iPad. Really?

Apple's introduction of its latest gadget, a hand-held computer that some say is intended as an e-book reader, has many scratching their heads about the name of the device. Yes, we see its connection to its game-changing brother, the iPod. And we also get that it's related to its P-named cousin, the iPhone.

But iPad rings of a certain item most gals wouldn't discuss in polite company. Not that Twitter users are as demure.

"iTampon" and similar jokes raged across Twitterdom this week after the iPad was announced, with some asking "Will women send their husbands to the store to buy iPads?" and others wondering if Apple has any women on its marketing team.

And the Huffington Post reported that MADtv, the comedy show that aired from 1995 until last year, first coined the term "iPad" in a spoof about a hygiene product and computer all in one.

Just for fun, this writer has some thoughts for what could have been. After all, something about seeing Jobs holding the roughly magazine-sized gadget (which starts at $499) was reminiscent of Moses and the Ten Commandments, those sacred decrees written on stone that guide our lives.

Perhaps the Apple team might've considered iTablet, (which pairs nicely with its eerily similar mate iTouch); or iRock (oh wait, that sounds like a music-recording device); or, a personal favorite, iSlate, which is what the keyboardless-computer was rumored to be called months before the iPad was announced.

The great Apple likely knows its technology can win out over naming-no-nos, just as soon as the iPad title stops upstaging the product itself.

iBet it will.

Support real journalism. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution today. See offers.

Your subscription to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution funds in-depth reporting and investigations that keep you informed. Thank you for supporting real journalism.