The process of naming Tidal Water Consulting has been a comedy of errors. I love word play and enjoy the creative challenge of naming things. I like to come up with names for odd fictional businesses like an exercise studio/cheese shop named “Tai Cheese.” But when it came to naming my own business, I stumbled repeatedly. This was quite frustrating and even a bit embarrassing.
Then I decided the healthiest way to respond was to step back from the situation and laugh at myself. I also decided to share my story so maybe we can laugh about it together.
To start, I was determined to include the word “Circle” in the name because the Circle process is core to the work I do. So the first name I came up with was Full Circle Consulting. This evoked the phrase “come full circle” and the way we often return to those poignant moments in our lives, which often happens in Circle and is a consistent theme in my writing. But then through a quick web search I discovered several businesses with the same name, including one in Massachusetts. Aside from being a legal no go, it was a humbling reminder of how completely unoriginal I was! Stumble number one.
The consolation prize went to Circle Round Consulting, which I liked though truthfully did not love. The name rang a faint bell for my wife and soon enough she recalled a popular WBUR podcast of the same name featuring children’s stories. This name too could be a legal liability and it affirmed my concern that the name sounded too childish, evoking circle time on the rug in Kindergarten. Stumble number two and now I was crawling back to the proverbial drawing board.
Unfortunately, it was going to get worse before it got better: Circle Works! It’s short and clean, it’s a verb and a noun, it doesn’t even need the clunky, multi-syllabic “consulting.” Then came a quick veto from a trusted friend who said I could not use it because it rhymed with an unsavory hobby of middle school boys. Darn it! I had actually thought of that and just figured no one would notice or care. They noticed! Stumble number three and, yes, that was the embarrassing one!
So I jettisoned the word “Circle.” I just could not make it work. Liberated from the need for a name that would described what I do, I returned (yes, full circle!) to the old name for my website: Tidal Water. It is more cryptic, but with a little bit of explanation, I knew I could tie it back to the work I do in Circle and explain why it so meaningful to me.
When I was growing up, I could see a sliver of the Hudson River from my 8th floor bedroom window on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. I also enjoyed gazing at the wide expanse of choppy waters when my family walked along the pedestrian promenade along the river. I often wondered which direction the water was moving. At times it appeared to flow from left to right, while at others it seemed to move from right to left. A friend of the family explained it was tidal water. When the tide came in, salty sea water of the Atlantic would flow upriver and mix with the fresh mountain water coming down from the Adirondacks, only to recede again when the tide went out.
The image of sea and mountain water coming together, forming swirling eddies, has become deeply meaningful to me, and I often return to it in my mind’s eye. It has also become an important metaphor. I see tidal water any time two lives come together in a meaningful way, with love and mutual appreciation. It is two people in joyful conversation, excitedly bouncing ideas off one another. It is the relationship of writer and reader, teacher and student, or two lifelong friends. It is the way we circle back to our past, retrieving memories and discovering new meaning in them.
Tidal water is what happens when we share our stories, when we truly listen and are truly heard. This often happens in Circle, which is a story telling process that can be deeply meaningful. That is why I find so much joy doing this work and why I started Tidal Water Consulting. I hope you like the name!
“Every meeting between two creatures in this world is a mutual rending.” – Italo Calvino
Tidal Water Consulting 