Naming a library branch is no easy task

Booky McBookface, as predictable as it might be, is unlikely to make the cut. Nor is the new James Bay library likely to be named Booky McBookPlace, Dewey McDecimalface, Library McLibraryface, or even Libary McLibaryface, the latter put forward on behalf of those who habitually drop the ‘r.’

Likewise, Victoria city council, which has the final say, is unlikely to go for the Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good or the Tent City Memorial Bike Lane Library.

For one thing, these suggestions were sent not to the City of Victoria website, where proposals for the new library branch name were being sought, but to a discussion thread on Reddit.com.

This is what happens when the great unwashed are invited to suggest names for public buildings, boats and the like. They suggest. Gleefully.

It happened in 2015 when B.C. Ferries solicited proposals for its new intermediate-class vessels. Among the replies: The Christy Clark Ark, the Service Reduction Princess, the Coastal Community Collapse, the Spirit of Jobs Sent to Germany, the Ark of the Government, and the MV Always Breaking Down on Long Weekends.

It happened in Britain in 2016, when Boaty McBoatface topped an online vote for a research ship that was eventually named after naturalist Sir David Attenborough.

It happened in Australia last week, when Ferry McFerryface (which actually finished second to Boaty McBoatface in yet another online vote) was chosen as the name for one of six new Sydney Harbour vessels.

A public vote in Sweden this year resulted in one of four new trains running between Stockholm and Gothenburg being christened Trainy McTrainface. (One of the others was called “Glenn,” stemming from a running joke that everyone from Gothenburg goes by that name.)

As for the new James Bay branch, we’ll have to wait until city council gets a report in December. The city got a ton of suggestions — real ones — when it opened up nominations in a process that closed last Sunday.

This can be tricky business, particularly if a branch is to be named after a person, as is the case with four of the Greater Victoria Public Library’s 11 branches. That includes the one in Langford where, in keeping with the municipality’s practice of selling naming rights to public facilities, John Goudy paid $30,000 to have the Goudy Branch named in honour of his wife and his mother. Other branches bear the names of journalist Bruce Hutchison, artist Emily Carr and social activist Nellie McClung.

That last one is slightly controversial. Just as there are those who want to topple the Sir John A. Macdonald statue at Victoria City Hall because of his role in establishing the residential school system, there are those who argue McClung should be disqualified from public recognition because of her support for eugenics. She was hardly the only one — even Tommy Douglas, deemed the Greatest Canadian by CBC viewers in 2004, extolled eugenics in his master’s thesis as a young man — but revisionist history doesn’t cut much slack when weighing public figures’ sins against their contributions.

There’s plenty to be said for honouring worthy individuals, though, and for opening up the process for public input. Much better than the old Social Credit era, when every public structure seemed to be named for, well, an old Socred: the Alex Fraser Bridge, the George Massey Tunnel, Blanshard Street’s Jack Davis Building, the W.A.C. Bennett Dam.

After the New Democrats took over from the Socreds, some names tilted toward the ideological: The Second Narrows Bridge became Ironworkers Memorial, and an up-Island stretch of highway was named after labour martyr Ginger Goodwin. The Liberals, in turn, tore down the Ginger Goodwin Way signs as soon as they took power.

These days the trend is toward selling naming rights: The Q Centre, Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre, Westhills Stadium. Halifax’s new library has a Southwest Properties Reading Lounge, Calgary’s will have a CNOOC Nexen Digital Corridor.

A few years ago, Victoria council dabbled with the idea of selling the naming rights to the Victoria Conference Centre, but backed off. We can assume that means there will be no Crown Royal Athletic Park, Crystal Light Pool, or Labatt’s Blue Bridge.

In truth, this council deserves praise for asking the public for ideas for the James Bay library branch. The volume of proposals, and the thought that went into them, show how deeply residents care, says the city’s Bill Eisenhauer.

Fun is fun, but we can do better than Booky McBookface.