# Vela ragazza



## cruising

Hi all, can you help me?  

I'm looking to start a new sailing business in Italy offering sailing breaks to British & Italian women and I have been thinking of calling it "Vela Ragazza!".  Can you tell me how this reads in Italian?  The name needs to be appealing to both markets and not look silly in Italy when printed on a t shirt!!

Other suggestions welcomed - would ideally like it to translate as "sailor girl" or "sail, girl" in Italian.

Thanks


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## Manuel_M

I think vela means sailing or yachting.

IMHO,* vela ragazza *would not make sense in Italian...and would seem a pretty odd sort of name for a business. But as we were saying in aother thread: there's no accounting for taste, so you never know.


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## Elisa68

Manuel_M said:
			
		

> I think vela means sailing or yachting.
> 
> IMH,* vela ragazza *would not make sense in Italian...and would seem a pretty odd sort of name for a business. But as we were saying in aother thread: there's no accounting for taste, so you never know.


 
I agree with Manuel. And I am a girl!!!! 

Maybe, 

_Le ragazze della vela._ 

What do you think?

I think it is also possible to leave it in English. Italians like foreign languages like logos!!!


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## Alfry

Vela ragazza doesn't sound good to me... but I'm Italian.


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## cruising

I think I tend to agree about the foreign language in business names, my survey of british women shows they really like vela ragazza!!


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## Silvia

Hi cruising, welcome to the WR Forums 

The problem with vela ragazza is that it doesn't mean "sail, girl", vela is a noun and not a verb as in English.

I agree with Elisa, "Sail, Girl!" is not bad. If you want an Italian name, I suggest: Naviga (I would omit the word girl, female etc and would include the female symbol in the logo).


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## cruising

How about "regazze a vela" ??


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## Silvia

Ragazze a vela is odd, we have barca a vela (sailing boat or sailboat), but sailing as an adjective for girl wouldn't be "a vela", it would mean the girls have a sail on their body!  Ragazze a vela = girls with sail (isn't it funny?)


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## Manuel_M

Silvia said:
			
		

> Ragazze a vela is odd, we have barca a vela (sailing boat or sailboat), but sailing as an adjective for girl wouldn't be "a vela", it would mean the girls have a sail on their body!  Ragazze a vela = girls with sail (isn't it funny?)


 
For an English market,and partly inspired by Silvi'as suggestion, I would suggest Navigal (geddit?).

Perhaps Navigazza for an Italan market?


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## cruising

i like navigazza dor both markets


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## Silvia

I don't like Navigazza  We use the suffix -azza to mean something bad, with a negative connotation to it! Navigal could do (with a fem symbol or something like that).


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## leenico

Mi piace "ragazze di mare."


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## Jana337

This may be silly as well but this is what brain-storming is about, after all: Why not call it Navigirl?

Jana


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## disegno

Jana337 said:
			
		

> This may be silly as well but this is what braim-storming is about, after all: Why not call it Navigirl?
> 
> Jana


"brain-storming"


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## carrickp

Ragazze marinare?


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## cruising

I like Ragazze Marinare too - does this read sensibly in Italian?  Girls of the Sea??  Not that I'm trying to be too sensible, just need to make sure my girls don't look like they have a poor english translation on their t shirts!!


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## Silvia

Cruising, it looks like you are partial to suggestions from non-native Italian speakers, and the slogan doesn't sound natural. If you want to pick up Ragazze Marinare, it's fine, but to me it sounds cheap.

What do the other Italians think?

Navigal, Navigirl (that's good Jana, I like it ) those could work


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## cruising

No, I really would like a good italian name, but to my english ear some words "sound" more italian and have a better "ring" than others.....how does regazze del mare sound in italian....i quite like that too!

Thanks all for your input so far


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## Silvia B

I too prefer "NAVIGIRL". Sounds nice. 

I don't know why, but when people ask for advices from natives then they end up choosing what a non-native proposed, altough everybody is saying that it doesn't have sense or doesn't sound good. That's quite funny


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## Silvia B

cruising said:
			
		

> No, I really would like a good italian name, but to my english ear some words "sound" more italian and have a better "ring" than others.....how does regazze del mare sound in italian....i quite like that too!
> 
> Thanks all for your input so far



"ragazze del mare" is not bad after all. But we don't say DEL mare...not in this context or with this meaning...it's hard to explain...

