
Grundig, the german giant in consumer electronics, is named after Max Grundig.
Names are words. (Duh!) For a name to be impactful, the word representing it must make all the right noises, if you know what I mean. And if you don't, here's what: In the thirties, after the Great Depression of '29, people didn't want to hear the sound of the 'D' word, preferably, ever again. So, they came up with a new, kinder, more compassionate sounding one: Recession. Any economic downturn in the years that followed the big 'D' came to be termed as a 'Recession'. Essentially, recession became a euphemism for depression.
Lots of syllables. Lots of pits stops. Lots of history. And a nice bit of portmanteaugiri. Nice name for a tsunami-victims relief project. You could do worse than check out her products.
The sport of professional wrestling is punctuated with some of the more outlandish names in the history of branding. (For instance, the dashing fellow shown here goes by the delightful moniker 'Nacho Libre'!) In this post, I direct you to the riveting story behind another wrestling/er brand, the 'Rock and Roll Express'. And more. "Have you ever wondered where some of the names wrestlers use come from? Well they can only come from two places. Either the wrestler gives himself a name or the booker/creative people do. In earlier times, a guy could get a name in 30 seconds. Now, it might take weeks to run copyright and trademark searches. The Rock and Roll Express didn't have to wait long. Click here for the story of not only how their name was arrived at but also their gimmick."Speaking of which, who is your favourite brand of wrestler? Mine's, hands down, 'The Undertaker'. In fact, the mere mention of the name sends a chill down my spine. Talk about brand personality.

Just discovered this 1983-born Swiss watch. It's derived from the tamil word Kattamaram. The idea was to position it as the ideal watch for sailing.
I believe what you call a new brand doesn't count all that much when it is already backed by an old one with high equity and recall. Case in point: Wave from Google. In such cases, more than the name of the new product what matters, more than earlier, is the quality of the newly-launched product from the old stable. If, for example, Wave turns out to be shit, Brand Google takes a beating. On the other hand, had Google chosen to call 'Wave' 'Siht' and gone on to deliver yet another great product, 'Siht' would, in all likelihood, be hailed as a revolution in naming. (Sorta like 'FCUK'). That's how much names matter. Or not. Btw, don't you just love the 'Wave' logo? I do.
In 2002, Cadbury Schweppes launched dnL. A 180-degree take on 7up. I think it was a fabulous idea. Unfortunately, it was discontinued in 2005. If it were relaunched today with a different taste, the brand will get enough trials by the sheer beauty of the name. I feel it was an audacious experiment, a little ahead of its time.
One of the most popular beers in Shanghai is named Reeb (the reverse of beer). Yes, it uses an old naming technique. But I am all for it, as mirror names have always worked. Makes the brand look clever and offers a talking point for the glugger. The only issue with the name could be the sound. Reeb's acoustics is not as good as say Tiger, Budweiser or Heineken. It's got a wimpish sound. Almost like the feeb in feeble. But who cares. At the end of the day, all that counts is it's a short, interesting name.

The name of a Karunaas flick, just launched. It caught my eye the moment I saw it. Yes, it rides on Dhirubhai's name. But what adds fizz to it is the alliterative touch of Ambasamudram. When put together, Ambasamudram Ambani teases you into imagining a tale of a smalltown systembeater. I like the sound of it. That's why enakku idhu pidichurukku.
Microsoft has finally chosen the bid bada Bing as the name for its search engine. This is infinitely better than the zombiesque Live Search. My gutfeel is the success of Zune would have prompted the switch to 4-letter names. To know more about this intuitive search engine, go here.
How would you react if your dad had named you, Onions? I bet you would have thrown a tantrum. Or at best, lost some sleep. But Graham Onions has no such problems. His Allium Cepa surname might have come in handy in getting that extra attention from the Guardian and other newspaper hacks who revel in writing headlines like 'English selectors know their Onions'. Where he wouldn't have scored is - with women. It doesn't look good when you say: I am dating Onions. Right?
"The name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue laser (violet-colored) used to read and write to this type of disc. In part because of the shorter wavelength (405 nanometres), substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on a DVD, which uses a red (650 nm) laser. A dual-layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50 gigabytes, almost six times the capacity of a dual-layer DVD, or ten and a half times that of a single-layer DVD."
New Garden Street in Georgetown, now sports a new name. It's called the Shivnarine Chanderpaul Drive,a nod to Guyana's most famous cricket son. With this honor, Chanderpaul becomes the fourth cricketer of Indian origin to have a road/street named after him. The other three being: Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev & Sunil Gavaskar.
