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What’s In a Name? Turns Out, a Lot.
Here at Appella, we use a variety of methods to help companies of all sizes choose brand and product names. Often times, our process creates a name that means something, whether that’s to the industry or to potential customers, and that it’s appropriate for speakers of the target language.
However, some brand names have a story.
Many recognisable brand names come from anecdotal beginnings. For instance, Virgin Group, started by Richard Branson, was originally named when he and a business partner opened a record shop. With a lack of experience, the partners considered themselves “virgins” in the industry.
Other brands go for less romantic origins and opt for a name similar to the founders’ names. For instance, IKEA was named after the initials of founder Ingvar Kamprad, the farm he grew up on (Elmtaryd), and his hometown in Sweden (Agunnaryd). Similarly, Walmart, as well as Sam’s Club, was founded by Sam Walton. As you can see, both his first name and surname for their brand names. Tom Lyle Williams noticed the arduous makeup routine of his older sister, Mabel, and, using some chemistry, developed a type of mascara. The makeup was eventually sold under the brand name Maybelline in honor of his sister.
A common type of brand naming is to use contextual words or create blends with industry-specific words. Vodafone is a great example as it stands for vo ice, da ta, ph (f)one . Intel, on the other hand, is a blend word for integrated electronics. Appella’s name for government procurement agency Catalist is another example as is the Aquada, the James Bond-like car named by Appella. A blend of aquatic and autostrada, Richard Branson once drove this car across the English Channel!
Drawing on characters from history or even fiction is a very popular method for both brand and product names. Starbucks is named after the chief mate in Moby-Dick but the creators had first considered Cargo House and Pequod, another character from the same book. Despite the obvious focus on the book, the founders say there is no connection. Additionally, Appella’s name for a Jacobs snack, Crackobites, refers to the Jacobs masterbrand and the seventeenth century Jacobite movement to return Stuart kings to the throne of England.
The classical world also provides a rich source for brand naming. Nike was originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports and went through a (very) successful rebrand to be named after the Greek god of victory. The name change continued the concept of winning.
Not immediately recognisable as a classical allusion, the Subaru is the Japanese name of the star constellation Pleiades, also known as Seven Sisters. Chosen by the first president of Fuji Heavy Industries, the Subaru logo features a graphic of the constellation although it only features six stars. The stars represent Fuji Heavy Industries along with the five subsidiaries.
Even Appella’s recent Middle Eastern dairy range for Kerrygold, Eureka, harks back to Archimedes’s famous exclamation from his bath on discovering the theory of determining the volume of an object with an irregular shape on seeing his bathwater rise as he got in, which was the only reason this word came into English.
Naming is rarely a single-step process such as is the case with many of the brands listed above. At Appella, we take into account everything from your preferences to your competitors’ brand and product names. From there, we use our own Black Box and our lexicon of globally recognised words in the creation and validation of suitable names.
For example, Appella developed the name Oyster Card for London’s travel system. Tasked with evoking ideas of travel, stored currency, security, and modernity all with a London theme, the name came about due to its metaphorical implications; the strong shell keeps safe the beautiful pearl inside. Additionally, it draws on the Thames estuary oyster beds as well as the ever-popular phrase “the world is your oyster.”
Before deciding to create your own word blend or possibly produce a linguistic faux pas in the public eye, get in touch to see how the Appella process can work for your brand.
