, in a way that moves past its unfortunate name quickly without derailing whatever conversation I'm having?

Quick edit to add timeline

Based on some of the comments I just wanted to clarify one detail. This really happened quite a while ago. I started the very first version of this software package in 2010, renamed it probably that same year, and published the paper about it in early 2012. I graduated in late 2012 and left Academia for the world of software engineering. I was more irritated with myself than anything else when I realized how the name could be misunderstood (probably somewhere in mid 2012), but with the paper already published my adviser suggested we simply leave it as is.

In the past year or so there have been many high-profile stories about how both the tech industry and (in particular) the academic world of astronomy gravely mistreat women, and that helped put my project name back on my radar after many years of not thinking about it.

Conor Mancone
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    Why do you say it's impossible to change the name? WireShark was Ethereal for years, then it was "WireShark (formerly Ethereal)" and now it's just WireShark and no-one has any problem. – Vicky Oct 06 '17 at 14:21
  • @Vicky It's not impossible per-se, but there are a number of challenges. The primary of which is that there is a published paper about it that will always be a primary point of reference, and which I now have no control of http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012PASP..124..606M – Conor Mancone Oct 06 '17 at 14:30
  • FCKEditor changed to CKEditor, maybe look at how he did that. – Jim W Oct 09 '17 at 04:42

7 Answers7

205

Just refer to it by the longer name and just don't mention the shorter name.

Call it "Easy Galaxy", or use this opportunity to choose another name that shows a bit more imagination and is more descriptive of what the model actually does.

Better still, rename it on Git and anywhere else you have it.

Since this project seems to have lived for some time with the old name, you can pass this off with:

Yeah, we call it this now - in hindsight, it wasn't a great choice and my wife was entirely correct...

Obviously, this isn't a huge issue and it's doubtful that anyone believes that you're being outwardly sexist with this name, but times move on...

100

You're overthinking the issue.

It's a catchy humourous name if anyone notices the coincidence, if that is what it is called then call it EzGal. It's like a sales gimmick, breaks the ice with a bit of a laugh, and if it's serious work it will shine on it's own merits despite any coincidental name issues it may have.

Kilisi
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    Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. – Monica Cellio Oct 04 '17 at 02:26
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    Just call it EzGal. With a straight face. Never acknowledge. – Walrus the Cat Oct 06 '17 at 02:48
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    I'm not native speaker but I would pronounce the short name like "ease" /iːz/. Nothing wrong with that imo. – jnovacho Oct 06 '17 at 07:28
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    @jnovacho I would pronounce it 'easy gal', but wouldn't have dirty thoughts about it if I even thought about it at all. It just makes me think of a cowboy calming his horse in an old Western movie. – Kilisi Oct 06 '17 at 07:46
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    May have been true a few years ago, but it seems you're not up to date on the state of social awareness the industry. If this name offends the wrong person, OP could very well suffer heavy repercussions in his field.

    Just look at the most recent "announcement" on Stack Overflow.

