I've said so many times that the industry is oversaturated, I am very aware of it. So I thought I was prepared for anything when it comes to group & fandom names. I understand that every group will try to be unique and different. The thing is, I couldn't help but have high hopes that the next group name will be 'cool' and subsequently the fandom name will be 'pretty'. Obviously, my definition of 'cool' and 'pretty' influenced a lot by the western language, both the sound and meaning.

ENHYPEN? Ergh. I know that they tried to make the group name sounds cool but literally using the word 'hype' trying to get hype is kinda lame. It was confusing, too. They said the name means that the group would be like hyphens that connect two words to make new meaning, so is it enhypen ... or enhyphen? While it would make no difference when pronouncing both words in Korean because there is no f sounding consonant in their language, it would make a difference everywhere else in the world. I know they intentionally changed hyphen into hypen as a wordplay to also include the word 'hype' in the name, but I personally would like it better with the extra h. But okay, fine. I'll make peace with it. It's not awful and we'll get used to it.

And today we got our fandom name.... ENGENE. My reaction was WUT. I didn't submit any suggestions myself, but I did browse some fan suggestion lists just to prepare myself for what's coming, and NONE of them listed ENGENE, therefore, I was not mentally prepared. Just like the group name, it's not awful but still left a big question mark on our heads. Why. When they explained the meaning behind it, I was kind of offended lol. It's pronounced 'en-gene' so we're like the engines that keep ENHYPEN running. You're saying we're engines? Yes, I know we'll function as your ATM machines and hype bots in the future but isn't that a little too on the nose? I know, I know that they didn't mean it that way. Additionally, they also said 'en-gene' because we share the same genes. No, we don't. Go away lol. They addressed us as such two times already today and to every notification that popped up on my phone I said 'Ew, don't call me that'. I guess I hate it more than I thought.

Fans of boy groups are mostly girls, and as an old girl, I can say at least for myself that we like pretty things and we would love to be called pretty words. ENGENE doesn't sound pretty or cute at all to me, it sounds exactly like the word engine, and I can't imagine a cute engine. In fact, today ENGENE was trending on Twitter under 'technology' and not KPop.

However, if we take Korean culture and language into consideration, ENGENE is easy to pronounce in Korean, and there are a lot of common girl names that end in Jin like Yujin, Ryujin, Hyejin, Hyunjin, so it must've sounded a little cuter in Hangul? In Korea, it is also common to name siblings with the same first or second syllable, so it's nice to share the same 'EN' syllable in front of our names. It definitely makes the connection. It would be nicer if the next word is something prettier than GENE though, lol. Anyway, it has been decided and I'll make peace with it.