How does a staid boring bank get noticed in these times? Bank of the Wichitas has the solution. It's launched its internet bank under the name Redneck Bank. Ya, not kiddin. Redneck Bank for Joe the Plumber.
Nice name, ain't it? These bunch of good-hearted ozzies started RoE, 3 years ago. The thing I like about them is they only focus on doing decent work for green, sustainable and ethical brands. Check out these blokes, here.
I think of myself as a fairly punny guy. Punnily enough, most people in the writing profession don't care much for puns. We think it might have something to do with the fact that coming up with a good pun takes some skill, and they aren't quite upto it. Pokes apart, here's a collection of fine, and not-so-fine, names that pun. Have pun. (Image courtesy, Torontoist. Find courtesy, the NYT Freakonomics blog.)
Okay, let me clarify. This is not an unusually uncommon name. I've heard many Plan B's. But for a morning-after pill, it's maha approporiate. Why I like it is, the name is easy on the mouth and there's no unpleasantness when you utter Plan B. It's neither too clinical nor too provocative. One can slip this into a cryptic conversation, without raising any eyebrows. Don't you think 'did you try plan b?' sounds infinitely better than 'did you take the pill?' So.
Asics, the shoe company, began its life as Onitsuka Tiger. In 1977, it merged with GTO and Jelenk to form ASICS Corporation. Asics is an acronym of the Latin phrase "anima sana in corpore sano" which translates to "a healthy soul in a healthy body" or "a sound mind in a sound body". Source: Wikipedia.
If this is how people who have to memorise new stuff ever so often help themselves remember names, and faces, it's something people entrusted with the task of coming up with memorable names would do well to remember. In simple English: If you know what people do to remember, you'll find it easier to come up with things people will remember. Umm ... ok, maybe the English wasn't so simple. Still, you get the drift.
When Donna Karan decided to shorten her name, I am sure someone whispered into her ear that DK might sound like Decay. May be that's why she went in for DKNY. But now, emboldened by her success, she seemed to have decided to milk her name. Hence DK Men. Dunno how many guys would want the smell of Decay? Rotten stuff Donna. Might as well call it, DKaran Men or Donna for Men. What do you say, Donna?
Delsey, the No.2 luggage manufacturer in the world had its origin in the Delahaye company which, in 1911, specialized in the manufacture of cameras, typewriters and record players. Mr. Delahaye and the Seynhaeve Brothers joined forces in 1946 to set up Delsey. Their individual and joint experience lead to them setting up a department producing moulded plastic "travel items" in 1965. This resulted in the introduction of the first Delsey hard-side suitcase. Courtesy: Wikipedia.
Lieven P. Van Neste is the man who owns the most number of domain names in the world. Some say this Belgian natural medicine doctor has well over 200,000 domain names in his kitty. Originally, his intention in amassing the names was to sell and make enough money for his wellness resort. One wonders, whether he ever achieved his goal. The easiest way to find out is to make a bid for one of his dot coms.
Mysskin, the director of Anjathey, didn't want to be one more Raja. So he chose to rename himself after Prince Lyov Nikolaevich Myshkin, the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot. Looks like, it has set off a trend in Kollywood. The debutant director of Madurai Sambavam is said to be a gentleman named Eureka! At this rate, Karunanidhi will have to soon announce a tax sop for those who choose Tamil pseudonyms.
Was reading my fellow namasutrist's (?) most informative find on material names, the preceding one, when I had this epiphany of sorts. I haven't researched it all that much, hardly actually, but I have a theory on names, which needs more than a bit of time to prove. (And perhaps a lot less to disprove.) Still, I'm going to put it out for those of you who care enough to think about these things. Take a nuther look at these names (I've aligned them into two categories for the purposes of my fledgling theory): in the first corner we have Lycra, Velcro, Tyvek, Formica, Kevlar, Spandex and in the other corner Teflon, Nylon, Cellophane, Styrofoam, Tweed, Linoleum. Maybe it's not that obvious, but put very, very simply what I'm saying is this: 'Hard' sounds like, for instance, 'k' suit a particular kind of product better and soft sounds, like 'ph', for instance, work better for another kind of product. Moving forward, the next time you visit a 'fine dining' resto, yeah, those places where they give you very little for way too much, look carefully at the menu card. I'd be surprised if you found too many dishes with 'hard' sounds in their names. Next, go to a hardware store. There's a distinct likelihood you'll find more 'hard' sound names there. The human mind attaches certain product qualities to the sounds built into a brand name. A brand name that doesn't consider these aural quirks of the brain, trained perhaps to feel this way over years of brand-naming, will be attempting to fight an uphill battle to make an impression. My hypothesis is certain sounds make more sense for certain product categories. Perhaps it's a naming theory someone might find worthwhile to research and debunk. It involves a far bit of research all right. Something I'm too hard-pressed to undertake gratis. (What to do, we all have our day jobs that take up the majority of our time.) Image from here.
