There is deliberate double meaning in the name, and it’s worth explaining plainly rather than letting people guess. While this name is subject to change, there is something that resonates for me in the language.

First, quaint in its dictionary sense means attractively unusual and old fashioned. A think tank, in the traditional sense, is exactly what it is: a body of people producing research, ideas, and positions on a subject. I have also learned that there is no one way to do research. What makes this collective quaint is the contrast of what it means to be small, easy to overlook, almost old-fashioned in our scale. On the other hand is the vastness of the subject that is human connection. This is a think tank that stays small and particular by design, while growing a network of people, projects, and partnerships that reach into as many niche corners of the subject as one is driven to explore. This project is attractive because it is unusual to do what is practically a large scale needs assessment on many different subtopics – and how they all relate to human connection. There is a capacity to be substantial because it refuses to be only one thing, too. The atmosphere of the think tank is to be quaint, but the breadth of human connection can go as far as one can conjure up in their imagination.

Second, if one said “A Quaint” aloud, it becomes “acquaint.” This means to make friends and to get to know one another. That is the actual verb this organization performs. It is intended to get people acquainted with the forms of human connection moving through the world right now, often unnoticed, unnamed, or unwelcome in more conventional company. We are getting familiar with an expansive definition of human connection that we can conceive. The name is the mission, folded into two words. I always loved poetry.