Blog Archives

Premade Packaged Pizza Names

How do these things start and progress? This post began by sharing a link to an article on the health benefits of canned seafood, which led to the observation that you can no longer order sardines on your pizza. The

Tagged with: , , ,
Posted in Branding, Consumer Goods, Food Names, Name Origins, Naming Education, Retail, Sustainable Brand Names

This is not the way to create lasting branding prestige!

Hotix(TM) or Hiitox or maybe  even Hotix-Pro(TM) – these product names have been flying across my screen all week. All pertaining to be the latest Swedish small wall heater plug-in the socket. All with the same photo image. Why would

Posted in Branding, Consumer Goods, Industrial Products Naming, Name Origins, Naming News, Retail, Rotten Names, Strange Names

+ Names are often a -ve

Just as we happily bid farewell to a bad me too product called Google+, new video services come online called Disney + and Apple +.  Walt Disney and Steve Jobs must be turning in their graves. Doesn’t management get that

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Branding, Consumer Goods, Domain Names, International Naming, Name Origins, Naming Education, Naming News, Rotten Names, Sustainable Brand Names, Trademarks

When one letter is sufficient in compound names

Take for example the name : Impulsports. We read at such great speed these days we don’t often notice good spelling or bad spelling. In our minds we do not even notice the phonology – let alone the correct morphology

Posted in Branding, Consumer Goods, Domain Names, International Naming, Name Origins, Naming Education, Strange Names, Trademarks

Worldwide Trademark Clearance

Do your names work in other countries?  How about worldwide?  Well that is a very daunting task for most product managers to achieve – in fact almost impossible to achieve guaranteed clearance without a lot of money. But you can,

Posted in Branding, International Naming, Name Origins, Naming Education, Trademarks

ibotta – What an awful name for a shopping app

Every so often a name comes along that actually gets some publicity or has the money to promote itself on TV. I was horrified when I first saw this name on a TV commercial.  Wow. Launching a new consumer shopping

Posted in Branding, Consumer Goods, Domain Names, International Naming, Name Origins, Naming Education, Retail, Rotten Names, Strange Names

French Bee instead of French Blue – except in logo

While the current news is sensationalizing the potential airstrikes over the end of August in France and British Isles (and outside Europe too), the budget French airline company is buzzing  along nicely amongst happy travellers. They really are flying  higher

Posted in Branding, Consumer Goods, Hospitality & Travel, International Naming, Name Changes, Name Origins, Naming News, Retail, Strange Names, Transportation

When S evolves as an empowered Z – Sandvoort to Zandvoort

Formula One is rife in Europe but Barcelona, Spain has lost its place on the grid to the beach side track in the Netherlands, aka Holland -Zandvoort Circuit. Zandvoort has risen from the dunes as the Dutch eagerly awaits great

Posted in Branding, Consumer Goods, International Naming, Name Origins, Public Site Naming, Sports Naming

“I Think, Therefore I Yam…”

“…what I yam.” (A.k.a. “The Descartes-Fleischer Hypothesis of Reflexive Consciousness”) Let’s start this post with a Brighter Naming PSA: give blood! Both Athol and I are blood donors, and occasionally run into each other when the bloodmobile shows up. In

Posted in Branding, Consumer Goods, Food Names, Name Origins, Trademarks

Son of Nomen Est Omen

In previous posts, I’ve advanced the idea that a name can be so bad that it’s good. Deliberately or by accident, a name comes out that provokes the reaction: “Well, if they’re using that name and they’re still in business,

Tagged with: , , ,
Posted in Consumer Goods, Food Names, International Naming, Name Origins, Retail

Recent Naming Articles

Brand insider articles from an experienced marketing team.

Mar 2023: Pricing your naming project

Oct 2021: The devil is in the trademark details

Mar 2019:The Power and Value of a Trademark

Jan 2019:4 common branding mistakes

Oct 2018: You named it What?

Linked In

Share this page on LinkedIn:


See his industry naming commentary (where he takes a critical look at names) via the blog on this site