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), changed his name to Taj Mahal. An internationally recognized blues musician who folds various forms of world music into his offerings. A self-taught singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, banjo and harmonica (among many other instruments), Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music during his 40+ year career by fusing it with non-traditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and the South Pacific. He said the idea to change his name to 'Taj Mahal' came to him in dreams about Gandhi, India, and social tolerance. Seems particularly relevant, or irrelevant (depends on your frame of mind), in times like these. (Text and image from here.)
I watched this lousy Eddie Murphy movie where he plays a spaceship in human form. Meet Dave is the name of the flick. The only thing I remembered after wasting 120 minutes of my time was the name of one of the production houses that financed this project. The name brought a smile to my face and raised my expectations from the movie, a bit. And that's why I like Guy Walks Into A Bar. It's got wit written all over.
Doesn't roll of the tongue quite as easily as the 'Big B', does it? My point precisely. Well, not quite mine but kinda connected to the point I'm about to make. Those of you who have read 'Freakonomics' by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner might recall what this post is about to shine the light on: How much do baby names impact their chances of success later in life. And those of you who haven't might feel inclined enough to read this fascinating old piece from Slate that I unearthed while exploring for material on the said subject matter. Speaking of which, I wonder how much farther I might have gone had my mother chosen to name me 'Übermaniam'. Not very, I'm sure. The weight of expectations, and the umlaut, would have been just too much to bear. (And spell.) As it is, 'Avinash' is a lofty enough branding to live with. That said, it does make for a good story to tell the few people who bother to ask me what it means. And when they, rarely, do, I promptly proceed to saddle them with not just what it means but also why I was 'Hindued' so. Tell me about it. No, actually, ask me about it and I'll tell you.
Imagine this: You walk into a friend's place and you see that he's gotten himself an adorable little puppy. (Yeah, much like the one in the picture.) Naturally, the first thing you're going to ask him is what the little critter is called. He tells you it's called 'Condom'. Of course you do a double take and ask him whether he's serious. He tells you with a straight face that he indeed is. How comfortable would you be to call out its name? It's true. There is a puppy that goes by the name 'Condom'. And you can find out more about it here.
That's the name of a Gulfport, Mississipi-based second hand book store. It's a provocation name that is meant to grab you by the gut. Either you like it. Or you don't. It brings to mind cheap pricing and a weird collection. When you see this shop sign, it's bound to intrigue you into the store. That's why, TRBS gets my nod.
While traveling back to Bangalore from Chennai by train, I noticed something I found quite interesting. Most brand names of cement in India are not longer than 6 letters. The next thing I know my mind is working furiouser than a steam engine to try and draw some kind of connection between these two seemingly unrelated phenomena. And here's what it came up with: is there then some merit in assuming that for any brand name to communicate the qualities of 'strength', and the like, it's better off being short? How many 'long' names can you think of for products that are supposed to convey 'strength'? Yes, I do realise most brand names will tend to be short. Obviously this is an exploration into a subset of an overall branding pattern.
Sangeetha's has a restaurant in RA Puram. For some strange reason, they've called it Okadey. Anyone with a little knowledge of tamil slang will tell you 'okka' is 'to fuck' and 'okkadey' can only mean 'don't fuck around'. I was quite amused when I saw the shop sign. I wonder how Sangeetha's didn't spot this potentially scandalous name. Photo courtesy: Deepan Ramachandran.
That great epic had some very colorful characters. I've always wanted to know what their names meant without dipping into Maneka Gandhi's book of names. Now that I've found out, I thought I'll share it with you... 
God Shamgod, Dick Trickle, Nathan Boob, Alexander Semin, Angry Anderson and some more of the best names of all time according to these guys. I'm sure you have your set of favourite names too. I'm also sure you won't be chartable enough to share them with us. As always, I look forward to being proved wrong. After all, as my friend and partner in crime Anantha says ... well, never mind what he says about me. This is about some really funny names I took the trouble to dig up and share with you. Enjoy. And how will all this help you come up with a great name for your company? Well, if you ask us we'll tell you exactly why these names make the kind of impact this other article talks about. Incidentally, can you tell me who the guy in the picture is? Trust me, going by the name, it's very guessable.
