appella

Avenues For Justice: 10 Years On

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 16:13:50 GMT

Celebrating 10 Years of Avenues For Justice

The Gibbs Aquada: 20 Years Later

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 16:04:06 GMT

Congratulations to Sir Richard Branson on the - just over - 20th anniversary of the not-so-well-known but high achieving Gibbs Aquada, named by Appella and driven by Sir Richard across the Channel in record time on June 14th 2024. Sir Richard beat the previous record by over four hours!

Meet Andrew - Our 'Naming & Validation Guy'

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 14:02:50 GMT

How do you get started in a career like naming? Find out firsthand from Appella's co-founder Andrew McCrum as he talks us through his background, what it takes to find the right name and what he gets a kick out of, outside work:

Celebrating 15 Years of Wavelength

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 16:01:55 GMT

WaveLength 15 years on

Meet Tom - Our 'Name Clearance Guy'

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 16:59:09 GMT

Hear from Tom Hope, our co-founder here at Appella about how he works hard behind the scenes to provide the clearance on prior rights for names. As part of our process we come up with a long list of names which are 'possibles' so Tom's first job is to run preliminary clearance on those names. This involves looking at a number of databases throughout the world - a global name for example could involve 150 trademark registries.

Find out more here:

Meet Carl - Our 'Creative Guy'

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 12:57:44 GMT

Hear from Carl Shuck, our marketing, advertising and media expert. Whilst Andrew and Tom provide the inspiration for the name creation and validation, Carl is here to ensure it 'lands' well when it goes out to market. Having worked within a number of creative agencies and dealt with a vast number of global brands over the years, he now works closely with clients within a diverse range of sectors including automotive, FMCG and a SME's across the board.

For Carl it's all about how the recipient will receive the brand. Find out more here:

Happy New Year - Here's to 2024!

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 08:45:00 GMT

Happy New Year from the Appella team! �� We're looking forward to another busy year working with lots of fantastic brands and wish you all success on your journey. If you'd like to find out how we can help with your next requirement, get in touch .

Celebrating 20 years of Essentra plc

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 15:06:24 GMT

We are very pleased this year to be able to mark the 20 ^th anniversaries of two brand names created by Appella, Essentra plc and the Gibbs Aquada car.

Essentra’s line of corporate ancestry goes all the way back to the Bunzl family and Pozsony in the Habsburg Empire, now Slovakia, where in 1854 Moritz Bunzl registered his haberdashery business. In 1883 his three sons changed the name to Bunzl & Biach AG and moved to Vienna, closer to the main European markets of the time. Here they bought a paper mill and manufactured paper, cigarette filters and cellulose wadding.

Following Hitler’s Anschluss in 1938, by which Nazi Germany annexed Austria, the family left the country in order to avoid their company and assets being seized or destroyed as happened to all Jewish businesses. Some of the family moved to Switzerland, some to the United States and a small number moved to the UK to develop operations there. The 1950’s saw international expansion and a separate company, American Filtrona, incorporated in the USA in 1954 as a filter technology specialist, especially in cigarette filters.

Filtrona demerged from Bunzl in 2005 and went on to buy Duraco an adhesives coated products business in 2007. They continued to diversify into a multi-sector, component parts and elements manufacturing and supply business, mainly through acquisition. They re-branded in 2013 with the aim of de-coupling from their historic association with the tobacco industry, Essentra being chosen in order, as their then CEO Colin Day declared, “to capture what each of Filtrona’s businesses manufacture and supply: small but essential key components that play critical roles for our customers”.

We wish Essentra a very happy 20 ^th birthday.

Please stay in touch for the Aquada blog to follow shortly.

Seasons Greetings from The Appella Team

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 22:16:05 GMT

As we approach the festive season, we want to express our gratitude for your continued support.

Thank you for being a part of our journey, and we look forward to achieving even greater heights together in the coming year. If you have any new requirements to discuss, we look forward to hearing from you. Contact us today.

Celebrating Our Work On The Oyster Card - 20 Years On!

Wed, 17 May 2023 14:14:12 GMT

If you’re under 30 then you probably think it’s been there forever. If you’re over 50 you might think, on reading this, ‘ What! Has the Oyster Card really been around for 20 years? ’

Andrew McCrum and Appella are delighted to be associated with one of the Capital’s and the country’s most popular and familiar brand names. That the Oyster Card continues to feature so prominently on London Transport and London Train Station advertising and sign boards pays testament in the main to the dedication of Tfl (Transport for London) in championing the name and the brand. Its success is also in no small part owing to the enduring appeal of all those constituent elements which make up the brand meaning, most relevant perhaps: pearl ‘money loaded’, shell ‘smart card security’, circular shape ‘touch pad’ and ‘the world is your oyster’ travel reference.

The continued health of the Oyster Card brand in the era of contactless payments may, perversely, owe something to the increasingly unhealthy and depleted marine medium in which the original mollusc lives and the heightened awareness we humans have not just for endangered species but for wildlife in general.

