Name Styles

If you were a namer and making up new names, what styles would you develop? Alternatively, as a marketing manager or CEO, what style are you more comfortable with for your new company, product or service?

When you first look at this list, you probably vote with the emotional side of your brain. But then, because we have asked you to analyze them, you will get all serious and scientific and look for the importance of one style over another. But does it really matter? Is one style better than another? Just because all of these have worked below, does not mean they will work for you. After all, many of these are based on years and years of marketing exposure - and you may not have that same luxury.

CONSTRUCT	EXAMPLE
Descriptive	InfoSeek, Burger King, Healthy Choice
Traditional	National Semi, United Airlines, Alamo, Oracle
Family Name	Nordstroms, Dell, Kellogs, Cadillac, Disney, Siebel
Abstract	Rolex, Avis, Inktomi, Akamai
Classical	Alta Vista, Lycos, Cadence, Prius
Coined- abstract	Pepsi, Sony, Verizon, Acura, Nyquil, Camry
Coined - descript.	Cingular, Motorola, Compaq, e*Trade, Accenture
Coined - classical	Pentium, Centrino, Prius
Tonal	Google, Nvidia, Volvo, Tivo, Snapple, Oreo
Abbreviation	AOL, SoBe, AT&T, AMD, SAP
Truncation	Cisco, Intel, QualComm, FedEx
Joined	Microsoft, FileNet, Dreamworks, Laserjet, Safeway, PeopleSoft
Foreign	Lancome, Guidant, HaagenDas, Nintendo, Fritos
Geographic	Tivoli, Texas Instruments, Amazon, eBay
Object	Cyprus, Adobe, Jaguar, Visa, Lotus, Macintosh, Mustang
Color	Redback, BlueFish, Green Giant
Playful	Yahoo, FatBrain, Raiders, FogDog, Pringles, Kinkos
Verb/Adjective	Sprint, Always, Go, About, Suburban
Numeric	3Com, 7Eleven, 4Runner, Bank One
Futuristic	Quark, Quasar, Panasonic, Infiniti
Character	Dr. Pepper, Sara Lee, Orville Redenbacher, Starbucks

A professional linguist is of great help when it comes to sorting these items out for your new name!

To understand more about names from a linguistic, language, development and root point of view, visit Name Word Forms.

To check in on trends in name styles, please visit Name Trends.

And on a worldwide basis, visit Name Regions to see the subtleties of different name styles in different areas, right down to the country, city and state in some cases.

See also the naming articles on Biases and Influences and Big Brand Name Origins and Famous Name Changes.