How Do Brands Come Up With Names?
How Do Brands Come Up With Their Names?
Ever wondered where companies get their brand names from?
By and large, new companies will turn to a creative agency or a copywriter to create a brand name that’s fresh, memorable, and available as a dot something and trademark. But it’s not always the case.
Here’s a look at the origins of some of the world’s best-known brand names – and the inside knowledge (from yours truly) on how one of them came to be.
Brand names based on letters
IBM: International Business Machines.
Cisco: San Francisco. Short and sweet.
QVC: Quality, Value, Convenience. Who knew?
Sega: originally named Service Games of Japan because the company began life as coin-operated slot machines for U.S. military bases in Japan.
H&M: Hennes & Mauritz.
BMW: Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works).
Brand names with provenance
Coca-Cola: the recipe is secretly guarded but we do know that the flavoring uses coca leaves and kola nuts. John S. Pemberton opted to use ‘C’ twice as it makes the name look better. Good decision.
Pepsi: back in 1898, this was called ‘Brad’s Drink’ after its pharmacist founder Caleb D. Bradham. He bought the name ‘Pep Kola’ from a local competitor and changed it to Pepsi-Cola to let people know that it was a healthy drink aiding digestion. Dyspepsia means indigestion.
Brand names based on a place or person
Crabtree & Evelyn: although this is a US company, the name was inspired by a 17th-century English gardener, John Evelyn, and the crabtree because apples were often used in apothecaries.
Haribo: combines the founder’s name (Hans Riegel) with the company location (Bonn).
IKEA: made up of letters from the founder’s name plus where he grew up in Sweden – Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.
Tesco: Jack Cohen, the founder, had market stalls in Hackney and combined the letters from his surname with those of a shipment of tea to sell from T. E. Stockwell.
Brand names inspired by literature
Starbucks: Starbuck is chief mate in Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick, though the name of Captain Ahab’s ship was also initially considered: Pequod. Would have defo been harder to pronounce.
Yahoo!: the company began life as Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web but then became Yahoo, a word made up by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels for legendary beasts with unpleasant habits. Imagine if Swift’s ‘Houyhnhnms’ had been used instead.
Brand names due to serendipity
MeowWolf: founders had a brainstorm where they had everyone write dow random words on paper. They then picked two out of the pot.
Etsy: its founder wanted a name that didn’t really mean anything. While watching Federico Fellini’s 8½ , he kept hearing ‘eh, si’ (meaning ‘what if?) as ‘etsi’.
Mailchimp: the name was meant to be Chimpmail but that had already been snapped up so its co-owner just switched it around.
Brand names that have shrunk along the way
3M: started out as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company.
eBay: originally Echo Bay Technology Group. However because Echo Bay Mines Limited was already registered, the second best option was chosen instead.
MG Cars: Morris Garages was named after its co-founder William Morris though, in 2007, its new Chinese owners changed the acronym’s meaning ‘Modern Gentleman’ to reflect the brand’s grace and style.
Brand names that say what they do
7-Eleven: convenience stores open from 7:00 am until 11:00 pm.
Groupon: errrr, group coupon.
Brand names created by employees (who needs to pay a naming agency ?!)
Accenture: suggested by a company employee in Norway, as a shortened form of ‘accent on the future’.
Fanta: it’s said that an employee contest was held and the head of Coca-Cola Deutschland told everyone to use their imagination (their ‘fantasie’).
Brand names derived from foreign words (how good is your French, Japanese, Latin ….?)
Kia Motors: comes from the Korean and Chinese word ‘ki’ (to rise) and ‘a’ for Asia. Therefore it means ‘to come out of Asia’. Simple.
LEGO: from the Danish ‘leg godt’, meaning ‘play well’. Equally simple.
Sony: from the Latin word for sound (‘sonus’). Rolls off the tongue far more easily than the original name of Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo KK.
TREsemmé: the name was inspired by a hair care expert, Edna Emmé, but also sounds like ‘très aimée’ which means very beloved.
Interested in etymology? Me too.
Written by Kelsey McCartney, naming copywriter who loves a good flip through a Thesaurus to help new brands find a name that’s also ‘the word on the street’.