Bison Run might seem like an obvious choice for this new community in Waverley West to some. Wedged between Bridgwater Forest, Bridgwater Centre, South Pointe and near the University of Manitoba campus, the name has strong ties to the surrounding community and wildlife. However, the path to naming this neighbourhood wasn’t as straightforward as one may think.
Community names can be polarizing. A name too unique can turn people off as unfamiliar or worse, “weird”, but a name too common can be considered boring. What makes it more challenging is as a diverse community we have people from various backgrounds with their own opinions and perspectives. What sounds great to one person, may sound horrible to another.
So, how do you choose a name everyone will like? The short answer, you won’t.
Bison Run was thought up around a table of individuals from the Qualico Communities team where all options were thrown at the wall to see what would stick. Some were loved, many were hated and none were agreed upon by all. From there, a short-list of names was sent out by survey to a broad mix of individuals from Winnipeg to garner feedback.
After which point was the most challenging part of the process, making a decision. Qualico Communities strives to make communities where people want to live and name said neighbourhoods something that the future homeowners, business owners and residents will be proud to call home. So, what might seem like an off-the-cuff decision was actually a months-long process filled with feedback, debate and flip flopping to come to a final resolution; Bison Run. In an ideal world everyone would love the name, but our realistic hope is that most will like the name, few will be indifferent, and a very small group will dislike it. Like naming your first-born child, you won’t please everyone with what you choose but can only hope that those with nothing nice to say won’t say anything at all.