We get asked this question quite often. In fact so often, I feel like we need to just carry an FAQ card in our pockets at all times just so we don't have to tell the whole story again and again. So here it is. The story of the name.
Octopus and squid are two of my favorite sea creatures. They're intelligent, skillful, cheeky and sometimes mischievous. They move with grace in the water unmatched by any other creature. And they're beautiful.
Octopus is a bit of a mouthful for a business name, especially when combined with other words. Squid, on the other hand kinda rolls off the tongue. It's easy. So that's where I started. Now for the descriptor. I wanted something that would describe our collective personality (or maybe just mine...?). I was stuck on this for months!
While still living in Japan, I would spend nearly every weekend conducting courses either around Iwakuni or over on the west coast in the Sea of Japan. On one sunny morning while driving with my friend and now business partner, Glenn Staley, we were trying to think of names for the shop we wanted to open in the Philippines.
As I mentioned before, we wanted something that describes us. Something cheeky, irreverent, and distinctive. I didn't want a name that you could find in five different dive destinations on the planet. Something unique.
Glenn pulled up a thesaurus on his phone and began to look up synonyms for 'naughty': mischievous, troublesome...wicked. That's it! Wicked Squid! Perfect.
Now, for those unfamiliar with english slang, wicked means 'excellent', 'superb', 'cool' or even 'extreme'. Nothing evil about us! Just cool as can be and wicked good at what we do.