Carothers called his superpolyamide ‘Fibre 66’. The Du Pont management felt the name was not promotional enough and convened a naming committee, which came up with almost 400 suggestions. ‘Duparooh’, proposed by Ernest Knight Gladding (1888–1958), head of Du Pont’s artificial silk department, failed to secure a majority. The acronym was taken as a simple joke, as it stood for ‘Du Pont Pulls A Rabbit Out Of the Hat’. ‘Wacara’, in honour of Wallace Carothers, and ‘Delawear’ – a portmanteau of ‘to wear’ and Delaware, the state where Du Pont produced the polyamide fibre – also failed to attract enough supporters. ‘Dusilk’, ‘Rayamide’ and ‘Silkex’ were also rejected. Gladding then suggested ‘Norun’. It sounded good and meant ‘no runs’, although this was not actually true – so the name was discarded again. ‘Norun’ was promptly changed to ‘Nuron’, as ‘nu’ sounds like ‘new’. However, there was a risk of confusion with a nerve tonic (‘Neuron’). Gladding replaced the ‘r’ with an ‘l’ and the ‘u’ first with an ‘i’, then with a ‘y’ – the coined word ‘Nylon’ was born. A composition that is essentially meaningless to the ear, to which meanings were subsequently ascribed that were supposedly already inherent in the word’s creation. One interpretation is that ‘nylon’ is derived from ‘New York’ and ‘London’, because two chemists are said to have come up with the word on an intercontinental flight from one metropolis to the other. Alternatively, it is claimed that Du Pont chose the name ‘Nylon’ to provoke Japanese industry, which was facing losses in silk exports due to the new synthetic fibre – according to this theory, ‘Nylon’ stands for ‘Now You’ve Lost, Old Nippon’...