How did TWU get its current name? See the long below quote.
Make sure it doesn't scare off immigration/border protection officers! We got into trouble when it was called "Global Boot Camp" because immigration officers thought that ThoughtWorks was sending people off to India to train with some sort of para-military organization. http://twuname.ideascale.com/ (check out the comments for more info)
The original name of the program was "Global Boot Camp", something most people felt was good and described how new hires from college would be trained once they joined TW. "Global Boot Camp" was also catchy; we could use it when talking to our customers, and even they started asking if we could run boot camps for them.
Unfortunately, this name doesn't work so well when it comes to crossing borders. Everyone involved had to be instructed to use "technical training course" when going through immigration at airports and border crossings, so we wouldn't cause any alarm. Apparently, that still didn't matter, because a ThoughtWorker unrelated to the GBC was stopped at an airport and asked "what is this 'Global Boot Camp' thing all about?"
In the search of a new name that still sounded catchy but had less of a militant edge, we through around a few names for the next round of training. Some of those that were rejected included the following:
"ThoughtLearning" (according to our brand guidelines, we can't break up ThoughtWorks)
"Global Thought Learning"
"Technical Training Course"
"ThoughtWorks Center of Excellence"
"Neville Singham's School for the Gifted" (Gary Larson fans united around this one)
"[ThoughtWorks.edu]" (couldn't get the domain)
So, we ended up with "ThoughtWorks University." We're not trying to be smart-alecky nor are we full of ourselves. We just needed to find a name we could use consistently to throw to the recruits, regional invitation letters, t-shirts and the corporate website.
We want something that rolls of the tongue and is easy to understand. If you want a better name, please suggest one soon.
https://confluence.wazokazi.com/display/GBC/About+the+Name