Oyster Card - A Short Timeline:

January 2003

Following a full name creation process, out of three selected and linguistically profiled names Oyster emerges as the strongest. Oyster is recorded as having a very high uniqueness value – and thus high memorability in the mental lexicon – when compared competitively to the uniqueness values of the other two names. That is to say, the speech units and morphology of neighbourhood words to Oyster, such as oy and master, are relatively minimal. Despite early reservations with TranSys and TfL and on account of its oddness, Oyster emerges over the next few weeks as the dominant name and is registered as a trademark.

June 2003

Oyster Card launches in London tube stations.

Spring 2004

Oyster Card extended to use on London buses.

January 2005

Transport for London (TfL) and Friends of the Earth hail Oyster an environmental asset, with 100,000 fewer paper tickets being sold every day - a saving of 32 million paper tickets a year - since the Smartcard was introduced.

A paper ticket is 8.5cm in length, so laid end to end, this results in an annual saving of 2,720km of paper - more than six and a half times the distance covered by the entire Tube network.

March 2006

Oyster to be used on London Overground.

Jan 2009

Use extends during 2009 to the National Rail Service. BBC News reports in January “As a result of the change it will mean that those coming in from the suburbs will be able to use one card to get around the capital.

March 2012

The Queen and animated characters depicted in front of Buckingham Palace feature on two commemorative Oyster cards. The special pay-as-you-go cards, one for the Queen's Jubilee and the second for the London Olympics, were available at Tube stations in Zone 1. Around 1.5 million Olympic editions of the card for were in use from mid June. The Olympics Oyster card includes images of sports, the Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames and bunting to mark the summer of events in the city.

See more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17521948

May 2012

Smartcard payment is introduced to run alongside Oyster Cards

If you'd like to find out more about the role we played in this, click through to our Oyster Card Case Study .

Zadina Dates 15 Years And Still Going Strong!

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 14:10:06 GMT

It’s 15 years since Al Foah launched Zadina, their fantastic luxury-nutrition-health dates brand and it’s still going strong thanks to some great business acumen, wise marketing and the power of the date superfood.

We were delighted to play a part in the process, read more about it in our Zadina Case Study .

We Won! Specialist Brand Agency of the Year 2022/23

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 14:38:08 GMT

Corporate Live Wire Award

We were delighted to learn from Chris Bather that we had the Specialist Brand Agency of the Year 2022 against a field of 14 other companies. It's always a pleasure to be recognised for our efforts by our peers in the industry. Naming can often be overlooked amidst the frenzy of creating a new brand.

Summer 2022 Company Update

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 14:02:24 GMT

As nature renews, so the scope of green projects continues to expand for the Appella team.

Recently we have been busy advising, naming and validating brand names both legally and linguistically for a widening range of clients, committed to addressing climate change.

After naming for the UK rollout of two new EV Charging networks, we are now full tilt on more international projects in such diverse sectors as education, aerospace and industrial cleaning.

The EV charging sector is dramatically gearing up in the UK as the government's commitment to phase out sales of new carbon based combustion engine cars by 2030 invites a flood of new charging points nationwide. With dozens of new entrants into the market, finding a new brand name that stands out and appeals both to end users and local authority sponsors, is becoming ever more challenging.

For these EV network projects, we have worked directly with both the end client and their marketing agency – something we are always happy to do.

But there is always room for more, as we look for new sustainable territories to explore in the world of brand naming.

If you have any requirements you would like to discuss, don't hesitate to contact us .

How do you generate business name ideas?

Mon, 23 May 2022 13:23:47 GMT

We're often asked "how can I come up with a business name?" so I thought I'd write a short post with some tips...

Back When The World Was Smaller

Back in the days before the internet and the subsequent explosion of micro businesses, pulling together a list of potential names for your new business venture was relatively simple. You’d gather together the main decision makers and those ‘creative types’ in the company, sit them in the boardroom with coffee, croissants and a large Nobo board and off you go! All suggestions are welcome and no names are bad. Surely after a couple of hours of thrashing about and a few laughs you will have your list of 10 or so possible names? Then float them to your family and friends overnight, make sure they don’t sound too rude and check it doesn’t look too much like one of your competitors.

Hey-presto, your new brand is born!

Getting it Right Today

Today it’s not quite so simple. Markets are awash with companies launching new businesses, and they’re all looking for the same thing - names that are different, memorable and easy to pronounce. Names that can travel across multiple languages without offending, that are short and that have a URL/domain that you can buy – cheaply! Crucially, they want names that are available, trademark registrable in all the markets they operate in or into which they might expand and that will appeal to their audience. That’s quite an ‘ask’ for a brainstorm in the boardroom.

How to Succeed

What is required is ‘a process’. A system that can both generate and validate a large number of names in a fast and cost efficient way.

Time spent at the start agreeing what you want or need is well spent. A linguistic analysis of your competitors to map where you want to be and how you want to be seen helps focus everyone and leads to agreement on name/word types as well as your key brand naming criteria. Then test those variables by producing some examples to ensure that those are the styles that you want.

Name generation needs to be a mix of software and brainware. Computer programmes that can produce hundreds of names/words alongside human namers that can craft and blend.

With a longlist of options compiled, the validation process can begin. Linguistically checking with native, in-country, speakers against agreed grading parameters. Checking for any gross negative meanings via an automated, 120-language database. Searching in all the national and international trademark registries for availability. Running checks on the internet for brands which while not registered may be operating in your market. Then add the search for URL/domain availability to ensure that your desired .com address can be secured.

