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Wow, native English speaker and I didn't even get the pun until this comment. I thought it was a stupid play on "What app should we message each other on?" and

Wow, native English speaker and I didn't even get the pun until this comment. I thought it was a stupid play on "What app should we message each other on?" and thus kind of a silly name. But folks use it regardless.

quasarj 6y ago
Also a native English speaker, also had no idea it was supposed to be a pun until right now. I just thought it was another silly name from an Asian company.
- lostcolony 6y ago
  Complete tangent, but, by any chance, when you read things, do you not 'hear' a voice in your head reading them? Curious, because I'm pretty sure the first time I ran across Whatsapp it was in text, but I tend to 'hear' the things I read/write in my head, as though a voice read them to me. And because of that the pun stuck out. It might just be I'm more inclined to look for puns (playing games with them all the time with friends and family), but wondering if that might be part of it: if you just see the name and it's just a word, not something sounded out in your head, you of course would not notice the play on words.
  - gagege 6y ago
    I don't think that's it, I hear words in my head, but didn't get the pun until I watched a Jimmy Fallon bit where he made fun of the name.
    - bigintjin 6y ago
      Following on this train, as an fluent English speaker, millennial, Asian American that grew up in Texas public school all my life, and a lover of memes and puns...I also didn't realize WhatsApp was a pun...woah.
      - gagege 6y ago
        Well that proves it, it's not a great name :)
  - HeavyStorm 6y ago
    85% of people hear their voice when reading / forming thoughts. And then there are the others [1]. 1 https://twitter.com/KylePlantEmoji/status/1221713792913965061?s=19 https://twitter.com/KylePlantEmoji/status/122171379291396506...
- jklm 6y ago
  Are you thinking of Wechat? Whatsapp is run by Facebook.
  - efreak 6y ago
    As a nonuser of WhatsApp, I don't care who owns it. Thinking the app comes from Asia is understandable; There's a large number of apps coming from Asia whose names sound nonsensical in the West (quite likely some of them have as much meaning as our own apps have, and are just foreign words or sounds). There's not many apps coming from Africa or South America these days (that I'm aware of), while Asia has quite a lot.
TuringTest 6y ago
Really? I'm a native Spanish speaker, and the first thing I thought when learning about the app was that[1] ad. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W16qzZ7J5YQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W16qzZ7J5YQ (Forgive me, it was still recent around here at the time the app got popular).
- HeavyStorm 6y ago
  I don't even have to open the link to know that it's that budweiser ad. That's where my mind goes too when I think about the name of the app. I think whatsapp has a nice ring to it, even if people doesn't know how to write it. Surely being able to write it on a store search is important, but not as important as sounding good. ----- And does people get the name of Waze? It took me a while, because in this case not being a native English speaker is a real problem.

quasarj 6y ago

Also a native English speaker, also had no idea it was supposed to be a pun until right now. I just thought it was another silly name from an Asian company.

lostcolony 6y ago
Complete tangent, but, by any chance, when you read things, do you not 'hear' a voice in your head reading them? Curious, because I'm pretty sure the first time I ran across Whatsapp it was in text, but I tend to 'hear' the things I read/write in my head, as though a voice read them to me. And because of that the pun stuck out. It might just be I'm more inclined to look for puns (playing games with them all the time with friends and family), but wondering if that might be part of it: if you just see the name and it's just a word, not something sounded out in your head, you of course would not notice the play on words.
- gagege 6y ago
  I don't think that's it, I hear words in my head, but didn't get the pun until I watched a Jimmy Fallon bit where he made fun of the name.
  - bigintjin 6y ago
    Following on this train, as an fluent English speaker, millennial, Asian American that grew up in Texas public school all my life, and a lover of memes and puns...I also didn't realize WhatsApp was a pun...woah.
    - gagege 6y ago
      Well that proves it, it's not a great name :)
- HeavyStorm 6y ago
  85% of people hear their voice when reading / forming thoughts. And then there are the others [1]. 1 https://twitter.com/KylePlantEmoji/status/1221713792913965061?s=19 https://twitter.com/KylePlantEmoji/status/122171379291396506...
jklm 6y ago
Are you thinking of Wechat? Whatsapp is run by Facebook.
- efreak 6y ago
  As a nonuser of WhatsApp, I don't care who owns it. Thinking the app comes from Asia is understandable; There's a large number of apps coming from Asia whose names sound nonsensical in the West (quite likely some of them have as much meaning as our own apps have, and are just foreign words or sounds). There's not many apps coming from Africa or South America these days (that I'm aware of), while Asia has quite a lot.

TuringTest 6y ago

Really? I'm a native Spanish speaker, and the first thing I thought when learning about the app was that[1] ad. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W16qzZ7J5YQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W16qzZ7J5YQ (Forgive me, it was still recent around here at the time the app got popular).

HeavyStorm 6y ago
I don't even have to open the link to know that it's that budweiser ad. That's where my mind goes too when I think about the name of the app. I think whatsapp has a nice ring to it, even if people doesn't know how to write it. Surely being able to write it on a store search is important, but not as important as sounding good. ----- And does people get the name of Waze? It took me a while, because in this case not being a native English speaker is a real problem.