Names don't matter when the meaning is burned in

Remember a while back when Microsoft first announced support for RSS and we found out they weren't going to call it RSS because the acronym isn't descriptive enough? I told a business story about names as an example of how whatever you call a thing eventually comes around to equate to the thing it names.

The idea intruded into my thoughts again this morning when I spotted a box in my bedroom labeled "floppies." That box hasn't held floppy disks since... well, since you didn't keep boxes of floppies anymore. It has contained sewing junk for years now, but when I see the word floppies scribbled on that box I think, "Oh, that's where my pincushion is." It's about associations, I guess, isn't it? Either on a personal or group level.