What’s in our name

It isn’t easy to find a suitable name for an institute. Trust us, we speak from experience. The process is delightful at first. You start brainstorming, there are lots of name suggestions, you laugh, argue, discuss things, pick a few interesting ideas but it’s all rather tentative. Then you test those ideas with friends, receive feedback, they get the axe… And then you start all over again.

Searching for a single word that sums up the identity, culture and values of an organisation and is at the same time catchy and intuitive, without sounding pompous nor elitist, and yet doesn’t have a private medical lab or a tutoring centre ring to it, well, it’s a (very) complicated task. Or at least it was for us – there’s no shame in admitting it.

Eteron is the result of our creative process. And after months of nesting within the team’s labs, it is finally ready to be tested in hard reality conditions!

So we set off to trace paths that are out of the ordinary, to find alternatives to one-way streets and to expose, through pluralism and a variety of opinions, the possibilities of a new direction; to serve as a theory and action in our society, politics, economy and culture.

The only thing we take as a given is that there is no unique truth or a sole recipe that leads to specific results. Thus we prefer to explore, experiment and search for distinct paths.

After all, if our orthodoxies have led to a reality that leaves a lot to be improved, why not search for heterodoxies instead?

The name Eteron fulfills a vast list of criteria that we’d set as prerequisites. Could we have ended up with a different name? Obviously, yes.

But as a team, we’re absolutely certain that names become meaningful entities through work, content and actions.

Our wish is for Eteron to soon become a reference point not just for credibility and veracity, but also a name that carries with it the confidence that there are no unique paths to collective prosperity and happiness. And that alternative paths are worth seeking.

This is what we strive to achieve.