Once these steps are taken, you will arrive at a shortlist of names that you can be confident enough in to make your selection for the new brand.

Or, of course, you can go back to the old method and take your chances. You choose.

Names Pronounced Around the World

Wed, 24 Jan 2018 16:43:21 GMT

For better or for worse

A great brand name is one that can grow with the brand no matter how big and successful. With this in mind, a brand name that works globally is often vital. There are a few ways a brand can achieve this. You can find a common spelling and global recognition. Or, you can go for translation in your markets. Or maybe you have to transliterate where languages use a non-roman script. English is written in roman script. Many Western brands in China are transliterated into Chinese names with an advantageous meaning.

Sometimes, this can be brilliant for marketing and work out beautifully. For example, Coca-Cola is transliterated into Kekoukele in Chinese, which is very like the English pronunciation anyway. However, in addition to the similar pronunciation, it also translates approximately to “tasty fun” which is right on par for the brand’s slogan, “Taste The Feeling.”

Of course, for every great global brand name, there are plenty of names that fell flat with a wider audience. This usually occurs due to a lack of research. The results are brand and product names that stir up a variety of reactions and give the rest of the world a laugh.

Pschitt

French soda, 1954 (Perrier)
This brand name was an attempt at onomatopoeia. It’s similar to the noise when cap of a soda bottle is removed. However, English speakers may have opted for “pshh.” Instead, Pschitt is pronounced just as you’d imagine.

Pocari Sweat

Japanese sports drink, 1980
Contrary to what you may imagine, this soft drink has a light grapefruit flavour and offers little aftertaste, a great selling point. However, the creators did use the English word for their Japanese audience. The concept of the name actually refers to the sweat lost during sports. The drink replaces the lost nutrients and electrolytes. On the other hand, “Pocari” does not have any other meaning.

Colgate Cue

Toothpaste in France
While English speakers may understand the word “cue” in several ways, in France, it’s a pornographic magazine. In addition, “cue” is homophonous with “queue” which means “bum,” and worse. Of course, this made for plenty of giggles for the French when looking to purchase toothpaste.

Ford Pinto

1970s Subcompact Car
In the development stage, the Ford marketing team had the pinto horse in mind. However, in Brazilian Portuguese, it translates to ‘male genitals.’ Suffice to say, the car did not do well.

Lucky for us, these translations always make us laugh. Unfortunately for the brands, they failed because they weren’t researched properly by experienced enough people.

Thanks to our ongoing Herculean labour of a publication grade dictionary of globally recognized words, this is an area in which we specialize. So, if you’re looking to take your brand globally, get in touch!

Truth in Brand Names

Wed, 24 May 2017 15:36:00 GMT

Many people are aware of advertising standards. Brands cannot make false claims regarding their products nor can they degrade competitors. While this false advertising may not be news, there are also restrictions on brand names.

While it is fairly well known that descriptive lines are not normally protectable as brand names under trademark law, some descriptors run the additional risk from other regulatory bodies. But, some terms may seem entirely innocent yet are restricted or blocked from use. Additionally, a term that may have been considered reasonable at one point may no longer be usable. Below we discuss four words and terms that have had a rocky history for modern brand names.

“Organic”

Although all of the latest diets say to go ‘organic’, not all products can be labelled this way – even if they are organic. The reason for this is because an organic product must declare which body determines its organic composition. To further confuse matters, different governing bodies may have varying standards for what constitutes as organic.

“Light “ or “lite”

Interestingly, the use of “light” or “lite” is quite the grey area with dairy products. For the dairy industry in the UK, a product labelled “light” or “lite” must have at least 30% less fat or calories than the “full” version of the product. Additionally, the label must also define the details such as what has been reduced and by how much.

Of course, when a product is reduced in one area, it is often supplemented in another to retain flavour. And, because this labelling requirement is within a brand, the “light” or “lite” version may actually be nutritionally similar to the standard “full” version of another brand.

Natural” or “all-natural”

Another trend among the health-conscious is going “all natural.” However, some brands have found it difficult to keep up. The Kashi cereal company once claimed that a variety of their food was “all-natural.” But, just a glance of the ingredients list proved otherwise. Even with a single synthetic ingredient, the term “all-natural” is off the table. The brand nixed the term after a $5 million settlement.

“Essential” ingredients

The use of “essential” when referring to ingredients can be a grey area although it is used a lot. Brands all over the world have claimed their products contain “12 essential vitamins” or “9 of your essential daily minerals.” Referred to as ‘angel dusting,’ these claims are often empty. Even if the products do contain the vitamins and minerals, it is usually in negligible quantities with no proven health benefits.

The discussion of truth in brand names has always been, well, a discussion. Especially with the current state of world news, the discussion of truth is more palpable today than ever before and not just for brands. As languages and trends evolve, so do the terms that we trust. But, without this scrutiny of terms and alternative facts, we would never improve.

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For further info. you might want to visit design rush: Naming Agencies

How Creative Suffixes Help Brands Get Attention

Fri, 27 Jan 2017 09:00:00 GMT

In past blogs, we’ve written about trends that occur over the years for brand names. Some of these include the .com naming trend, blended names and even numbers in names. Though some trends have slowed down or have all but disappeared, new trends are always appearing as times change.

