What's in a name? Almost everything. At least that's what Robert Buderi over at XConomy believes. According to Buderi, a company name can have a significant impact on your brand, or as he puts it, "A good name evokes what the company does, and it is memorable--creating a virtuous cycle that reinforces the brand and leads to increased sales." If your company's name isn't up to snuff, is it worth rebranding? XConomy polled readers on a series of startup name changes to determine whether the rebrandings were successful and worth it. 

Recently, for example, a mobile-health tech company called HopSkipConnect changed its name to Healthrageous. Was that a smart move? Personally, Healthrageous sounds a bit too hyper for a health firm--then again, if I didn't know what they did, I'd say HopSkipConnect was the latest knockoff of Foursquare and Gowalla. What do you think?

Well, according voters, Healthrageous was the right change, with over 60% finding it more appealing than HopSkipConnect. And they may be on to something. In June after announcing its rebranding, Healthrageous raised $6 million in its first round of investment.

See how good you are at picking the company name winners. Descriptions of the companies listed first, followed by their two possible names--the latter choices are the rebranded versions. Answers below.

Online jewelry customization and sales:
Paragon Lake ... Gemvara

Local search and location apps for mobile phones:
uLocate ... Where

Errand running service:
RunMyErrand ... TaskRabbit

Marketing firm:
Detanetis ... Pursway

Unmanned aerial vehicles company:
DroidWorks ... CyPhy

Video sharing firm:
TwitVid ... Vidly

Social media portal for travelers:
Get Out ... Cambridge or gtrot

Answers

Online jewelry customization and sales:
76.06% found Gemvara a better name than Paragon.

Local search and location apps for mobile phones:
Roughly 45% found uLocate better, while close to 40% found it worse. And 14.75% of voters thought it made no difference at all. This was clearly not a good change. Perhaps the company should figure out how to locate a new name.

Errand running service:
More than 67% of readers found TaskRabbit a good change from RunMyErrand.

Marketing firm:
Only 33% found Pursway better; 23% found it worse, and more than 42% thought it made no difference than Datanetis. This seems to suggest that both are poor choices for company names.

Unmanned aerial vehicles company:
Overwhelmingly the public (61%) felt CyPhy was a worse name than DroidWorks.

Video sharing firm:
Roughly 58% felt Vidly was better than TwitVid, though about 42% felt it was worse or made no difference.

Social media portal for travelers:
Gtrot swooned voters -- 70% found it better than the angry-sounding Get Out of Cambridge.

So how did you do? Are you good at picking company names, or are you starting to consider rebranding your own business? Respond in the comments with your score.