History is full of product names that didn’t translate very well. Some people can’t think about the Lancia Y10 without hearing chicken noises - while Portuguese purchasers of Kagome fruit juices probably think of a less-pleasant sound. And there are plenty more urban legends of dubious provenance, from the no-go Chevy Nova to Taiwan’s “Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead”.
The latest on the list is the HTC ChaCha ‘Facebook phone’. The company already has a trademark battle on its hands with website ChaCha.com - and it’s now renaming the product for the Spanish market. In Spain it’ll be the HTC ChaChaCha.
Why the extra syllable? HTC isn’t saying, but ‘chacha’ (from muchacha) can be a slang word in Spanish for a domestic servant.