What’s in a name? Elon Musk once again turns to literature for second boring machine name

Picking the right name for your company or product can play an important role in the success of your venture — from helping you avoid legal headaches to securing investment.

But where’s the best place to find naming inspiration? If you’re Elon Musk, that place is literature.

In October, the billionaire businessman took to Twitter to reveal The Boring Company’s second boring machine is “almost ready”. The new addition to the company’s fleet would be named ‘Line-Storm’, after a poem of the same name by American poet Robert Frost, Musk said.

Founded by Musk in response to his growing frustration with road traffic conjestion, The Boring Company has the goal of “increasing tunnelling speed and dropping costs by a factor of 10 or more”.

“A large network of tunnels many levels deep would fix congestion in any city, no matter how large it grew (just keep adding levels),” the company explains on its website.

Along with revealing the name of the new machine, Musk tweeted a line from the poem (“And by my love in the rain”), as well as an image of  the poem, which was included in Frost’s (1874–1963) first book, A Boy’s Will.

The name of the company’s first machine, ‘Godot’, also has literary origins; it is derived from Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot.

“First machine is Godot. Still waiting … Don’t know why, when or where”, Musk tweeted back in May.

First machine is Godot. Still waiting … Don't know why, when or where.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2017

While The Boring Company declined to comment on the literary references when contacted by media outlets, it hasn’t stopped some from wondering if the fate of the company’s endeavours can be deciphered by reading Frost’s poem.

Perhaps more likely is the latest name choice is simply a continuation of Musk’s now well-established pattern of combining his love of literature with his business pursuits.