What's in a name?

bó card contactless pos margate

By | January 21st 2020

So, what's in a name? Quite a lot as it goes and ours is Bó. We know it's unusual, but say it again: Bó.

Doesn't it sound nice? You pronounce Bó the same way you would go, low, yo, mow, row and dough!

One of the main reasons we chose the name Bó, is because of how it looks and how it sounds.


It's the accent over our 'o' that gives us our music; it turns a short 'o' into a longer 'oh' sound. There's a warmth to the word, say it: Bó. It hits the air and sounds friendly.

But not only does our accent change how we sound; it also changes how we look. It's a mark that flies skywards; it looks uplifting and lends the word a cheerfulness. It's also a little visual indicator of just how different we are.

Our Story

At Bó we want to help people do money better. Most of us in the UK struggle when it comes to managing our money. We don't think we're any good at it and it's a topic that's shrouded in negative emotions. We want to shine a bit of light and change this status quo. That's why our logo looks like a yellow sun; something that always brings hope and optimism with it.

It's the accent over our 'o' that gives us our music; it turns a short 'o' into a longer 'oh' sounds. There's a warmth to the word, say it: Bó. It hits the air and sounds friendly.

This part of our visual identity existed well before we had a name. And once we'd decided that it was integral to the spirit of what we wanted to do, we then needed a word that could fit snugly into a yellow circle. So, we began looking.

The perfect fit

We knew whatever word we chose needed to be short, memorable and be one that people could recall quickly. As a result, we were always going to be limited to something small and snappy. As you can imagine, banking and banks have been around for 100's of years and to alight on a name you can trademark in multiple countries and languages is no easy task. That's when we stumbled across Bó.

Cow, Bundle, Wave, Beau

We first encountered the word Bó because some of us working here live in Dublin. We instantly liked the way it sounded. It's warm, friendly and playful and so we decided to embrace it. The accent on the 'o' also gave the word a little something extra that really appealed to us. It's a name we love and one we're proud of.

In Irish Bó means cow, but when we researched it further, we also found that in Vietnamese Bó means bundle and in Mandarin it means wave. We like all these associations and it's a word that's continued to delight us.

Bó has meanings all around the world both with an accent and without. There's also loads of Bó homophones (words that are spelled differently but sound the same) like beau in French (meaning handsome) or bo in Danish (meaning to live).

As we said, there's quite a lot in a name, especially ours.

Being Bó

If you're looking for us online, you'll find us if you type Bó or Bo on the App Store or Google Play. We'll also pop up if you Google Bó or Bo.

If you want to make the accent above our 'o' here's how:

  • In Outlook - ctrl + alt + o
  • In Word - Ctrl + ' + o
  • On a Mac - press the option key and e together and then hit o
  • On iOS/Android - Hold down o on the keyboard and the ó option will appear