One particularly interesting trend is the use of creative suffixes. Using a suffix allows the name to become a different part of speech and therefore evoke a particular vibe from customers. The use of suffixes has a history dating back over 100 years. There was a trend to use suffixes such as “-oid,” “-ite,” and “-ine.” We saw them with Polaroid, Marmite, and Listerine. These noun suffixes tend to be for products and things whereas verbal suffixes tend to be for services. Rather recently, we have seen an influx in brands using suffixes to produce action words through verbs and adverbs.

For instance, a brand can create an adverb by adding -ly to a noun or adjective. Or, they can produce a verb with the –ize or –ify suffix. With this addition, the brand names instantly acquire a dynamism that the noun (e.g. spot, ad, business), without the suffix, would be non-existent. Of course, there are two types of suffixes that can be used. The first is a brand name suffix and the other, and the more recent, is a URL suffix. With the use of a top-level domain (TLD), brands entered the 21st century by bringing their brand online. In some cases, it was nearly exclusively online.

The use of .ly has become more and more popular in the last few years. Although it’s the domain for Libya, brands worldwide have caught onto the adverb-creating suffix. Examples include bit.ly, clever.ly, and grammar.ly. Using this suffix, the adjectives and nouns become adverbs instantly.

Reach.ly has chance to thank for their brand name. Ernests Stals explains to The Next Web writer Abhimanyu Ghoshal that their original choice was “reach.it,” using the Italian domain suffix.

Because this was taken, their domain naming service recommended Reach.ly. They took it as it “sounded just as good and easy to remember.” Regardless, both the .it and .ly give “reach” the suffix it needs to become more than a simple verb.

Starting with the widely popular Spotify in 2008, Crunchbase, an innovative company directory platform, had 338 brands registered that used “ify” or a variation as of 2014. On this list are Bizify, an online business directory; Healthify, healthcare software; and Distractify, a leading source of entertainment news.

The “-ify” suffix is used in English to transform a noun or adjective into a verb. It occurs in words such as clarify, solidify, falsify, and glorify. Some brands have used the suffix on a name that is already a verb (Boostify, an in-app marketing tool, for example). Using the verb suffix in this way, particularly on a dynamic word like boost gives the brand a kind of grammatical double dynamism.

Grammatical brand names have been a part of the brand landscape for a number of years, but there are always new avenues to be discovered. And the option to create a distinctive, trademark compatible name that also has good URL options makes this a useful option for any brand naming agency.

If you’re in need of a new brand or product name, drop us a line or visit us on our social media pages. The experts at Appella can discern the trendy from the smart to give your brand the longevity it needs.

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Hoover or Vacuum? What Happens When Product Names Become Products

Fri, 30 Dec 2016 14:27:00 GMT

In our last blog, we explored brand name trends and how they begin. As unique as they start, trends also die out for a variety of reasons. But this dying out of brand names is often due to cultural shift.

This can be the result of a variety of changes in the economy, global and domestic politics, or even some clever marketing. Most interestingly, some brands can even develop such commercial dominance.

Perhaps the best scenario for a brand is genericisation or, put simply, when a brand name and the product have become so common and popular that it instead comes to represent the entire product category. One great example of this is the use of “hoover” instead of “vacuum cleaner.” Hoover is actually a brand of vacuum cleaners, among other appliances, which are still in production today. A simple search online for “hoover” not only brings up the company profile, but also their line of vacuum cleaners while other brands appear in the pair-for ad space. The advanced engineering of their flagship device enabled “hoover” to become a genericised brand name despite the fact that it wasn’t the top selling vacuum cleaner.

Of course, we’re all familiar with the term biro. Rather than simply a pen, it refers to a rather specific cheap ballpoint pen. The branded Biro Pen is an eponym. It was a ground-breaking invention by Laszlo Biro and his brother in the 1940s and they later sold their patent to the Bic company in the 1950s. The pen was remarketed as the Cristal Ball Pen, which is still in production today, yet retained its original brand name. Writers all over the world use this brand of pen but it is only the British who use the term “biro.” Likewise, this term refers to this specific pen as well as other branded pens that fall into the cheap ballpoint pen category.

Other examples of this genericisation which reflect commercial dominance include Xerox for a photocopier (often used in the USA) and Kleenex for tissues. Some brand names have become the product name so much so that some speakers cannot name the generic product (Blu-Tack [putty-like adhesive], Pritt Stick [glue stick], Google [search engine]).

It’s clear that a good brand name or product name can, quite literally, be profitable for the company. All you need is a little commercial luck.

However, a great brand name comes from appropriate research that can be tested time and time again against a growing culture and society. Here at Appella, our work produces brand and product names that can stand the test of time so your brand remains relevant.

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Brand Name Trends Through the Years – What’s Nxt?

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 09:00:00 GMT

Trends in brand and product names tend to sweep through the country leaving no industry unturned. From automotive to food, trends for brand names can be the result of anything from politics to pop culture.

