From Why Hedge Funds Hunt for Animals, Search the Stars:
When Alan Ware started his hedge fund, he found plenty of investors, a comfortable office in midtown Manhattan and a strategy to make money. But a big problem remained: ‘All the Greek gods were taken.’So were many animals, mountain ranges, rivers, roads — even solar systems.
He and his partners slogged through maps, the Internet, Latin words and suggestions from friends before finding a suitable name for their firm, which oversees about $100 million. ‘It was harder than naming my children,’ says the father of two. They settled on Pike Place Capital Management, after a prominent farmers’ market in Seattle, the city where Mr. Ware was born.
That was three years ago, before thousands more people set out to start hedge funds, private investment partnerships for rich individuals and institutions. Now, with more than 8,000 hedge funds world-wide — twice as many as five years ago — managers are bumping into each other in their quest for the perfect name.