Playwright, screenwriter and funmeister Crazy Mohan shares one quirky trait with me. Both of us think of the title first and then write the script. It's always worked for me. So I can totally understand why it worked for him. Such is the power of a title. It contains the seed of your concept. Take Jurassic Baby, Alauddinum 100 Watts Bulbum, Marriage Made in Saloon and Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam. All of these titles have intrigue value and offer a new context for whipping humour with a gag-a-minute sitcom. The fantastic thing about the title-first approach is, if you think the comedy ain't working, you can always craft another story with the same title. As I said earlier, such is the power of a well-thought title.
I'm a huge fan of gangster names. (Don't ask why.) The reasons, if you still insist on asking me, are pretty obvious. What's not to like. They're distinct, they communicate the unique quality about a particular gangster and they make you smile. Attributes that are eminently useful to have in a brand name. Shown here, Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal and his sisters. (Yeah, right.) He died recently. Here's a bit about him: 'GAMBLERS usually go on until they have run out of both luck and money. Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal went on until he was blown up. But then Lefty was not your usual sort of gambler.' For more on Lefty and his exploits, read the rest of his obituary here. Meanwhile, Googleji and myself have unearthed some links on what makes for a good gangster name. (You'll find them all at the end of this post.) They're instructive in that most of the qualities that go into making a good gangster name apply to product brand names too. Jokes apart, you could learn a thing or two about brand names from gangsters. And us. (Picture courtesy Getty Images.) Link love.




'It is what every advertiser would have dreamed of - brand names have a unique impact on our brains. Brand names engage the "emotional", right-hand side of the brain more than other words, new experiments suggest. And they are more easily recognised when they are in capital letters.' More such gyan on how brand names affect our brains can be found in the rest of this quite old, but immensely fascinating, article from the New Scientist.
I am in love with this name. It's shameless, provocative, unpretentious, clear-headed and a swell choice for a strong tasting ale. It's a classic case study name that gives the brand an advertising story from day zero. The 'You're not worthy' tack wouldn't have bubbled to the surface if AB hadn't been picked. Launched in 1996, by California-based craft brewery Stone Brewing Company, this proudly bitter beverage has its share of devout gluggers. What they've bought into is part-product, part-imagery. And why won't they. Which egoistic sonofabitch wouldn't like to hang around with a brand like Arrogant Bastard? Picture courtesy: Wikipedia. For more on the brand, visit their website.
Is the about-to-be launched version of the 'Mountain Dew' bottle the first brand name to be communicated in 'Smese' (the language of SMS)? Check out the way it is written and from the looks of it, it seems to have gone down pretty well with the 'commenting' crowd. Could this be the start of a new trend in naming? Why not. Imagine a product targetting kids; say a children's magazine. How interesting it would be if they chose to communicate their brand name in 'SMese'. Of course the grown-ups wouldn't approve. Which is precisely why it's likely to work swimmingly well for the young 'uns. We think more brands should try to strut their stuff in 'SMese'. It mkakes for a more personal conversation with consumers. And now for the obligatory question to elicit a reaction: Any other brand names in 'Smese' that you can think of? (No, not come up with, but think of that already exist.)
When I first heard the name Aegan, I had a waddafuk moment. Why on earth would a tamil film be named after the Aegean Sea? Intrigued, I googled for the etymology of Aegean Sea. It threw up a little story on a Queen named Aegea (meaning The Pole in Greek). That didn't seem convincing. My mom came up with a better explanation. She said it may have a Sanskrit origin. May be it's a short form of Ekalavyan. Just when I was about to take her word for it, I read an interview with Ajith, today. He let the kitten out of the bag. Aegan is one more name for Lord Shiva. It means All in one. When he uttered those words, I was like, why didn't I think of it. Anyways, that's the story.
Movie naming is a tricky business. The catchier the title, the greater the expectations from the film. And expectations is a very heavy burden to carry. A lot of directors have learned this the hard way. Titles like EMI (Easy Monthly Installment), M3V (Mudhal Mudhal Mudhal Varai), Snakes on a Plane are a little too catchy. Either they explain the story in a pithy way or they have no connection at all to the plot. Good titles avoid being catchy. They intrigue (North by North West), provoke (Blackmail), offer the premise in an interesting way (Strangers on a Train), introduce a new phrase into public lingo (Dial M for Murder) and sometimes lower your expectations by opting for the seemingly innocuous (Birds). May be, some day the movie industry will wake up to this realisation.