Some trends have transcended the common expiration date and are still alive today. In the 1970s, “x” suffixing and prefixing was quite fashionable. You’d instantly recognise some names such as Xerox, Cemex, Exxon, and Xanax. Across the pond, Clorox, Kleenex, and Windex were all household names in the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, respectively. On the other hand, some trends die out such as the scientific “-ine” suffix of the 1870s that you can see in Ovaltine, Listerine, Vaseline, and moustache gel Thrixaline, and the Quaker family names for confectionary, Fry’s, Rowntrees, and Cadbury’s.

As we discussed in our recent blog, The Use of Numb3rs in Br4nd Name5 , numbers have been used throughout brand history for a variety of reasons. Less of a trend and more of a style, numbers can relay meaning about a brand or even be seen as lucky.

In the 1990s, along with the Dot Com Bubble , was the rise of brand names with “e-” as well as the “.com” suffix, also known as TLD (Top Level Domain). The advances in electronics and technologies surely had some input as we saw Match.com, Pets.com, and Boo.com.

In the 1990s, we also saw the use of acronyms. FCUK, which stands for French Connection United Kingdom, was part of a rebrand in 1991. Of course, the use of the acronym helped to gain attention because, at first glance, it looks like an expletive. WKD is another example of an acronym. The popular vodka beverage is pronounced “wicked” and came in a rainbow of colours. FUBU, founded in 1992, stands for “for us, by us” and is a clothing brand designed for the black community in the USA. With this love for acronyms in mind, some people believed that Adidas stands for “all day I dream about sports.” However, it is actually a portmanteau of the founder’s first name and surname, Adolf (Adi) Dassler.

In today’s culture, brands have instant worldwide reach thanks to the internet. With this reach comes the need for names that can both compete on a global level and have the sought after .com TLD. The internet has also increased the creativity in the naming field to enable the elusive .com to be tied to the brand name. Blends are one way of getting around this particular obstacle, think Travelocity (from “travel” and “velocity”), Accenture (from “accent” and “future”), Pinterest (from “pin” and “interest”) and Appella’s names for Mars product Fruitasia (from “fruit” and “fantasia”) and FT top 250 company Essentra (from “essential” and “central”).

Another current company naming trend is adding the “-ify” suffix. Starting with the widely popular Spotify in 2008, Crunchbase, an innovative company directory platform, had 338 brands registered that used “ify” or a variation as of 2014. On this list is Bizify, an online business directory; Healthify, healthcare software; and Distractify, a leading source of entertainment news. The “-ify” suffix is used in English to transform a noun or adjective into a verb. Despite this usage in our language, some brands have used the suffix on a name that is already a verb (Boostify, an in-app marketing tool, for example).

What these modern brand name trends do is literally bring a brand to life. By creating a verb with –ify, the brand names are instantly given life that, without the suffix, would be non-existent.

Another internet-age trend in brand and product naming is vowel deletion which is also known as disemvoweling. First documented in the 1990s, vowel deletion became especially popular in 2008 and was even named in the Top 50 Inventions of 2008 by TIME Magazine (it ranked at #42). This method has been seen throughout brands, products, and companies. Originally, Twitter was twttr but made the switch to include vowels shortly after launch. The Twitter team were reportedly inspired by Flickr, a photo and video hosting website. Other brands with disemvowelment include WKD, Tumblr, TRND Labs, Slobbr, Grindr and UNBXD. Despite the lack of vowels, readers are still able to pronounce these brand names with ease.

Vowel deletion is a widely discussed topic. While some may think that it’s laziness and brought on with txt speak (the shorthand typing used for text messaging), that’s not quite the case. Having the final consonant as a syllable is actually quite common in east Slavic languages. Additionally, vowel deletion allows brand owners to trademark an otherwise common word.

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Do you think you could predict any brand name trends for 2017?

The Use of Numb3rs in Br4nd Name5

Sat, 22 Oct 2016 08:34:00 GMT

The use of numbers in brand naming is seen all over the world and throughout industries from automotive to food to technology. The use of numbers can have a variety of purposes such as details about a product or service, an association with the brand’s history, or simply to stand out.

Beyond the previously sought-after Yellow Pages ranking, numbers in brands and products today often share useful information with the consumer. In the automotive industry, some business naming tactics include the use of alphanumeric names to denote when in a series a certain vehicle has been released or even vehicle size. For example, BMW use the term 7 Series for their luxury saloons which are larger than the 5 Series midsize luxury cars and the 3 Series compact premium car.

Information sharing, the does-what-it-says kind, is an important brand name style. Coke Zero was named because it contains zero grams of sugar. Similarly, 7-11, the popular convenience stores in the USA, used to be open from 7 o’clock in the morning until 11 o’clock at night. Kronenberg 1664, the delicious pale lager, was named for the original Kronenberg Brewery which was built in 1664. These kinds of identity brand names refer to the brand’s history and can make iconic names.

Another great example of the use of numbers in a range of brand name styles is the idiomatic name 123 Reg, a domain name registration company whose service is as easy as 1, 2, 3. In some cases, the use of numbers is a bit of a riddle. Bidvest Foodservice, formerly known as 3663 Catering Equipment, cleverly chose their numbers because they spell “food” on a telephone keypad.

