What's in a Name?

According to a popular guide book, Morocco is the knockoff capital of the world. I can’t vouch for this, but I do know that a lot of young unemployed men and high school boys in our rural village are wearing Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, and Armani jackets and jeans. Nike is also popular and appears on shoes, hats and jackets with a wide variety of swooshes and the occasional backwards “N”.

Then there are the brands which are not copies, but suggest a brand connection; for example “Spederman” backpacks, “Belere Hotel”, “Oncle Ben” rice, “Tentation” candy and “General” appliances (appropriately dubbed “Generally Electric by a friend ). We actually purchased a hot water heater with the confidence inspiring name of “Junker” (really a reliable German brand). Some other Moroccan products have brand names that no marketing department in the US would approve such as, the “Rehab Hotel”, “Darky” and “Snowy” chocolate bars, “Studhorse” jeans, and “Bonky” chocolate drink mix.

Many eating establishments have no names but display signs giving a general idea of what to expect. Some of these are simply “Café Bar”, “Snack”, “Fast Food”, “Fish Snack”, “Self Service” (a sandwich shop which isn’t), and my personal favorite “Snak Exlaz”. The hanuts in our town don’t have even these descriptive names so we came up with identifying names of our own such as the “step-up”, the “glass door”, “turkey guy”, and “cousin’s” (of the glass door).

Clothes often have English words on them like “peace” and “love”, but more often the phrases make little sense, such as the pair of little girl’s pink socks which were stenciled with “shark patrol rescue team”. I had to smile when the co-op president wore a shirt with the words “It came upon a midnight clear”. I’m quite sure she didn’t know they were lyrics to a Christmas carol.