When you don't have enough money. When you have a huge market waiting to give you their money. When you want to hit the ground running. When you don't want to make people remember one more thing. When you are lucky enough to be operating in a market like India or China. When you don't have to worry too much about being slapped with a law suit. When you don't want to waste your time with a naming company. Or when you just want to be like Google, launch a soundalike brand. To piggyback is an old and quite successful marketing tactic. And strategy. We think it also works in Naming. Don't agree with me? Fine, agree with someone 'respectable'.
I have this theory that, this century, we are gonna see a lot more Sanskrit brand names as namers the world over have sucked the juice out of Greek and Latin. I'll dwell upon this in another post. Meanwhile, let me state what I have discovered. I can't think of a universally recognised Sanskrit brand name. The only one that came to my mind is the Oscar-winning VFX software Maya. Christy Turlington's Sundari is not yet international. And there are not too many challengers from India. So am I right if I declare Maya as the most popular Sanskrit brand name?
When Nike, and Michael Jordan, launched the 'Air' series of basketball and running shoes, which eventually came to be known as 'Air Jordan', it was perhaps the first brand - apart from airlines and sappy pop bands like Air Supply - to use the word 'air' as a brand name or extension. A combination of Jordan's extraordinary ability to 'fly', some great advertising and the presence of a crucial 'benefit' in the 'air' suffix meant that the 'air' in the Nike worked like a charm and sold many millions of pairs of shoes for them. Does the 'air' in the MacBook Air work quite as well for Apple? I think it does.
Discrete Logic (the Montreal based company that was swallowed by Autodesk in 1999)is a well-chronicled pyromaniac. I mean, look at the names of their products: Flame, Flint, Fire, Inferno, Riot, Stone, Spark and now Combustion. Considering that all these are brands of editing/effects/compositing software do aid in creating films that set the silver screen ablaze, methinks these are marvelously apt.
The Danish butter brand Lurpak debuted as Lur Mark in 1901. Lur is a Scandinavian wind instrument. It has been immortalised as the visual mnemonic in the Lurpak logo. Wikipedia informs us that any instrument that receives sound is referred to as a lur, today. For example, a telephone handset is called telefonlur.
This online shoe store has clocked a stellar performance in the last 10 years. People still keep raving about its 'pay-your-employees-to-leave' policy. I like the brand for its name. Derived from the Spanish word for shoes, Zappos is a 2-syllable contraction of Zapatos. Phonetically, it's a nephew of the uber-cool sounding Zappa. And imagery wise, it might conjure up visions of a wizard with his magical wand. This brand is a classic example of a literal yet exotic name. In the sense, those who know Spanish will know it means shoes. And those who don't know might assume it's a foreign brand. My one teensy issue with the name is it sounds kidulty and not adulty enuf. But I guess, that adds to the likability. Given the constraint of being a mass brand, I think it's a good choice.
This is an image of the Siachen Glacier picked from the Himalayan Club website. Discovered in 1907,apparently Siachen means the place of roses in the Balti language. A reference some people attribute to the abundance of Himalayan wildflowers found in the valleys below the glacier. Ironically, Siachen is also the highest battleground on Earth. That makes it a curious mix of guns and roses.
This CK (short for Congress kadalebeeja) Bun is extremely popular in Bangalore. It's a buttered, lightly toasted masala bun loaded with spicy, crunchy peanuts and quite yummy. Anyone has any theories on where the 'Congress' in the name comes from? Here's one I'm not so sure of. That said, it is very funny.
Hands up (and comments down), everyone who can tell me who the men shown in the picture are? Clue: Theirs is a brand so popular it has become the de facto name for the product category. And if you know the answer, can you give me the names of 38 other people who are like them? All is revealed in this most engaging slide show of the story behind 39 of the world's leading brands named after people: Trivial pursuit. Warning: It doesn't work in Google Chrome. Warning: It doesn't work in Google Chrome. (That's just in case you didn't believe me the first time I said it.)
Almost everybody knows the story of The Three Little Pigs and how the big bad wolf huffed and puffed and blew their houses away—all houses except one. But it seems that only the French named the little pigs — Naf Naf, Nif Nif and Nuf Nuf — and 35 years ago, brothers Gerard and Patrick Pariente decided to name their clothing store after the pig that built the house made of stone and survived the wolf — Naf Naf. Greedy for more? Go to the source.
