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I'll take Avocado for $100, Alex 
"When you're looking at branding the exchange, it's not just the name itself," said Chris Kelly, senior advisor for marketing and outreach at the exchange. "There also will be a tagline and a logo that goes with it, whenever you see it. So you have to look at it as part of a big system. When the name sits alone, it can sound funny."
With that caveat, Kelly unveiled a short list of name finalists, in two categories:
• Traditional names -- CaliHealth, CalAccess, Wellquest, Covered California and PACcess.
• Interesting names -- Ursa, Healthifornia (A Better State of Healthcare), Eureka (Discover affordable healthcare), Avocado (A uniquely California approach to affordable healthcare), Beneficia, Cal-Vida and Condor.
"We had a long naming process," Kelly said, that included ideas from stakeholders, marketing agencies and many others. "And a lot of them, actually, were very similar."
The list will be winnowed down to three or four names this week, Kelly said. That list will be submitted to the board for a vote at the next meeting, on Sept. 18.
"Well, Condor did not make the final cut, frankly," Kelly said. "I mean, it is a vulture."
Board member Robert Ross piped up: "And in danger of extinction," he said.
"As is the name," Kelly said.
Board chair Diana Dooley, who was elected to a second annual term at yesterday's meeting, wondered about one name that wasn't on the list.
"I would ask you to put Health Hub back on the list," Dooley said. "I kind of liked that one."
"I am sort of partial to Avocado," board member Kim Belshé said.
Dooley had one last comment about one of the choices: "CaliHealth?" she said with a raised eyebrow. "CaliHealth, that sounds really young. … All the kids on the East Coast know us as Cali, so yes, I don't know about CaliHealth."