Before you start thinking of your brand’s next numerical product name, some number are off limits. The number 666 is famously associated with the devil in many cultures as it is named the “number of the Beast” in the Book of Revelation. While the number 13 is considered good luck in India, many cultures avoid it at all costs. Some buildings even skip labelling the 13th floor and the lift moves from floor 12 to floor 14 sequentially. In Japan, the number 9 is phonetically similar to a word meaning “torture” and is therefore seldom used. In China, the number 4 (四, pinyin sì) is considered unlucky due to its phonetic similarities to the word “death” (死, pinyin sǐ). The Chinese often omit the 4th floor as well as the 14th floor in their buildings.

When Apple unveiled the all-new iPhone 7, their marketing got a few laughs among Cantonese speakers. Opting for “This is iPhone 7” as their long-used tagline, Cantonese speakers explained that “7” is the equivalent to an English slang term for the male appendage.

The number 7 also appears in the phrase “7th heaven” which originates from ancient Mesopotamia. Without a clear etymology, the phrase is thought to be a symbolic concept. Sumerian hymns and incantations of the 2nd millennium BCE use the phrases “the heavens are seven, the earths are seven.” This influence of the number suggests that it has magical properties; it also appears in Babylonian magical rituals while both Jewish and Islamic cultures feature seven heavens.

The use of numbers in brand names can have an array of meanings, some of which could be detrimental. To ensure your brand or product name hits the correct mark, get in touch with the experts at Appella.

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Brexit, Brangelina, and Our Love for Blended Names

Wed, 14 Sep 2016 09:00:00 GMT

By now, you’ve certainly heard of Brexit and instantly know that it’s a combination of two words: Britain and exit. You also know it refers to the EU referendum vote held in June 2016. While this combination of words is clever, blended words, the technical name, exist throughout our culture. Everything from brand names to politics to celebrity couples has been blended.

For example, once Brexit went mainstream, people everywhere began wondering what other countries would be called if they, too, were to succeed from a union. Rife with creativity, some notable examples include Byegium, Noraway, Czechout, Italeave, Splitzerland, as well as Texit for our American friends.

In popular culture, blended names have become a norm with every new celebrity couple. Also called supercouple nicknames, these blends include Brangelina for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Kimye for Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, and Billary for Bill and Hillary Clinton.

But, this trend isn’t anything new. Hollywood couple Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were referred to “Pickfair” back in the 1920s. Similarly, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were dubbed “Desilu” in the 1960s.

There’s a reason that these names work: in just a few syllables an entire and exact schema can be portrayed – all in a single word. We use some everyday blended words, too, and not just because it makes conversation easier but because new products or concepts have been invented. Consider the spork (spoon+fork), glamping (glam+camping), smog (smoke+fog), and even motel (motor+hotel).

It is because of these neologisms that brands all over the world have employed blended words to create brand and product names. Fruitasia fruit bars, developed by Appella, combines “Fantasia” and “fruit.” Fantasia is, of course, an animated Disney film but it also means fantasy in a variety of European languages which is the target market. FT top 250 company Essentra – named in conjunction with Brand Union – combines global words essential and central for a company specialising in engineering ingredient manufacturing. A good company name that started out as one of a host of business name ideas. Similarly, Nescafé, the coffee brand by Nestlé, is a blended name that features the brand name as well as the globally recognisable word “café” or coffee.

However, some cultural blends can be difficult to work out if you’re not up to date on the latest celebrity gossip. On the other hand, with the correct research, blended brand names can be quite successful as they are not restricted to certain words or names. Appella employ a thorough research process that captures the intended brand essence and proposition for each brand and product. From there, we ensure the name passes multiple cultural and legal tests which include global reach and pronunciation.

Be sure to check out our website , find us on Facebook , and connect with us on LinkedIn .

What’s In a Name? Turns Out, a Lot.

Tue, 16 Aug 2016 08:22:00 GMT

Here at Appella, we use a variety of methods to help companies of all sizes choose brand and product names. Often times, our process creates a name that means something, whether that’s to the industry or to potential customers, and that it’s appropriate for speakers of the target language.

However, some brand names have a story.

Many recognisable brand names come from anecdotal beginnings. For instance, Virgin Group, started by Richard Branson, was originally named when he and a business partner opened a record shop. With a lack of experience, the partners considered themselves “virgins” in the industry.

Other brands go for less romantic origins and opt for a name similar to the founders’ names. For instance, IKEA was named after the initials of founder Ingvar Kamprad, the farm he grew up on (Elmtaryd), and his hometown in Sweden (Agunnaryd). Similarly, Walmart, as well as Sam’s Club, was founded by Sam Walton. As you can see, both his first name and surname for their brand names. Tom Lyle Williams noticed the arduous makeup routine of his older sister, Mabel, and, using some chemistry, developed a type of mascara. The makeup was eventually sold under the brand name Maybelline in honor of his sister.

A common type of brand naming is to use contextual words or create blends with industry-specific words. Vodafone is a great example as it stands for vo ice, da ta, ph (f)one . Intel, on the other hand, is a blend word for integrated electronics. Appella’s name for government procurement agency Catalist is another example as is the Aquada, the James Bond-like car named by Appella. A blend of aquatic and autostrada, Richard Branson once drove this car across the English Channel!