A brand of condoms named after football ace David Beckham has taken the Chinese contraceptive market under its sway. Although the Beckham contraceptive is not being endorsed by the former England captain himself, its makers claim that the users will 'score in the bedroom like David does on the pitch'. (Actually, he doesn't score all that much ... on the pitch.) This brand now sells more than any other brand in the country. (Source: Google)
Imagine a father choosing to rename himself after his successful son. Doesn't happen in real life. But in the marketing world, it's a common practice. Matsushita is the latest to be bitten by the renaming bug. Panasonic means Everything Sound. But some of the products of Panasonic have no connection with audio, like say ovens, irons, vacuum cleaners, digital cameras, washing machines, electric cookers and massage loungers. So does the name change make sense? If you take a literal view of things, no it doesn't. But luckily for Panasonic, it's a coined word. Not many know its meaning. And that helps. Videocon enjoyed the same advantage. The name has a strong video cue. Still the company uses the same brand name to plug washing machines and what not. For all those who pooh-pooh coined names, these are cases in point. A coined name lets you straddle categories. An instantly decodable name like Mobile Store limits you to mobiles.
One of the theories I've been quite influenced by is that of 'The Selfish Gene', popularized by Richard Dawkins. (Yes, the engaging intellectual, militant atheist and fascist 'Darwnizer') (Darwin+Sermonize). In that he talks about memes. Put simply, memes are stories. And names that come with a story attached to them can add or take away from the equity a brand lends to a product is something I have been saying for sometime now.
I researched and researched. But could not find one brand in this world with the name moron. So I decided to do something path breaking. What if I create a concept fashion brand called Guy Moron? Will it click? Will anyone proudly sport this tag? The rational me says, no way dude. Why would anyone proclaim their idiocy? The irrational me says, of course they will. There are some folks out there who revel in self-deprecation. This brand is for them. This brand is for me. I mean, I'd rather wear a Guy Moron tee than one with Armani emblazoned on it. The more I think of it, the more exciting it sounds. It makes a great gift item. Girl friends who were dumped could gift their Exes, a Guy Moron. Stand up comedians will get a free laugh by just wearing one. The label is a camera magnet. Anyone will want to snap you up if you tuck yourself into a Guy Moron...the possibilities are immense...don't you see it?
Nokia's own Patek Philippe equivalent of mobile phones is Vertu. Every phone costs a bomb. But does the name ignite any imagery in your mind? Nopes. Not at all. Vertu is French for virtue. It's a name like Wondera or Magnifique. It states the obvious and stops short. There's no hint of exotica. No story value. To be brutally honest, it's flat as a pancake. Compare it with any premium brand you can think of, I am sure, Vertu will lose the premiumness battle, hands down. Wonder why, Nokia chose this name. The only explanation I can think of is - apart from being 5-letter, 2-syllable words, Vertu and Nokia share the same numerology score (5)! Can you come up with something more convincing?
Because when you leave it to the machines or people who think like machines (read: big name branding companies), this is what you are likely to end up with. That's why, to quote Unantha, "If you want a name for your company, brand, kitten or illegitimate child, do write to namasutra@gmail.com". Or else, you might just end up being shilled a bunch of names like Pistoer, Dlvil, Nlcleynde, Stenglad, Venj, Phaviker, Abeaerber, Lamorth or Zerkk for your baby. All nicely packaged in a powerpoint presentations. Of course.
We love our heroes. (Some, a little more than the others.) My favourite is Batman. In fact, I prefer the name 'Dark Knight' to 'Batman'; 'Batman' just sounds ... well, batty. 'Dark Knight' on the other hand - besides being a 'second-level' name - is more befitting the caped crusader's exploits. (Don't you think?) All of which brings me to a list of 'Superhero' names this gent has lovingly compiled and categorized for us. It makes for interesting reading. In other related developments: I discovered I'm 'Chrome Cat'. What Superhero are you?
Baby name sites insist that the name Gandhi means Sun. I had my doubts. Because there is this tamil word for Sunflower called Suryagandhi. If Surya means Sun, clearly gandhi can't. So I delved into the Capeller Sanskrit dictionary and I found that Gandhi means smelling of or perfumed with. That's interesting. Because Rajiv Gandhi will mean smelling of lotus.
Quite a few Urdu poets of the past chose distinctive pen names woven around their home towns. Abdul Hayee chose to be Sahir Ludhianvi (Sahir from Ludhiana). There are many more such examples...

