Wapple vs. Womple: What’s really in a name?

A few weeks ago, we wrote a story about Womple, a new startup out of Bellingham that’s developing easy ways to make mobile Web sites for restaurants, dentists and other small businesses. A bunch of folks read the story, including the CEO at a 10-year-old mobile app development shop out of the U.K. called Wapple.
The CEO, Rich Holdsworth, concluded that Womple was just too darned close to his company’s name, Wapple. He contacted Womple CEO Madison Miner, a computer science grad from Western Washington University, and asked that the name be changed.
“I wasn’t sure if it was a prank phone call,” recalled Miner, who quickly learned this was no joke.