Nokia chose the name 'Lumia' for mobile despite knowing that it means 'prostitute' in Spanish

The Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia decided to christen its new range of Windows Phone devices with the name of "Lumia" despite knowing that this term means "prostitute" in Spanish , local media reported. After Nokia filed last week the Lumia Lumia 800 and 710 , its first smartphone equipped with the Microsoft operating system, various media, forums and social networks rated the choice of this name as a "grave blunder" of the company. However, Nokia said that he knew the meaning, but eventually chose the name because "Lumi" is "a very old Spanish word obsolescence long."

According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, "Lumi" is a noun little used and of uncertain origin meaning "prostitute", and like its variant "luminance" is also part of urban slang. The Finnish multinational looking for a name to name its new range of smartphones that sound good together with the Nokia brand and ending in a vowel to make it function phonetically. After selecting about 200 words, a group of linguists in 84 languages ​​experts examined possible negative connotations of each of them and ease of pronunciation in all languages, until presented to the Nokia address a short list. "Lumia", derived from the Latin word "lumen" (light) was the name chosen, but before doing so made ​​a study of official market in Spain to see if I really had pejorative connotations. "The results showed that over 60% of Spanish consumers thought it was a great name for a product of mobile technology. I suggested first "light" and "style" , instead of the other meaning, darker and negative " , the company said on its official blog. Last August, Nokia began to designate their new devices using names instead of numbers and letters as he had done so far, to symbolize the renewal of the company after its alliance with Microsoft in the mobile phone market.