That name intrigued me. It's an ad band from McCann Erickson. I read about the band here. Then I wikied More Cowbell and I got the cultural context. Good fucking choice, guys. It feels very good when you utter it.
Did you know that the struggling-to-stay-alive Citigroup paid $400 million for the naming right to the New York Mets’ stadium in 2006? That's a staggering figure, ain't it? I learned that and more while glugging this news item with my early morning cuppa. Knowing the avaricious tendencies of BCCI, I am sure this naming rights gig will hit India soon. Look at the pots of money that can be minted. Eden Gardens can become Anil Ambani Gardens or Nano Stadium or Dalmiapuram or even Dawood Ibrahim Stadium depending on the bids. The puritans will be up in arms. But has BCCI ever cared about sanctity? If they knew there's a scope for making thousands of crores of rupees, Mr. Lalit Modi will take the first plane to Sotheby's or Christies to auction the stadia names. I believe this naming rights thingy was tried out once before in 2002 in South Africa. Dunno how well the experiment fared. With the IPL hoopla, city jingoism and all that, you never know, this may be the Next Big Thing for Sharad Pawar Incorporated.
Whodafuck is SB Master? you may ask. Well, she's the founder of Master-McNeil, the naming company that owns the domain name naming. Actually, that's not their only claim to fame. They've named a lot of brands including PayPal. Master-McNeil was founded in 1988 by a lady named SB Master (haven't figured out her initials). Now, here comes the interesting part. Instead of playing with names like Masterminds or Masterstroke, our lady plucked McNeil from thin air and attached it to her surname. In her own words, "I chose 'McNeil' largely because it had a substantial sound. From day one, potential clients have always assumed we were big and important, even though we weren't when we first started. So it's been a very effective name for us." Smart. Don't you think? I picked this trivia from a 10-year old article in Mother Jones. Go read it.
The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (北海道日本ハムファイターズ Hokkaidō Nippon-Hamu Faitāzu?) are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League. They take their name from the major shareholding company's name "Nippon Ham", which is a corporate name of Nippon Meat Packers, Inc.. Until 2003, the Fighters were one of three teams calling Tokyo their home, but in 2004 moved to Sapporo, the largest city on the island of Hokkaidō. With that kind of pedigree, what's not to like. It's a lot better than 'Chandigarh Lions' or 'King's XI'. Someday soon, we'll be compelled to do a Chennai Veerans vs Chennai Super Kings post. And that, my friends, will be a sad, sad day.
Chalti ka naam gaadi, Badhti ka naam daadi, Naam, Gumnaam (clearly, one from before our time), The Namesake, In the name of the father, My name is Anthony Gonsalves, The man with no name (understandably not one of our favourites), Mera naam joker, Tere naam ... and that's just a smattering of movies I can name off the top of my head that have the word 'name' in them. From the looks of it, it must be a pretty useful plug. Hmm ... wonder why nobody has branded anything 'NAME'. Ask an expert how many words the English language contains and this is what you're likely to end up with. Luckily, the answer to the question which are the world's 500 most frequently used words is a lot simpler.
















A lot of serious branding thought went into Metallica's latest album, Death Magnetic. Brand Identitymiesters Turner Duckworth were roped in to package the album CD and apparently, they were even allowed the freedom to choose the title of the album. As David Turner says, "At the point of our very first meeting with the band they hadn't settled on an album title or finished all the songs. I always tell clients that you start with the product and then create a name and that's the theme you build your marketing around. But they couldn't decide between four potential album names. I spoke to James (Hetfield), who writes all the lyrics, and got him to talk a bit about each song. And when he'd gone through them all I immediately saw that one of their titles tied them all together. Many of the songs were about death, not just the negative side of it but the strange attraction death has and also the theme of life, redemption and something more than death. So there was attraction and repulsion, and life and death, all contradictory things. One of the titles they were playing around with was Death Magnetic and I thought it was perfect because it really seemed to tie the songs together." For more on this topic, visit Creativity Online.
So you know who I'm referring to in my previous entry and take the trouble to find that song I was talking about. You know, you people really ought to be a little more helpful. No comments. No feedback. No contributions. No kudos. No marriage proposals. Two guys can't create a naming version of wikipedia. Now go find me that song! Please.
What's that song by Kishore Kumar about going to Japan and ending up in China ... I'm so bad at remembering songs ... or for that matter anything. I wonder why ... hmmm. Neways, so brought it up 'cause I was going Googling for 'eponymous brand names' and coming up with zilch when I chanced upon this little gem of an entry about babies named after brands. "It's hilarious. And sad. I'll save you the commentary. Little wonder she looks pissed. Enjoy.
