What names caught on without massive promotion efforts?
All props to Jimmy Ballard in his ability to market the name of his decks, but If people didn't have the "stature" and knack for promotion like Jimmy, what ever name you give it won’t stick, unless it describes the deck.
BOTTOM LINE, Deck Name does need to describe the deck in some way if it is going to be refered to by 3rd parties in conversation, unless you are Jimmy Ballard.
I feel the need to explain how and Why I name things as I do....
Lets take a look at some of my decks....
4 Corners.... Actually Vince named this deck for us. It perfectly described, as Drew said, the 4 types different people used to counter their metagame. Seemed simple enough but covered a wide variety of decks. It was more of a Style of play, than an official deck name.
Eeveelutions.... Kind of simple. I really do not like this name at all. I gives away the entire strat of the deck. Rogue decks should not have the pokemons names in them. Sure there are decks like LBS and Ludicargo that full describe what the deck is. These are good names for those decks as they are archetypes and needed to solidify there place in the format. Rogue decks require a little more pizazz. I really wanted my eevee deck to be called Retaliation for many reasons. I liked to think that I could take anyones best hit and RETALIATE twice as hard. Thus my thought of that particular name.
Destiny..... at that particular time Metanite was the most DOMINATE deck being played. There were very few counters to it. When Adam and I worked this deck out and finally got it to where we felt it had the metagame cornered, we started the naming process. I always type names into my Microsoft word program and look for synonyms for what we felt the deck was doing. I just so happens that DESTINY showed up in one of those. We felt that it was much better than the original name of SMOOTHY-KING! LOL... After all, it was this decks DESTINY to unseed Metanite.
Ambush..... This one was the easiest to name.... I simply got that off my Word program. I wanted a single word that described what the deck was doing. And quite simply it was AMBUSHING my opponents. It was attacking everything at once. the definition desribed it perfectly.
an act or instance of attacking unexpectedly from a concealed position. Seemed perfect for me.
The Answer.... I was looking for this very thing. AN ANSWER!! I needed an Answer to GG and mortar.... It lived up to its name, but wasnt a deck for everyone due to its complexities.
Arithmetic.... While I know that this name has been used, It perfectly describes what what the deck is doing. You REALLY need to be able to use you addition skills when playing this deck. One wrong move with 1 damage counter could cost you a game.
If you notice, these names ar 1 word names that best describe what the deck was meant to do. They are accurate names for those particular decks. Those who play them know exactly what I mean. So Rob to dispute your comment, all these names have Something to do with their particular deck.
Jimmy
BTW.... GG and Plox have 2 different stategies and deserve 2 different names. Similar to the old Flygon builds which were not called R-gon as they also had different starts.