EoS_User Loc: Oshawa, Ontario Canada

KISS is not a new name in the Canon line by a long shot. A number of cameras known in the Rebel line were called Kiss in the Japanese market. The first I found being EOS Kiss in Japan and EOS Rebel XS in North America. This model being released in 1993. Then the "New EOS Kiss" in 1996 (Rebel G), EOS Kiss III(Rebel 2000) in 1999, EOS Kiss III L(Japan only) 2001, EOS Kiss 5 (Rebel Ti) 2002, for those not into heavy kissing, a EOS Kiss Lite(Rebel K2) in 2003 and EOS Kiss 7(Rebel T2) in 2004.
So they are not new to the line up.

Shutterbugsailer Loc: Staten Island NY (AKA Cincinnati by the Sea)

IMHO, Canon's marketing strategy of labeling its entry DSLR models as Rebels is based on the status consciousness of American consumers. In this way, they are encouraging casual photographers and hobbyists to buy more expensive models, and discouraging the use of entry models in professional applications. Imagine a wedding photographer using the same Rebel T3 as the couple just bought for their honeymoon cruise. In Europe, on the other hand, ALL canon DSLRs are sold with numerical designations. My T3 is sold there as an 1100D. If used in a US wedding, neither the clients nor the guests might be any the wiser

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

The Japanese, as a society, like English words about the way we like French ones for marketing things. (They also like French that way, BTW.) With English, at least, they tend to go for things we'd consider sickeningly cutesy. "Kiss" for a wildly successful camera line is actually a pretty mild case.

At least their marketing people are savvy enough to realize that we'd perceive "Kiss" as too cute to live and we'd probably stay away in droves, so they came up with something a bit more rebellious for the North American market.

I'd be just as happy if they just used numbers. The whole having to list two names and a model number for each body drives me a little bit nuts, sometimes.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

The Rebel XTi was the first DSLR that I could afford. And, as you mentioned above, I had a lot of company.

CSI Dave Loc: Arizona

Anyone remember the Pentax *ist, one of their first digital cameras? They pronounced it "kissed", which is just as silly as KISS or Rebel, or Coolpix. I agree with you, Jerry, these names just don't seem to help their image.

Dean Sturgis

Minolta sold a line cameras labeled Dimage.
Did that stand for Digital Image or could it be read as Dim Age.

dsturgis

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

I didn't know they actually tried to pronounce '*ist'. I always figured it was a word from one of the KhoiSan languages and the asterisk represented one of those clicks you had to grow up doing to be able to pull off correctly. . .

CSI Dave Loc: Arizona

Ha! At least that's how the reviewers at the time said it was pronounced. Maybe started by Pentax USA marketing after we all asked how the * do you say "*"? I don't understand KhoiSan clicks, unless it's the sound of a shutter.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

The term 'KhoiSan' describes a family of languages spoken in southern Africa, by, among others, the Bushmen. These languages have the characteristic (which is observed almost nowhere else in the world*) of using various clicking and popping sounds as consonants. If you've ever seen the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy"**, what the Bushmen characters were speaking was a member of the family.

* Some of the neighboring Bantu languages have some clicks, apparently borrowed. One or two Native American languages use an occasional click. And one Australian Aboriginal language has a few words with clicks-- and those exist only in the form of the language used solely for addressing ones mother-in-law. (I kid you not.)

Vocal clicks and pops are difficult to make and tend to get in the way of the more common types of phonemes. People are generally lazy and, over time, harder consonants tend to be replaced with softer ones. Hardly anyone wants to take on these most difficult consonantal sounds, so languages almost never acquire them.

This has caused some linguists to theorize that the click languages may be holdovers from the earliest Human languages-- spoken in precisely that part of the world where modern Humans are thought to have arisen-- and invented language. The mystery, then, is why they didn't stop clicking along with everyone else.

** One of the five funniest movies I have ever seen.

CSI Dave Loc: Arizona

Yes, I'm familiar with that type of language, didn't know the term 'KhoiSan', though. "The Gods Must be Crazy" is an all-time classic!

AuntPhil Loc: Ireland

I'm jealous that we can't get the different coloured DSLRs. Canon do it with their white lenses so why not more ranges of colours for the bodies?

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

Except for the near-universal and long-running practice of by most of the manufacturers of using shorter numbers for the pro cameras and adding digits as you go down the line. A lot of people are on to that, these days.
I'd just black out the model name/number badge with an acrylic paint-marker if it mattered.

Of course, nobody with eyesight is going to mistake the SL1 I've been shooting with lately for a 5D mark anything, no matter how I disguise the badge. :)

Jackinthebox Loc: travel the world

Kiss is for sale in Japan, Rebel in the USA and numbers like 60D in Asia where I bought my 60D.

Kiss may have a very different meaning in Japan and I find Rebel to be almost comic. That is personal like buying an apple.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

In Marketing names are very well thought out. The wrong name can kill a good product. If you were to name a perfume ,for example, Chatmor. pronounced shamore, It would not sell an ounce in France. Chat Mort in french means Dead Cat. IMHO Canon ought to drop the EOS prefix. These days every digital camera uses some kind of Electro Optical System. The designation used to mean something unique but it no longer does.

rocketride Loc: Upstate NY

Were these used in porn shoots?