Back in the summer we changed the name of our open youth club after running a competition with the young people. The winning entry (by majority vote) was TNT: Thursday Night Thriller.
We’re also thinking about rebranding our children’s work here at the church and it got me thinking about names. Over the years I’ve heard some amazing names for youth groups. Churches often go with quite predictable (and cheesy) names that have some kind of spiritual significance. Fire is a common theme with names like Ignite, Enflame, Firestarters, etc.
Quite possibly the best name I have ever heard was SWITCH. I thought it was reasonably catchy until I was told what it stood for: Sundays, Wednesdays In The Church Hall! Genius!
So what are the best and worst youth group names that you’ve heard? There must be loads out there…
Update:
Bad youth group names are coming in thick and fast on Twitter:
- @Mikey_Oldfield says “A youth group I ran in Eastbourne was called TNT as well. Stood for Tuesday Night Team. Much better than the previous ‘Club One’.”
- @FonaFriend says “my school CU was called SCUM (School Christian Union Meeting…plus based on ‘we are the scum of the earth!) That was pretty bad!”
- @Justinvj says “the worst i would have to say is youth N Action.”
- @JamieCutter says “Our older group I inherited was called ‘D2′ (discipleship2 we think) we started a younger version- R2. Yes, R2D2″
Update 2:
A couple more here:
- @RosieMumford says “remember JIG? Jesus is Good! That was a corker!”
- @bobweasel says “and IG (into God)!”
Update 3:
Some people have shared on Facebook.
- Steph says “KAOS… Krazy and otherwise saved. Gulp!”
- Suzi says “COVENANTERS”
- Sarah says “Maranatha -hey this was the early 80′s xxx”
Update 4:
People are still sharing their bad group names…
- Sue on Facebook says “My kiddies were part of Cliffy Cliff and The Funky Bunch!”
- @RachWarwick says “we had LEGO (Learning & Experiencing God in Others)”
Had a few thoughts about this a few years ago
http://www.youthblog.org/2005/01/youth-group-names.html
Ian
Thanks Ian, I’d missed that post from you. I particularly like the comments from people asking for help to come up with a good name!
Personally, I hate cheesy acronyms. I’d rather have a name that reflects the nature of the group in some way. For example Youth Theatre Group kind of tells you what it’s about!
Josh Griffen also posted about this subject back in September: http://www.morethandodgeball.com/youth-ministry/clear-names-for-your-youth-ministry-and-youth-group-events.html
Just found an interesting article on naming youth groups here: http://www.crosswalk.com/pastors/11624697/
“The naming challenge is something I have gone through myself. Upon seeing how deeply my youth group’s name — Faith Lutheran Youth (FLY) — was ingrained in the church culture, we decided that rather than change it I would give kids in my group the authority to come up with their own preferred name for our Sunday night program.
The result? We are now called Sunday Night Jingle Bells!”
It never mattered what I named a youth ministry or meeting. All the youth always just called it youth group. After years of trying to brand a meeting or group, I just call it youth group.
Thanks Paul, I think you’ve got a good point! After having a different name for the last 3 1/2 years, the young people still simply call it “youth”.
I wonder if it’s just us youth workers that love good names?
My chursh’s young adult group had the nickname “M.Y.A.S.S.,” for “Miguel’s Yound Adult Sunday School.” That did not go over well with quite a few people, and it definitely never made its way into the promo material, but it certainly caused a few chuckles
Ha ha ha! I love that! Thanks for sharing Claire.
How about the ‘SS’?
Sunday School!
That’s catchy Pete!
My friends have reminded me I inherited a group called ‘SLAM’. No reason for that name (as far as I know)!
We had a pretentiously named Sunday night group called Koinonia (the 80s had a lot to answer for). It was a catchy name… *shakes head in mild embarrassment*
Wow! That’s pretty deep Matt. Could anyone even spell it?
Youth in my old church was called “xtreme”, seems to be a trend to cut off the “e” or other letters! And don’t forget IG was once IT, interteens! And TAG was always pretty poor, I know that’s a kids group, but still!
Yeah Rich, I had thought about Interteens. What an awful name! I didn’t think Tag was too bad though…
haha I thought it was only me that got grumpy about this
The one that amused me years ago was a young girls group that decided to call themselves Girls on Top. I like to think they were too innocent to be bothered about the connotations but I suspect not.
The ones that really used to annoy me were the names given to some of the courses we used to run at a previous place of work – including things like “A Piece of the Pie” (fundraising), somehow it was thought a “cool” title would attract people onto the course even though half that did attend probably thought they were on some sort of cooking residential.
I did nearly call one of our courses Active8 – to be fair it was for groups of 8 and was sports based, but still that was the point from when on I’ve stuck to naming on the basis of “what it says on the tin”.
I think Church based groups probably win overall for the cheesy naming – although on a different level ‘Fish & CHYPS’ still amuses me: http://www.chyps.org.uk/
Hey mas, good to hear from you.
You reminded me of a boys group I facilitated. They wanted to call themselves GOOO, meaning Girls out of order!
Well I thought FnC was a funny name but it never really got approved, as you could imagine why… Funny but inappropriate
Thanks BJ, you’re right – probably best to steer clear of that one!