     – René Roth Oct 06 '17 at 08:37
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    @RenéRoth to be honest I don't really worry about other people offending themselves over trifles (you can't please everyone), rather on the spirit I intended something. When I want to be offensive it is very clear cut. The OP did not make the name with the intention of suggesting promiscuous females, and the inference is not clear cut at all unless you're specifically looking at it like that. IMHO anyway. – Kilisi Oct 06 '17 at 09:10
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    IMHO = I'm (a) ho....... Git hub = Meeting place for gits...... etc,. try hard enough you can offend yourself with many things. – Kilisi Oct 06 '17 at 10:14
  • @WalrustheCat - best answer on the whole page. :) – Vector Oct 07 '17 at 12:15
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    idk, let's pretend it's called "N-GR" and just assume anyone offended just as well should be "in" on the joke. Not that I think "EZGal" is as "bad", but women have to deal with chides like this f-cking constantly. A bunch of men tell themselves "EZGal" is fine because "what's the big deal," a bunch of men scrap maternal leave because "what's the big deal," I mean it's cute when it's software with a funny name but it's absolutely threatening when every person with a dick around you is constantly reminding you how little they care. –  Oct 07 '17 at 14:51
  • Just replace your answer with "I don't see what the big deal is. Brb while I try to understand that better" and call it a day. Do that pretty much every time gender comes up TBQH. –  Oct 07 '17 at 14:52
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    @djechlin exgal isn't even in that equation, you have to try quite hard to make the allusion and then offend yourself with it. I told my wife and her cousin 'A guy called his program Easy Gal'.... unanimous reply was... huh? so?...what does it do? ... I tried to explain the promiscuous women bit but got accused of having a dirty mind. – Kilisi Oct 07 '17 at 14:58
  • @Kilisi "Brb while I try to understand that better" is not "ask two women I'm really close with and then drop it if it sounds like I'm right." I didn't answer because the OP was pretty clear any change would be a big practical problem and I didn't have a solution, but I also wouldn't do the nonsense in this answer. –  Oct 07 '17 at 15:36
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    Only nonsense I have seen is your comments... no offence, but the assumption that everyone is constantly waving their copulatory appendages at you, sounds either paranoid, or wishful. – Kilisi Oct 07 '17 at 15:38
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    Of course, because you don't understand how this is an issue and can't be bothered. Lots of guys here agree with you. –  Oct 07 '17 at 15:43
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    Not going to argue with you, ... the fact is that most of us can go a whole day without waving our family benefits around at strange women.... in my case apart from a couple of isolated incidents of whistling and suchlike and a lot of beer in my teens, I haven't been particularly obnoxious for a couple of decades. Probably you hang out with bad company. – Kilisi Oct 07 '17 at 15:48
52

You're massively over thinking it.

As any British person will tell you, "Git" is a word for someone who is generally unpleasant. "He is a bit of a git", if you will. However, its name as a version control software and part of brand names such as GitHub is immovable now.

Whether it was Linus Torvalds' intention for it to be a double entendre is a question for history, but it's gone past any word play and became an accepted standard. If EzGal is already in widespread use then it's fine as is.

As pointed out by Pajeet Ramahari-Mawari-Kulmini in the comments, GIMP is even worse is this regard.

SGR
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Changing the name might be difficult, but what about the pronunciation? EzGal could very easily be pronounced "ezgal" (with an initial "eh" sound), especially if you quietly tweak the appropriate bits of documentation. That won't help you if you're making your case in email, but it should help manage the situation fairly effectively for bringing it up over the phone or in person.

Ben Barden
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  • I really like that. You might go even further and aver that the "Gal" is pronounced like the ae in Gael... ;D – akaioi Oct 04 '17 at 02:51
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    Or even "eez-gal" would be better. – MissMonicaE Oct 04 '17 at 16:21
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    By standard convention, the z would be uppercase if the proper pronunciation were "Easy Gal." Thus, altering the pronunciation to fit convention would be OK; or more simply just use "easy galaxy" in conversation (the answer above). – WBT Oct 04 '17 at 20:05
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    +1. If somebody asks how you came up with the name, you can simply say that "Nazgûl" was already taken. – Stephan Kolassa Oct 04 '17 at 20:38
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    You could simply pronounce "z" the correct way and problem disappears by itself :) – Matija Nalis Oct 04 '17 at 21:10
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    The problem is you have little influence on other peoples' pronounciation. To make matters worse, "Ez-" meaning "easy" prefix seems to be estabilished (EzDrummer). Third, explaining "right" pronounciation ("you know, it's called "ee-zed-gal", not "easy gal") could make situation even more awkward. – el.pescado - нет войне Oct 05 '17 at 05:29
  • @el.pescado the point isn't how other people pronounce it. It's how you pronounce it. If you're the one bringing it up in an interview, you're the one that gets to set the pronunciation - and if your pronunciation matches the "official" pronunciation, then that's the one your interviewer will go with. – Ben Barden Oct 05 '17 at 13:12
  • … Also, and to heap yet another opinion on these things, it isn't the pronunciation but the perception. People are seeing ‘Easy Gal’ for some reason. IMHO, the reason it strikes some people as worse than similar derogatories used jokingly and out–of–context is because it seems to carry a much more personifying and demeaning attitude than those other derogatories seen ad nauseum in other answers or comments: ‘E-Z Gal’ carries the connotation of a convenient tart simultaneously belittled and favored. A fictional Ubuntu distro, named Clumsy Coyote, is somewhat more affectionate and kinder. – can-ned_food Oct 07 '17 at 07:18
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Explain the acronym whenever you need to refer to in a professional context to people for the first time. "I also created EzGal, as in EasyGalaxy ..."

