Our humanoid service robot is called REEM! Many people ask us: ‘Where does this name come from?’
Well…. for sure the name is not derived from the newly introduced slang from the reality TV show The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE)! In this show Joey Essex uses the word to describe anything that looks-smells-or-feels remotely attractive, healthy, fit or cool! He states that the word is derived from the Swedish language to describe a good looking person, and thus is giving the word new life in the form of an adjective. Here’s a description of the slang on the personal Facebook site of Joey.
The show and the new found language of Joey has had a great impact on Social Media. Joey Essex himself has about 300,000 followers on Twitter and on Facebook there is a Community Page, with the same amount of followers, solely devoted to the new usage of the word! There are t-shirts and all sorts of other merchandising for sale to promote the new found slang.
So… as stated above, the name of our robot is not derived from this new slang! :)
Our robot is called REEM because we were looking for an elegant female name from the Arabic world, and this is a very common name, and it derives back from the Arabic word for antelope or gazelle.
(For more information on any other meanings of the word REEM, have a look at this article.)