Drawing on characters from history or even fiction is a very popular method for both brand and product names. Starbucks is named after the chief mate in Moby-Dick but the creators had first considered Cargo House and Pequod, another character from the same book. Despite the obvious focus on the book, the founders say there is no connection. Additionally, Appella’s name for a Jacobs snack, Crackobites, refers to the Jacobs masterbrand and the seventeenth century Jacobite movement to return Stuart kings to the throne of England.

The classical world also provides a rich source for brand naming. Nike was originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports and went through a (very) successful rebrand to be named after the Greek god of victory. The name change continued the concept of winning.

Not immediately recognisable as a classical allusion, the Subaru is the Japanese name of the star constellation Pleiades, also known as Seven Sisters. Chosen by the first president of Fuji Heavy Industries, the Subaru logo features a graphic of the constellation although it only features six stars. The stars represent Fuji Heavy Industries along with the five subsidiaries.

Even Appella’s recent Middle Eastern dairy range for Kerrygold, Eureka, harks back to Archimedes’s famous exclamation from his bath on discovering the theory of determining the volume of an object with an irregular shape on seeing his bathwater rise as he got in, which was the only reason this word came into English.

Naming is rarely a single-step process such as is the case with many of the brands listed above. At Appella, we take into account everything from your preferences to your competitors’ brand and product names. From there, we use our own Black Box and our lexicon of globally recognised words in the creation and validation of suitable names.

For example, Appella developed the name Oyster Card for London’s travel system. Tasked with evoking ideas of travel, stored currency, security, and modernity all with a London theme, the name came about due to its metaphorical implications; the strong shell keeps safe the beautiful pearl inside. Additionally, it draws on the Thames estuary oyster beds as well as the ever-popular phrase “the world is your oyster.”

Before deciding to create your own word blend or possibly produce a linguistic faux pas in the public eye, get in touch to see how the Appella process can work for your brand.

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Shakespeare Is Alive and Well in Many Brands

Mon, 04 Jul 2016 10:00:00 GMT

As we discussed in an earlier blog, the reach of Shakespeare in our modern world is immense. Translated into over 80 languages worldwide and providing the English language hundreds of new words and phrases, it comes as no surprise that companies have hopped on the brand-wagon (see what we did there?) to capitalise on his good fortune and talent.

Getty Images

For some companies, using a word or name related to the 16th-century writer, or even his name itself, can be an attempt to pander to a more intelligent or sophisticated audience. Some states in America have opted for Shakespeare as a town name, such as Shakespeare, New Mexico, a ghost town. Also notable is ShakesBeer, a beer festival held every year in Stratford, Connecticut (as opposed to Stratford, UK, the 16th-century author’s birthplace).

The use of Shakespearean characters is also extremely common. The moons of Uranus, for example, use a total of 19 characters; including Titania, Ariel, Puck, Miranda, and Oberon; for the 21 total moons. As you may recall, the name Oberon is also used in Star Wars as the personal starship for the Jedi Knight Jarat Shimell’elio. A popular washing powder brand also uses the name Ariel while Othello has been used for a board game, a brand of bathroom accessories, a brand of bedding, and so much more.

However, it is the neologisms, or newly coined words, of Shakespeare that often go unnoticed. These words fill our everyday speech and writing yet we seldom stop to thank the name himself for their existence.

Interceptor and Mountaineer, both types of vehicles by Jensen and Mercury respectively, have Shakespeare to thank for their appellations and occur in multiple works. Majestic Wine as well as Eventful, an online events discovery service, would have had different names if it weren’t for ol’ Shakespeare. “Majestic,” in fact, occurs in a total of ten different plays while “eventful” occurs in just one (As You Like It).

MasterCard has had a hugely fruitful campaign based on the word “priceless,” which is also a Shakespeare neologism and occurs just once in the Rape of Lucrece. The campaign was so successful that the credit card giant has developed Priceless into its own brand where online users can find fun experiences and attractions in various cities.

Expedia, the travel company, is known for allowing you to expedite your travel plans with the convenience of a single website. But, the creators of the brand would have been at a loss for the correct word had it not been for the neologism “expedience.”

Airless, assassination, frugal, manager, torturer, and transcendence have more in common than being created by Shakespeare; they’re also all names of films all over the world. The Shakespearean neologism “unreal” is also used in Hollywood as a popular American television program.

Of course, the scope of this blog post only covers a thin slice of the far reach that Shakespeare has had. Do you know of any brands named after his neologisms?

To find out more about naming your brand, check out our website , find us on Facebook , and make sure to connect with us on LinkedIn .

Dot Com Branding Trends

Thu, 23 Jun 2016 09:00:00 GMT

In a time not too long ago, there was a huge market that was untapped in every sense of the word. The internet was becoming a “thing” after making its public debut in 1994 and everyone was logging onto the World Wide Web to play games, communicate, research, and purchase products. Entrepreneurs and companies alike were founding new brands and even rebranding to capitalise by adding an “e-” prefix or a “.com” suffix to their business names, the newest trend among brand names.