Also add a clarification for the name on github like easy_galaxy(EzGal). and be done with it.

Apologizing beforehand assumes you re guilty about it and DOES make a mountain out of a molehill.

Leon
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7

Having watched the conversation here for a while and given it more thought, I realized that I wanted to add my own two cents.

I think its important to not just consider how such a name might impact me personally, but also the broader community (i.e. those who use the tool and see its name). In that context, it's important to keep in mind the ongoing issues of sexual harassment and workplaces that inherently marginalize women.

It's worth taking a moment to make it clear that hostile work environments for women is a real thing. That much is clear from stories like that of Susan Fowler that certainly contributed to the ousting of the Uber CEO and founder from his own company.. The astronomy world in particular has had many high-profile stores come to light lately about men exhibiting a long-standing pattern of blatant sexual harassment: see here, here, and here for some examples. The overall situation might actually be worse in the astronomy world, as in some cases the men in question were actually sheltered from appropriate consequences by their institutions, an act which (IMO) substantially adds to the impression of a general workplace that is hostile to women.

As a result, regardless of whether a name with sexual connotations was intentional or not, and regardless of how easy it might seem to be to dismiss it ("Oh, that was just a silly mistake"), others might very legitimately see the situation differently. Especially in the context of the current situation in the tech/science world where many women feel marginalized because of their gender, anything that further contributes to that impression should be avoided as much as possible, accident or not.

So I would say that it doesn't even matter if it was an innocent mistake, or if it seems fairly harmless. What matters is how the rest of the world views it, and I think there is a good chunk of the wider world which will view it negatively. As a result the answer is quite simple: to the extent that it is possible, change the name. Not just in conversation, but also on the web.

It's important to consider not just one person's career, but also the careers of those around you. That, after all, is the definition of community.

Conor Mancone
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    If I could upvote this more than once I would. – Vicky Oct 06 '17 at 14:20
  • Thanks. It took dozens of men at workplace.SE a few weeks to think of this. –  Oct 07 '17 at 14:41
  • Oh, you're the OP. Dozens of men at workplace.SE couldn't see what the big deal was. –  Oct 07 '17 at 14:44
  • @djechlin If you're just coming by now you missed a lot of the "fun". The moderators have been doing a pretty good job of clearing out all the less-than-helpful comments. One thing I've gathered from all of this is that (intentionally) using sexual innuendo when naming projects in tech is more common than you might think. I never would have done it on purpose myself (nor would I accept it from a team member), but it still happened. I don't think doing this on purpose was ever reasonable to do, and certainly isn't anymore, but it seems suggestive names aren't going anywhere. – Conor Mancone Oct 07 '17 at 15:36
  • Trust me, I'm aware. I didn't answer because I agree you have a practically difficult situation. My best advice is follow Hofstadter's whitespeople essay and ask yourself, if somehow "N-GR" wound up in publication, how hard would everyone involved work to change it? Not that EZGal is "as bad" but maybe it will prime your imagination for which changes are more or less possible to effect. Renaming does happen but so does entrenchment. –  Oct 07 '17 at 15:49
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    Yes, suggestive names are common. I don't like it. I think before I picked up on the sexist tones, I already felt professional and fun mix but professional and juvenile immature don't. –  Oct 07 '17 at 15:51
  • I'm on the fence over whether I like participating in this community because it has a really strict more of gender blindness. This precludes the possibility that a man may be oblivious to a gender dynamic. So I like answering questions here but I'm writing for men and for women when they are invited. In the meantime I'm building up mentorship responsibilities with gender diverse crowds and keeping it close to my workflow with answering questions here. There is a market for the SE engine but with any awareness of diversity. –  Oct 07 '17 at 15:53
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Perhaps a name like SimpleGal would work.....

If it has been published under EzGal, as the owner you get to refer to it how you want to. You can't force others easily to do that. As stated by others you're pretty much stuck to inflections or being explicit everywhere you can.

Perhaps a prettier version with colours and pretty-printed output might help migrate existing users over to your new, "sparkly" version "2-Easy-Galaxy" (note: don't use that....)

David M
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