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March 30, 2009

One World Trade Center: Naming That Means Business

The Internet is full of fury over the news that "The Freedom Tower" will in all likelihood be called One World Trade Center by the time it is completed in 2013.

As the New York Times points out, the Freedom Tower name has been mocked in the press as being a bit hysterical. It also makes the tower a logical terrorist target.

One World Trade Center is easier "for people to identify with," despite lacking the symbolic "determination to overcome evil" that the name Freedom Tower may have conveyed.

Most people are a bit jaded by the issue of naming the building, but there are still some tourists that are taking interest in the matter, suggesting that the tower needs a "stand out" name.

What then, is more recognizable than the words World Trade Center?

This decision is not part of an "absurd" attack on American values or part of some Chinese plot, as some of the more eccentric blogs have posited after learning that one of the tower's first tenants will be a Chinese company.

Naming the tower One World Trade Center "reestablishes the stature of the original WTC without diminishing the commitment to commemorate the attack and its victims."

The Bisbah blog says it best:

Calling it One WTC I think is just as powerful a statement. It says "You can knock us down and we'll just get back to business." Calling it "Freedom Tower"...did we rename the White House "The English Suck House" after they burned it down in 1814?

Technorati Tags: One World Trade Center, Freedom Tower, Building Naming, 9/11, WTC, Building Names

Posted by William Lozito at March 30, 2009 10:01 AM
Posted to Linguistics | Naming

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