Apparently, whenever they ring up peddling Vista, Latvians burst out laughing because the name means "chicken" or "frumpy woman" in the local lingo.

The poor sales person rings up and talks about 101 things you can do with a chicken and they think he or she is flogging a cookbook. Of course if they think he or she is talking about a frumpy woman then they are likely to think they are getting an obscene phone call.

Microsoft Latvia is trying to get around the problem by playing up Vista's positive aspects and the more poetic, international definition of the name. A spokesVole said that when Latvians learn of the technical opportunities the system offers, they will pay more attention to its advantages, not its name.

She said that Vole had managed to achieve product recognition without any ad campaigns. With a name like "Chicken" we are not surprised, however we would have thought that a frumpy woman competing with the likes of Apple's pastal spring collection would have proven a bit of a nightmare.

Fortunately for Vole only 1.3 million people speak Latvian and that is not enough to play chicken with Microsoft's global domination for the operating system.

More here.