Are slang usages of "bud" common?

Are the slang usages of "bud" (mainly meaning cannabis, and occasionally clitoris, from what I understood) prevalent enough that I should avoid using them in a product intended for international availability?

Example sentences which could be printed:

• "John has created a bud here!"


• "Share this bud!" (ouch)



• "Create bud"

I would appreciate very much if you could state which part of the world you're from when answering this question.

Some context:

The lexical field surrounding a service I'm designing revolves around trees, plants, and nature in general.

My team and I are in the process of selecting names for the various parts of the service, and we are struggling with one:

It should depict something with potential, which is not yet fully developed, but holds the bases for future interactions.
Seed would not be relevant, as this part of the service is sprouting from something we called a Tree, and I feel it would generate confusion about which one generates the other.

Bud came to mind, and seems a good choice. it fits wery well with the rest of our service part's names. However, it does not seem to be a very commonly used word (much less than "tree", "branches", "leaves", "roots" and so on), and I'm afraid this could heighten the chances of it to be read in an alternate meaning.

This item could be named a Leaf as well, which conveys a less accurate meaning, but possibly avoids this problem.

Answer

i am afraid that your concern that bud might be read by other internationals in an alternate meaning is well placed, especially the meaning cannabis though some might be aware of the other connotation of clitoris also. BUD(in capital letters) is an international abbreviation also.

may i suggest:

sprout:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sprout

offshoot:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/offshoot

bloom:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bloom

i must say, however, that the word leaf (accompanied by a green leaf symbol) is an internationally appealing symbol.

i live in west Asia specifically Sultanate of Oman where one third of the population are expatriates many of them are English speaking.good luck!