It has nothing to do with the old name, it is the fact they are renaming with a contrived name. Contrived is never good. The young hip crowd I meet in my travels (at least the ones with taste), eschew anything contrived. I guess the best way I can explain it, is that West End just became young and fun without being contrived. NOMA is simply trying to hard. If many of you are OK with contrived in downtown Greenville then enjoy it. It certainly is not what has made Greenville great these past several years.

The name was changed for a simple reason. It was old and outdated, just like the plaza. Just because you liked the name doesn't mean that everyone did and honestly I didn't even know it had a name. The new name, along with the new plaza and the One development, will attract the younger crowd that has moved on towards the West End. Names are changed all the time and unless you have some way to influence the developers ($), you probably won't get a say it the choice of name. Noma is short, distinct and makes it seem like a new place instead of the plain old plaza in front of the ugly Hyatt.

Not following your analogy.
Both the Drive and the Road Warriors are great names as they tie into the automotive nature of the area. Additionally, both teams were new, not existing and had to be named.
Hyatt Plaza existed, and for whatever silly, small town, reason, was changed to NOMA. A silly change for no legit reason.

Just like with minor league team names in this area, I am sure people will get used to the NoMa name after a while.

Everyone can call it whatever they prefer, but "NoMa" sounds pretentious (out of place) and silly in my opinion. I plan to call it the "North Main Street plaza at the Hyatt," or simply, "the Hyatt plaza."

This is different because it is not designating a part of town NOMA, only the plaza.