What's In a Name? The Origin of 'HarloKyn'
Where did the name “HarloKyn” come from?
When I first decided to launch what became HarloKyn, I was equally excited to come up with a name that would not only be personal, but would hopefully stand out in an industry already full of unique and creative names. Broadly speaking, financial services firms have a lock on unique names and logos - almost everything in Greek, Norse, Celtic and Asian mythologies and alphabets had been taken or were so obscure or disconnected from my personal experience to be hardly relevant or useful.
So I decided that I should probably make up a name. Crickets.
Maybe my family members’ first initials? LKH (child G would arrive the following year)? What is an LKH? While there a number of great firms that have used similar naming strategies, to me, I thought my firm’s name could be more...so HarloKyn...
HarloKyn is a combination of two of our three daughters’ names...Harlow and Kaitlyn. Not a 100% match on the combination, but close enough to spell a word that resembles an actual word. However, since founding HarloKyn, we’ve had a third daughter whose name is Gray. To include her, one of the subtle colors in our new logo is gray (ish). If there is another child in our future, we’ll probably have to fold up and do something else - coming up with HarloKyn took all the creativity and imagination I had.
A lifetime ago, I played rugby in college, for a time in NYC, in grad school and ultimately for a men’s club here in Dallas...one of best teams we played were the Dallas Harlequins, the “Quins”. As an aside, to rugby purists, the “original” Harlequins is the Harlequin Football Club of English Premiership rugby (Twickenham Stoop, London). While a harlequin is basically a scary, mute clown of coulrophobic proportions, I thought that HarloKyn could also be a nod to my playing days of collapsed lungs, cracked ribs and several (reported) concussions.
To bring this full-circle, my name (Biegel) is a combination of my grandfathers’ names - the “Bie” from Bienvenido and “gel” from Angel. Perhaps unique, but growing up, it was the blessing and curse of being first-born male. As a result, the name HarloKyn is a tribute to my family and what I believe are the strong values my family and our firm represent - hard work, loyalty, respect, integrity and faith.
So Why the Pegasus?
For reasons that are fascinating and confusing (this is a good explanation: Dallas News or this one: Parks for Downtown Dallas), the Pegasus is the adopted symbol of Dallas, TX. At HarloKyn, we are proud Texans and our geographic focus is here in Texas and surrounding states. To us, the pegasus is a universally (more or less) recognized symbol and is also linked to our home, the communities and geographies we serve and possibilities that we believe we can help illustrate for our clients, prospective clients and portfolio companies.
