International, national and regional name styles and trends

National TV dominates the marketing messages of most countries of the world, especially in the US where so many megabrands of the world are created. A rich consumer society, extensive communications media empires, a boiling-pot of national heritages and a common major language dominate the USA. Yet there are still cultural and regional differences, tied not so much to population groups and heritages (though there is a fair bit of this), but rather to industries and the physical areas where they are based.

And all of these factors can have subtle effects on naming. Most people, by nature, are provincial. Even when they all come from different corners of the world, they tend to think and act locally as a group. This might show in their name choices, even if they use national/international naming agencies with diversely spread namers. At Brighter Naming we enjoy our jobs immensly when we discover these subtleties, even though we find that certain name styles always remind people of cars in the MidWest, for example. Those same names might play well as potential names for new technology companies, say, in some other part of the country.

Here is our provisional take on this subject. Of course, we would love to hear your opinions and suggestions for other regions too.

North America (Canada and USA):

California
San Francisco Bay Area	The naming capital of the world. Home to the original naming companies, and still a major concentration region of them. Names like Pentium, Acura, Compaq, PowerBook all originated here. Also home to Landor Associates and other big branding agencies, many of whom are doing international work. This region is a complete melting pot of America ever since the gold rush days of 1849. Strong Asian and Hispanic influence too. Originally the tolerant "City of Love" during the hippie generations, the S.F. Bay Area continues to embrace all diversities. This is driven in part by their neighbors of Berkeley and Oakland across the Bay. Further north across the Golden Gate bridge is the premier Napa and Sonoma wine country, and we all know how brand-centric wineries are - however large or small their annual production! A strong biotech and financial center, with many other industries including tourism.	Rice-A-Roni Acura Compaq Lexus Sharper Image The Gap Peet's Levis Wells Fargo
Silicon Valley	San Jose claims to be the capital of this non-specific geographic region, but it also includes other important technology towns like Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Fremont, Milpitas, and San Mateo. Menlo Park is the Venture Capital Headquarters of the country, and along with Stanford University one of the major driving forces behind this ground-zero startup center of technology. Home to H-P, Intel, AMD, Cisco, Apple, Oracle and many other technology heavyweights. Most new names are coined - many with a sharper techy flavor to them.	Pentium Opteron 3COM KLA/Tencor Google Yahoo eBay Pixar
Central Valley	From Sacramento, to Fresno and Bakersfield, this lush valley is the largest agricultural valley in the world. And it needs migrant labor (almost all Hispanic) to succeed. So names from this region encompass many natural elements, often with a slight Latin overtone. Of course, it is mostly for fruits, vegetables, and other food or agricultural products.	Del Monte
Los Angeles	In the southern portion, which is mostly Orange County, names are very high tech, aerospace or real estate related. But in the north, the dominant factor is Hollywood and the related media empires.	FileNet DreamWorks
San Diego	A strong navy and Mexican influence dominates this town, though tourism is strong too.	Catamaran
Pacific NorthWest	The "gentle" states of Oregon and Washington are also home to many technology companies, as well as many forestry, fishing and related industries. Seattle is also knows as the "Coffee Capital" of the world and is a dominant center in this regard.	Starbucks Microsoft
Nevada	While there is a significant mining industry in Nevada, today names are all very gambling centric - except those casinos that aspire to be somewhere else!	Bellagio
Colorado	Denver, Colorado Springs and Aspen portray 3 different life styles, but all with a distinctive rocky mountain flavor.	Coors
The SouthWest	Arizona, Texas and New Mexico - in short, cowboy and cactus country. Even when they are oil drilling wildcatters. But there is a lot of telecom and other high tech industries, especially in Austin and Dallas. Houston was home to Compaq but now they are part of HP.	Taco Bell, Chevy's
New York	The big agencies in New York influence names across the whole country.	Viagra, Cialis, Tribeca, AT&T

Has the European Union driven one common identity for names and brands? Or will it do so in the future? Perhaps, but that is surely a long way off. In the meantime, the dominant economic powers tend to dominate the brands - though it is not exclusively so by any means. Here are some of the major brands of Europe.

United Kingdom	London, Birmingham, Leeds, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester	Harrod's, Land Rover, Jaguar
France	Paris, Nice, Lyons	Cartier
Germany	Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg	Adidas, BMW, Aldi, SAP, Mercedes, Heineken
Spain	Madrid, Barcelona, Seville	Zara, Paulo Negro
Netherlands	Amsterdam, Rotterdam	Royal Dutch Shell, Philips, Amstel
Scandinavia	Norway, Sweden and Denmark	Volvo, Nokia, IKEA
Switzerland	Geneva, Zurich	Prada, Swatch, Bulova