Very interesting, Lynn, and you are quite right. The problem for ABC was almost certainly that almost all even moderately good names for a Super-Lois (and of course they couldn't call her Super-Lois!!!) were already taken. All the good names, by the way: there certainly aren't many of them. Remember that Lois's "super personality name" must sound okay when paired with Superman. You couldn't call her "Flying Woman", for example, because that sounds bad when paired with Superman: Superman and Flying Woman. What, he is super and she is flying? Hey, he is flying too, and she has all his superpowers! Doesn't it sound weird to single out one of Clark's super-abilities and name superpowered Lois after that one ability? That kind of thing doesn't work, in my opinion.

Also, and with apologies to Corrina, what if we were to borrow her "pen name" for a moment and call superpowered Lois "Female Hawk"? Then superpowered Clark and Lois would be Superman and Female Hawk together. But that also sounds really weird. Why is he a man and she a hawk?

All names that don't contain the word "woman" (or possibly "girl") sound weird when paired with "Superman". Therefore, we need some form of "intensifier" that resembles the word "super" for Lois, so that we can use that intensifier plus the word "woman" for her.

The best intensifier would be plain old "super", of course. That way superpowered Clark and Lois would have been Superman and Superwoman, pure and simple. But the name "Superwoman" was already taken. This is what Wikipedia says about it:

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Supergirl is a comic book Superhero that is depicted as a female counterpart to the DC Comics iconic superhero Superman. Created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino in 1959
"Superwoman" sounds too much like "Supergirl" for ABC to be allowed to use "Superwoman" for Lois wearing a pink dress when DC already owned "Supergirl" for a girl who is not Lois Lane at all.

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Supergirl, Superman's cousin Kara from Krypton, in a comic book from 1959 or the early sixties. Note that she has apparently been cleaning Superman's Arctic Fortress, since that sort of thing is no job for a man!

Supergirl became quite popular. When I googled "Superwoman", I found several pictures of DC's Supergirl. I can't help showing you this picture of "Superman" and "Superwoman":

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What other intensifiers can be used with "woman" to make a name that goes with "Superman"? What about Amazing Woman"? Unfortunately that name was taken, too:

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This is a really obscure DC Comics heroine, Erik/Erika Storn (yes, because she is sometimes a man and sometimes a woman). DC has already killed her off, but she is still their property, so ABC couldn't use her name.

So I googled "Fantastic Woman", but I got some really, truly weird images that I don't want to post here. Apparently ABC didn't like the name either. They also must have turned down "Marvellous Woman", because that also sounds corny, and DC wouldn't have wanted ABC to use a name for Lois that might remind those who watched the show of DC's rival, Marvel Comics.

And that, I guess, is the reason why they ended up with Ultra Woman.

Ann