When Jerry and I finally decided to start the ensemble and had our initial core group of 10, the first order of business was to find a name.. and that involved lots of decision-making. From whether or not to incorporate "Houston", "Texas", or "Lone Star" in the name (immediately decided against), "ensemble" or "collective", or to follow Eighth Blackbird or Alarm Will Sound and pick a name that just sounds cool, there were too many and yet also not enough ideas that resonated with us. So, we turned to the group and asked for suggestions in a Google spreadsheet.
The first email subject line: me at my most eloquent.
Members could jot down whatever name ideas came to them, and also leave comments or suggestions of similar or related possible names. In the end, we had 22 options with 9 variations, out of which members could rank their top five choices. The most popular was "Loop 38", reflecting the 38-mile long freeway ("the loop") that encircles our little part of Houston we've all ended up in.
As a group of people from so many different parts of the U.S. and abroad, the aspect of having "Loop" in the name helps tie us to our new home without sounding too traditional or obvious. We all liked the continuous movement implied by the word "loop", and its use in music as "a continuously repeated segment of music".
We play new music from all sides of the spectrum, which will hopefully throw you all for a loop. (screen grab from Merriam-Webster)
Originally, Jerry and I had told the members that we would look at the top 5 popular names and use our judgement to decide from the top 5. I'm happy to say we didn't need to override the group's favorite - and after deleting the space between text and numbers, we arrived with Loop38.
One decision down, 102934879543982 more to go!
-Y