Avego. After nearly a year and a half of full-on effort to create the first real shared transport application, we decided on avego.com.
Amongst all the other possibilities (we toyed with hundreds), its many meanings finally settled it for us.
- Originally we thought of it because of the ideal of the freedom of travel (ave = spanish for “bird”, go=”move or travel”). “Free as a bird” is an expression we have all heard, but increasingly the automobile does not give us that freedom. Whether because of the increasing cost of travel, the increasing congestion in travel, the increasing burdens of finding and paying for parking, the burdens of ever-longer commutes via urban sprawl, not to mention the ecological issues of global warming, it is now clear the wasteful method of single occupancy automotive travel no longer is the freedom it once seemed.
- A second meaning to Avego is through the combination of the english word “ave”, which has the poetic meaning of “an expression of good wishes and welcome”. We feel it is an auspicious combination of travel through welcome participation.
Additionally, we discovered:
- Avego is from the old Irish word for “to try something noble”. Even today the Irish police (Garda) say “avego arry” is someone whom will make a kind-hearted attempt to save an innocent against a vicious criminal attack.
- Avego [pronounced a-vay’-go] is the personal single form of the Spanish verb “avegar”. The verb “avegar” was popularized in the 17th century court of King Philipé, after the capital was moved to Madrid. Due to a congenital defect, Philipé had a terrible time pronouncing the letter “n” at the beginning of words, and so his court copied his pronounciation. Of course, the word “Navegar” is well known as “to sail”, and it is what the origin of the english word “Navigate” came from. Thus “avego” would mean, in the court of King Philipé, “I sail”. Philipé was an avid sailor.
- The verb “Avegar” has fallen into disuse, but we aim to reclaim it now to mean “to share the ride”. Avegar uses the typical -ar verb conjugations, so “Avego” would mean “I share the ride”, “avegamos” means “we share the ride” and “avegan” would mean either “they share the ride” or “someone who doesn’t eat meat”.
- Avego is an abbreviated way of saying “avenue go”. We think of Avego as a new avenue for society to travel.
- In spanish, “ave” is the word for bird. It is also, in a play on words by the Renfre rail authority, “alta velocidad española”, or the Spanish high speed train. So Avego would be to say, “go flyingly fast”.
- In Latin, “Ave” is the word for “hail”, as in the popular song by Pavorotti, “Ave Maria”.
- Avego is a region in Togo, a land which has just had many democratic reforms… We have the highest hope for the people of Togo! Through charitable foundations associated with this company, we are giving nearly $1.25 million to Africa in the next 5 years… we sure hope some of this money makes it to Togo!
That’s all for now!
— sean
p.s. creative license applied (ie., 1/2 these are made up)