Chris Garnell explored this issue in depth in 2005. He's rightly identified that numbers give you that zara hat ke aura and nothing more. I am a staunch advocate of alphanumeric names. I feel a word prefix breathes life into a cold number. Take Elle 18 for instance. It evokes a lot more the plain numerical name 18. Anyways if you wish to weigh the pros and cons, go to brandchannel for Garnell's piece.
Hamdard launched Sherbat Rooh Afza in 1907. Even the blokes at Hamdard don't seem to know how their founder Hakeem Abdul Majeed chanced upon the name. One theory is it's the name of a character from a 13th century book named Masnavi Gulzar-e-Nasim. Since the purpose of this post is not to pinpoint the origin, we shall not dwell on this now. Instead, we shall shift focus to the meaning of this urdu phrase. Rooh is soul in Urdu. And Afza means that which nourishes. So the rose syrup actually means that which nourishes the soul.
KLPD is a rather colorful and popular abbreviation in India. It refers to the act of letting down the excited weenie. Funnily, KLPD has a different connotation in Netherlands. Expanded it reads: Korps Landelijke Politiediensten (Dutch for National Police Services Agency). An elite police force! Can you believe it?
Hyderabad-based Sresta Natural Bioproducts has opted for a curious sounding alpha numeric name. Curious because, they could have opted for a name like Sresta. Thankfully, they didn't. Apparently the 24-letter mantra is Bhumir Apo Analo Anilo Nabha (The 5-elements: Earth, Water, Fire, Air & Ether). Although the name has story value, I find the rationale, a bit contrived. If this was the mantra, wouldn't you have picked 5wordmantra as the brand name? 5wordmantra is shorter and cues 5 elements better than 24lettermantra. The only explanation for the choice could have been numerology. I tested this hunch of mine by tallying the number score of 'Sresta Natural Bioproducts Pvt. Ltd.' and 24-letter mantra. Guess what? Both add up to 9!
I was once part of a cricket team that called itself 'The Bradmans'. Quite predictably, we didn't have much of a bowling attack. You'll find many an oddly-named cricket team if you have a look around. Perhaps you'd care to and share them with us. In the meantime, here's a 'funny name' story.
Continuing the interesting thread opened up by our fellow namer, I shall link you to Listology's super collection of the longest movie titles. The longest title apparently has 32 words and 160 characters! The longest Indian movie title has 20 words and is: Shree Shree Rajadhiraja Shree Shree Madana Kamaraja Shree Shree Vilasa Raja Shree Shree Madhubana Raja Shree Shree Krishnadeva Donga Raja. This telugu flick just managed the 6th slot in Listology. The longest Hindi movie I can think of is Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon. In Tamil it must be Rajadi Raja, Raja Marthanda, Raja Gambira, Raja Kulothunga Kaathavaraya Krishna Kamarajan. And the longest English movie title in recent times has been: Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Phew! Quiet a mouthful, right?
According to the Guinness Book of World Records; When they were asked whether this might be considered for 'the world's longest domain name'. I suppose every other entry in the august book of records is of earth-shattering importance.

Why do people change their names? (I have a cousin who has three names. One given at birth. Another on her school leaving certificate. And a third after getting married.) How much does the new name have to do with becoming famous? (My cousin is far from famous.) Would these people have been just as well-known had they stuck with their birth names? 'Godgyfu'? I don't think so.
Ad agency Mudra has launched a special unit for rural marketing and guess what they've called it? Terra (the latin word for Earth). Now why on earth would you go Latin if you're supposed to be the expert in integrated rural marketing? I am assuming, by rural, Mudra is not referring to global villages. Their operating ambit is clearly India. So, why didn't they opt for a Hindi/Sanskrit/Hindustani sounding name? Doesn't Mitti capture the flavour better than Terra? Or say Des. May be, Mudra didn't want to get dehaati. But if you're not proud of being dehaati, what's the point of starting a division that focuses on the same? Daiya re daiya, inka kya hoga, bhaiya?
I Twitter and I quite enjoy it. Luckily for the naming folks at Twitter, they didn't have to fight too hard to put their brand inside my head. They were the first movers.
In the future, more and more companies will go in for an online presence. Heck, as 'Neuromancer' Gibson said, "The future is upon us." Speaking of which, coming up with a name for an online entity is a different challenge.