What Is TheRe In NaMe


We all know the importance of branding in today's world. A brand is the proprietary visual, emotional, rational and cultural image that we associate with a company or a product. In short, a brand is a commodity with a personality.

A good brand name gives a good first impression and evokes positive associations with the brand. A name is the shortest condensation of your brand message - it should ideally rise above the clutter in the marketplace and resonate in the minds of your entire audience.
But the few types of names employed most often by companies are:

Arbitrary names such as Apple, Eagle Star and Ivory. They are real words that evoke good thoughts but do not relate directly to a product.

Suggestive names such as Gateway. They are real words and have an indirect relevance to the company - they are used to imply something about product quality. In the case of Gateway, its computers are supposed to be a gateway to the digital world.

Descriptive names, arguably the weakest of all, such as International Business Machines. These explain in general terms a company's business. By definition, the product name invites contention, and more importantly, limits possibilities. In the 1970s, with relatively few firms competing, it made sense to go for straightforward descriptive names. E.g.: Animal Crackers, People magazine, Lean Cuisine ... Now they're not only difficult to obtain, they are impossible to protect!

Coined company names today, such as Motorola and Intel, are made up and most often derived from words that describe its business or values. With Motorola, which originally produced radios for automobiles, the name brought together the ideas of motion and radio. With Intel, the word `intelligent' obviously is the foundation. Coined names are more popular today with technology companies because arbitrary names don't explain enough and descriptive names explain too much (and can get boring).

Brand names are derived in a variety of ways. Nametrade.com has compiled an excellent summary of many popular practices.

Abbreviation: FedEx, Microsoft, Unisys, Telco
Acronym: Qantas, UPS, KFC, IBM, UB, ICICI, Amul
Alliteration: Dunkin' Donuts, Yankee Doodle Strudle, Intel Inside, Hero Honda
Allusion/Evocative/Suggestive: Reliance, 7-Eleven, Pampers, Dove , Thums-Up
Appropriation: Soap (for software), Bloody Mary's (for a restaurant),
Arbitrary: Apple, Orange, Tamariind (shirts)
Classical Roots: Pentium, Quattro, Avis, Atlas, Maruti
Combination/Semantic: Nutrasweet, Qualcomm, Victorinox, PowerBook, PageMaker, ImageWriter

Composition: LaserJet, PowerBook, PageMaker, ImageWriter
Descriptive: Bed, Bath and Beyond, Bath & Body Works, Airbus, Volkswagen, Caterpillar, Pudin Hara, Hajmola
Foreign Language: Häagen Dazs, Quattro, Montero, Samurai, Sansui, Akai
Founders: Godrej, Bajaj, Ranbaxy, Gillette, Braun, Hewlett Packard, TATA
Humour: Please Go Away (a travel agency), Sir Lamps A lot, Snakebite Salsa, Grape Britain (for ice-cream).
Metonymy (use of name or concept for related one): Silicon Alley, Silicon Gulch, Starbucks
Mimetics (alternative spelling): Krazy Glue, Kwik Kopy, Kleenex, One-der Drop (for a dish cleaning liquid), Forget Me Knot (for a tangle-free shampoo)
Morpheme construction: Amtrak, Victorinox, Qualcomm, Compuserve, Granola, Accuvue, Sanka, Bisquick, NyQuil
(A morpheme is the smallest meaningful morphological unit of the language, one that cannot be analysed into smaller forms. E.g.: `van' in advantage. There are some six lakh morphemes.)
Onomatopoeia: ZapMail, Sizzler Steakhouse, Kookooroo, Kisses
Oxymoron: Lowe Alpine, True Lies, Steel Magnolias, Intimate Strangers, Poetics Rockin' Tacos

Poetics: Rockin’ Tacos, El Pollo Loco, Domino’s
Real Words: Apple, Adobe, Domino's
Rhyme: Shake ’n Bake, Lean Cuisine, OshKosh B’Gosh
Song and Story Origins: Chimney with Care, Orient Express, Almost Heaven Hot Tubs, Aladdin Thermos
Symbolism: Tahoe, Yukon, Ford Explorer, Mustang
Themes: Apple Macintosh, Mercedes, Boeing 707, 727, ... 777
Truncation: Intel, Intuit, Cisco Systems

Names to Avoid
Copycat names or names that sound like a competitor or some other big brand are not worth much. Neither are names that are hard to spell or pronounce. Great brand names are:
Emotional (they make you feel good and generate curiosity)
Memorable (either because they include a compelling sound or have eye appeal; in essence, they offer crisp and distinct qualities)
Personable (they express a set of human-like traits and exude attitude and style)
Deep (they can be leveraged in promotional, ad, PR, and communication programs)

( Taken from : Brain Tattoos Creating Unique Brands That Stick in Your Customers Minds)