MentAIMentAI, pollock and Japanese rock: where the name of our practice assistant really comes from
When we were choosing a name for an assistant for psychology, psychotherapy and speech therapy practices, it seemed simple: MENTAL + AI = MentAI. Short, on topic, with "AI" built into the name itself. Only later did we discover that this word had travelled around the world before us, and that along the way it touches fish fingers, Japanese rock and roll and two characters that read "bright" and "great". Here is the story we never planned.
Layer one: the intended one
MentAI is a blend of "mental" (from mental health, which is what our clients work with) and "AI" (from artificial intelligence, which in MentAI writes draft notes, prepares documents and understands commands in plain language). You can also read it as "ment + AI": simply a brand with AI in its surname. That much we planned. The rest is a bonus.
Layer two: a word that travelled the world
In Japanese, "mentai" (明太) is the name of a fish: pollock. The Japanese borrowed the word from Korean "myeongtae" (명태), as described, among others, by the English Wikipedia. The same Korean word also travelled north: through Russian it entered Polish as "mintaj" (the Polish word for pollock, the fish you know from fish fingers). In other words, in Polish "MentAI" and "mintaj" sound almost the same, so linguistically they are distant cousins who met again after years apart: one in a practice in Poznań, the other in the freezer.
Layer three: Fukuoka, roe and rock and roll
In Japan, "mentai" brings to mind first of all mentaiko (明太子): spicy, salted pollock roe, the culinary pride of the city of Fukuoka. The first karashi mentaiko was sold in 1949 in the Nakasu district, and Fukuoka has been the undisputed capital of this delicacy ever since (Crossroad Fukuoka, Food in Japan). And in the late 1970s the local music scene, Sonhouse, Sheena & The Rokkets and company, earned a label of its own: "mentai rock" (The Japan Times). High-energy, raw rock from a city that was then called "the Japanese Liverpool". The name of the genre came, of course, from the roe.
Layer four: "bright" and "great"
The characters the Japanese use to write "mentai" were chosen for their sound (this is called ateji), but each has a meaning of its own: 明 is "bright, clear", 太 is "great". Read separately: "bright-great". We did not plan it, but it is hard to imagine a better omen for a system whose whole job is to bring clarity to practice administration.
A name that turned out smarter than we planned
The funniest part of this story is that we chose none of these layers, and yet each of them says something we promise our practices anyway:
- 明, "bright". Transparency is a rule for us, not a slogan: pricing with no asterisks or hidden surcharges, a discreet "Buyer" line on every invoice (in Polish), and the AI proposes while a human approves. Nothing enters a client's record without your click. And the most important clarity of all: the therapist's head free of administration, entirely for the client.
- 太, "great". MentAI has no limit on the size of a practice. You start alone for PLN 99 a month incl. VAT (about €23), add further therapists at PLN 39 (about €9) each, and it is the same system when there are fifteen of you. You grow without changing the tool.
- Mentai rock: an independent scene. Fukuoka was not the capital, yet it built a scene that came to be called "the Japanese Liverpool". We feel close to that: MentAI is made in Poznań and plays for independent practices, the kind that want their own website, their own bookings and their own clients, instead of handing them (and commissions) over to the big marketplace portals.
- A travelling word. Myeongtae passed through four languages and settled in everywhere without losing its identity. That is how we design the system: one MentAI, and every practice configures it for itself: services, pricing, reminders, documents.
We do not claim we planned it that way. We claim that when a name accidentally tells your values, it is a sign the values were real before the name was chosen.
The name MentAI has been filed as a trademark with the Polish Patent Office.
Frequently asked questions
Does MentAI have anything to do with mentaiko or Japanese cuisine?
No. MentAI (mentai.pl) is a Polish system for psychology, psychotherapy and speech therapy practices. The overlap with the Japanese name for pollock roe is a coincidence, and, we admit, a funny one.
How do you pronounce "MentAI"?
The way it is written: "ment-eye" (like "mental" + "AI").
Where does the "AI" in the name come from?
From the features based on artificial intelligence: draft notes after a session, document preparation and commands in natural language. All of it with human approval and data processed in the EU.
See what "bright-great" looks like in practice: 30 days of the full version
Sign-up is open: you create the account yourself at mentai.pl, with no invitation code. A 30-day trial, no card. The product interface is in Polish.
Sources: Wikipedia, Pollock roe (myeongtae, mentai) · Food in Japan, Mentaiko · Crossroad Fukuoka, the official Fukuoka guide · The Japan Times, on the mentai rock scene and Sheena & The Rokkets.
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