Allogenes Limited: - The Name Allogenes

The Premier UK Internet Technology Provider - More than an ISP.

Allogenes Limited has a most unusual and distinctive company name. This page offers a definition of Allogenes and and explanation of it's origins.

A word or two from our founder Damon Wright. Taken from a recent interview and the basis of the article: "What's really in a name?" it should give some insight into why our company carries the name that it does.

What's really in a name? I like names...

{Interview not yet fully transcribed}

The Nag Hammadi library (popularly known as The Gnostic Gospels) is a collection of early Christian Gnostic texts discovered near the town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. That year, thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by local peasants.

The writings in these codices comprised fifty-two mostly Gnostic tractates (treatises), but they also include three works belonging to the Corpus Hermeticum and a partial translation / alteration of Plato's Republic. One of the Gnostic tractates was an extraordinary spiritual narrative. In it, a third-century narrator known as Allogenes recounts a series of visions and divine revelations. He describes his spiritual progress: how he overcomes fear and ignorance and ascends into the divine realm as he experiences the transcendent Unknowable God.

I hold the middle name Abraxas and when it came to naming the company I thought I would stay in the same tradition and give it a Gnostic name.

The codices are believed to be a library hidden by monks from the nearby monastery of St Pachomius when the possession of such banned writings denounced as heresy was made an offense. The zeal of Athanasius in extirpating non-canonical writings and the Theodosian decrees of the 390s may have motivated the hiding of such dangerous literature.

All the definitions that exist for the origins of the word Allogenes suggest "otherness". Allogeneous being "Different in nature or kind." Some references suggest that the bible refers to Allogenes being "of a different family or nation".

I wanted to capture this idea of otherness. Allogenes Limited is not run of the mill. It is not like other companies. It is separate and distinct. This very essence of otherness allows us to operate differently. We do not need phrases like "thinking outside the box" or "blue sky thinking" in order to express our commitment to individuality and creativity. It's implicit in our name.

Damon Wright

You can see the whole text from the Nag Hammadi reproduced and translated here: Allogenes.

"The sensible choice in Internet provision."