*"ragazze di mare"* is more appropriate.


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## cruising

FANTASTIC - means girls of the sea, right?


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## cruising

I have settled on Donne di Mare......what do you think?


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## RCC

What about "Ragazze in barca"?


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## Silvia B

cruising said:
			
		

> I have settled on Donne di Mare......what do you think?



Mmm...no..."ragazze" is better IMO...


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## nikkei

Hi everybody!
I vote for NAVIGIRL.. it sounds good...
What about "sirene del mare"??

Nikkei


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## Silvia

I agree with Silvia B.

Ragazze in Barca is not bad, or "Ragazze in Mare" (though the latter makes me think they're drowning! )

"Sirene" I like it  But only on its own


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## nikkei

yes.."ragazze in mare" sounds funny and it's not bad!
I agree with Silvia.."sirene" sounds better on its own...
so, cruising, what is your final decision??!!??

Nikkei


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## cruising

My final decision is Donne di Mare because of the alliteration of the letter "D" and the fact that my target audience is slightly older than "girls" - the most likely age is between 26 and 45.

I have had to make a quick decision to get business cards printed for the Southampton Boatshow so that's it!!  I do like Sirene too (Sirens?).....but too late!

Thanks everyone for your input its been great!


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## Silvia

Too bad, cruising, speed is a bad adviser


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## cruising

It's not such a snap decision!  Have been playing with this for about 3 months!


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## Elisa68

If my opinion counts I like "Donne di mare"!


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## cruising

Thanks Elisa, I'm pretty happy with it too!


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## carrickp

Silvia B said:
			
		

> I too prefer "NAVIGIRL". Sounds nice.
> 
> I don't know why, but when people ask for advices from natives then they end up choosing what a non-native proposed, altough everybody is saying that it doesn't have sense or doesn't sound good. That's quite funny



As a non-native I did make a suggestion; sorry if it was not welcome. I took the opportunity to practice my Italian, which I thought was appropriate for the forum. Obviously this offended at least one native, for which I apologize.


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## Jana337

carrickp said:
			
		

> As a non-native I did make a suggestion; sorry if it was not welcome. I took the opportunity to practice my Italian, which I thought was appropriate for the forum. Obviously this offended at least one native, for which I apologize.


I am sure you misunderstood Silvia's message... 

Jana


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## Silvia B

Jana337 said:
			
		

> I am sure you misunderstood Silvia's message...
> 
> Jana



Thanks Jana!
I did not want to offend anyone.....
The point is that is quite strange that someone comes here to ask for the advice of a native speaker and then choose what he could decide by himself.
There's no reason to ask then ! 

But anyone can do whatever they want! It's just strange...


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## lsp

Just to play devil's advocate, someone in cruising's position is looking for suggestions he can't come up alone because his italian vocabulary is limited. But he also has to balance the sound of authenticity with the fact that his intended audience won't know the difference and might mispronounce something foreign. Sometimes the authentic choice just doesn't resonate with the consumer in question.

Case in point, one of the popular choices was Sirene. I can't imagine average, non-italian people here pronouncing Sirene correctly and "Sigh-'reen" would be awful! It also looks like siren and the most commonly understood definition of siren is the acoustic one.

It's a tough spot. Maybe we come up with something useful, maybe not. It's still fun (for all of us) to try...


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## Daywalker

Just leave it in english, as Elisa68 said.. We love english logos.


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## lsp

Daywalker said:
			
		

> Just leave it in english, as Elisa68 said.. We love english logos.


Great first post! Welcome to WR, Daywalker!


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## Silvia

Let's just hope that no one will associate donne di mare with donne di strada


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## stephenwallis

lsp said:
			
		

> Case in point, one of the popular choices was Sirene. I can't imagine average, non-italian people here pronouncing Sirene correctly and "Sigh-'reen" would be awful! It also looks like siren and the most commonly understood definition of siren is the acoustic one.


 
lsp, I think your interpretation is more American than British, yet it does show that difficulties arise even when considering branding across English-speaking countries.

I might be wrong on this point considering I'm South African and only been in the UK for seven years.


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## Kriemhilde

I like " Vela Ragazza"... but I'm not italian


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## lsp

stephenwallis said:
			
		

> lsp, I think your interpretation is more American...


I do try to remember to point out that I can only speak for AE, but a lot of people here know that by now so I've slipped of late. You're very right!


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