There are two issues that need to be addressed for
this submission.
The first issue is whether Pack is
acceptable as a household designator. The documentation provided in
the LoI for use of Pack was:
The Oxford
English Dictionary, Vol. 9, pg. 39, s.n. pack defines it as a
company or set of persons and dates the word packe to
1578. The Middle English Dictionary, Part P.1, Sherman M. Kuhn,
ed., published 1981, University of Michigan Press on pg. 560, s.n. pak
defines the word as an assemblage of people; a company, band and dates
the word pak to 1425 and pack to 1400.
Given this definition, if we register Company and
Band as household designators, we should also permit
Pack. There are at least forty registrations of household names
with the designator Company (not including variant
spellings). There are three registrations that include some form of
the word Band as the designator: The Blue Band
(Fionnbhárr Starfyr of the Isles, October 1996), Drafen War
Band (Gregory of York, April 1983), and Warband die Steiner
Wache (Canton of Steinsee, April 1997). As Company and
Band are registerable as household designators, Pack is
as well.
The second issue is whether the combination of
elements in this submission is intrusively modern, which has
previously been cause for return:
[Artemisia,
Principality of. Name for the Artemisian Tank Corps.] The name here is
intrusively modern. The fact that the individual elements may be
period (though with different meanings than the submitters are
desirous of) is overwhelmed by the modern connotations of the
phrase. (LoAR 02/91, R-Atenveldt)
Grayhound
was used in a period sign name, The Syne of the Grayhound,
dated to 1522 on p. 83 (section 1, column 1) of William Jerdan, ed.,
"The Visit of the Emperor Charles V to England, A.D. 1522", Rutland
Papers (Camden Society, 1842). Commenters voiced concern that
Greyhound Pack was overly reminiscent of a group of
dogs, specifically greyhounds. In the precedent above, a Tank
Corps is not a period type of assembled group. The combination of
Tank and Corps combined to form what could be viewed as
a designator that was certainly not a period concept. In this case, a
group of greyhounds is a period concept. Therefore, the
secondary meaning of Greyhound Pack falls into the
same category as Drew Steele. Both may be considered "joke
names", but both are period concepts and so are not excessively
obtrusive. Tank Corps falls into the same category as
Porsche Audi, which was returned in August of
1992:
The fact that this is a "joke name" is not,
in and of itself, a problem. The College has registered a number of
names, perfectly period in formation, that embodied humor: Drew
Steele, Miles Long, and John of Somme Whyre spring to mind as
examples. They may elicit chuckles (or groans) from the listener, but
no more. Intrusively modern names grab the listener by the scruff of
the neck and haul him, will he or nill he, back into the 20th
Century. A name that, by its very presence, destroys any medieval
ambience is not a name we should register. (Porsche Audi,
Returned, LoAR 08/92, pg. 28)
Therefore, as
Pack is a registerable household designator and
Greyhound Pack is not obtrusively modern, this
household name is
registerable.