Important Franchise Lesson: Don’t Put the F-Word in the Name of Your Business

Selecting the right site location, marketing to your targeted demographic, ensuring all necessary licenses and certifications are established – the list of tasks you should complete before opening up a new business is anything but short.

However, at the top of the list, you might want to save a space for, “Making sure the F-word isn’t in the business’ name.” And then, after that, perhaps in parentheses, you could write, “Regardless of the language, but especially if it’s in a language that just so happens to be the mother tongue of the primary audience we’re trying to appeal to.”

Just a thought.

Various news outlets have picked up on the unfortunate story of El Pollo Chingon, a new chicken restaurant set to open in Arlington, Va. For 1851 readers who are a little rusty on their Spanish slang, chignon is often translated as the F-word in English.

“When you hear chingon, it's when people are talking about something awesome, something nice, something cool," Ernesto Aviles, a Spanish teacher at LADO International Institute, told NewsChannel 8 in Arlington.

However, it’s also used in the same way as America’s most famous curse word. 

"It has a negative connotation that is most related to sex and you use it like a verb," he continued, describing the F-word in perhaps the most roundabout yet polite way imaginable.

Local news source ARL now asked a Spanish speaker how she would interpret the name of the restaurant. 1851 has censored the following quote with “bleeps,” mostly because it looks funnier than the actual cuss word.

“Chingar is to bleep and -on means real big ‘ol, so literally ‘real big ol bleeper’ but figuratively like ‘big bleeping’ something,” the woman said. She went on to tell ARL now the name could also be translated to mean “like a bleep-load of chicken, or possibly really hardcore badass chicken, but more literally a bleep-load.”

Luckily, the owners of the restaurant, who are originally from Pakistan and were totally unaware of how the name might be interpreted, will be able to change the name of their chicken enterprise before it opens.

“Charcoal Chicken” might not have the same je ne sais quoi as El Pollo Chingon, but it’s sure to stir up less controversy.

Let this be a lesson to all entrepreneurs with thoughts of franchising dancing through their heads: A business by any other name does not always smell just as sweet, and it’s important to stay on top of even the tiniest details when launching a new endeavor.

It really makes you wonder what El Pollo Loco’s original name was, huh?