This process is now known as “prefix investing”. Looking at trademark registrations over 1999 – 2001, there are literally hundreds of e- prefixed registrations such as e-touch, e-card, e-takeaway, e-start. eBay and Ebookers are probably the best known. Then, suddenly, not only was there a plethora of e- prefixes, but .COM suffixes were seemingly added to every other new name. Lastminute.com is one of the most memorable owing to the incredible publicity over its IPO launch and stellar backing.

However, there are downsides to investing in a trend during a rebrand or when going through brand naming. Trends come and go as quickly with the seasons and, as with all investments, it’s difficult to predict what will happen next. If the internet had gone out of style, all of those companies would need yet another rebrand to not appear out of touch or outdated. Even with its success, there is a likelihood that the market will become too saturated and having the “e-” prefix or the “.com” suffix would come off as corny or tacky. As predicted by some economy experts, March 10, 2000 marked the pinnacle of the dot com bubble with its abrupt bursting occurring not long after in late 2001.

Those such companies, notably eBay and Amazon.com, suffered a drop in share price when the bubble burst but recovered (and then some). That said, it should be noted, the “e-” in eBay actually stood for “Echo,” as in “Echo Bay” as opposed to “electronic” as in “email.” Likewise, we seldom use the largest online retailer’s full brand name and tend to crop it down to just “Amazon.”

Other .com brands have become increasingly popular over time to keep the trend alive. Because so many were impacted when the bubble burst, they seem to all follow a familiar series of events including mergers, acquisitions, and sales of the brands followed by some influential marketing.

For instance, the popular online dating site Match.com went live in 1995 as one of the early pioneers of the internet. Yet, in 1998, it was purchased by a large parent company and then again in 1999 by another. Merging with Love@AOL, Match.com went on to have a massive website redesign and iconic black and white adverts in 2006 which increased its popularity.

In addition to finding love, finding the perfect travel deal was an early mission for internet users. Booking.com was established in 1996 and, after a merger in 2000, was purchased by the Priceline Group in 2005. Similarly, Lastminute.com went live in 1998, was acquired in 2005 after no recorded profits since 2000, and most recently, sold in 2014. While Hotels.com was established way back in 1991, they didn’t add the “.com” suffix until 2002. As of 2005, the brand operates under Expedia.

Another possible downside to the e-prefix and .com style, which also occurs outside of the dot com realm, is the issue of distinctiveness. When qualifying a descriptive word in this way, it’s often assumed the brand owners can monopolise it. In some cases, like “e-cigarette,” the name becomes generic which could negatively impact a brand’s success. Similarly, the “e-” prefix has become increasingly popular with terms such as “eBikes” (those that are electronically powered) and the invention of “ePaper” (the screen style used for Kindle and other eBooks).

More recently, we’ve been in a new tech bubble. Since the debut of the Apple iPod in 2005 and the subsequent “i-” products by Apple, such as iPod and iMac, we’ve seen a slew of products with the iconic lowercase “i” in the name to denote the technological advancement of a product. However, the iPhone brand name was saved by using the generic “smartphone” descriptor.

If you’re wondering about whether to prefix invest, get in touch with the experts at Appella. Be sure to check out our website , find us on Facebook , and connect with us on LinkedIn .

Shakespeare Quiz

Wed, 11 May 2016 11:15:00 GMT

Shakespeare has been successfully translated into more than 80 languages all over the world – including Klingon and Esperanto. He’s credited with bringing nearly 1,700 common words into the English language and forever changing the way we communicate and speak (and sometimes spell). Shakespeare achieved this by using words as new parts of speech (such as making a noun a verb), adding suffixes and prefixes, and even joining multiple words to create phrases with new meanings.

In honour of April being both his birth and death month and this year the 400th anniversary of his death, we’ve built a quiz to test your knowledge. Can you identify from which plays these common words and phrases originated?

Assassination

Wild-Goose Chase

What the dickens

Besmirch

The world is your oyster
Method to his madness

Love is blind

Bedroom

Eyeball

Moonbeam

Puking

Marketable

Bonus :

Wonder what Appella has in common with Shakespeare? Check out our previous blog to find out!

How many did you get? Check out the answers below!

Assassination:

Macbeth: Act I Scene VII, Macbeth

“If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here… ”

Wild-goose chase:

Romeo & Juliet : Act II Scene IV, Mercutio

“Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase , I am done;
For thou hast more of the wild goose in one of thy wits than,
I am sure, I have in my whole five.”

What the dickens:

The Merry Wives of Windsor : Act II Scene II, Mistress Page

“I cannot tell what the dickens his name is…”

Besmirch:

Hamlet : Act I Scene III, Laertes

“The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,
And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own”

The world is your oyster:

The Merry Wives of Windsor : Act II Scene II, Pistol

“Why, then the world’s mine oyster , which I with sword will open.”

Method to his madness:

Hamlet : Act II Scene II, Polonius

“Though this be madness, yet here is method in’t.”

Love is blind:

The Merchant of Venice : Act II Seven IV, Jessica

“But love is blind , and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit…”

Bedroom:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream : Act II Scene II, Lysander

“Then by your side no bed-room me de ny;
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.”

Eyeball:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream : Act III Scene II, Oberon

“Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye;
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
To take from thence all error with his might,
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.”

Moonbeam:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream : Act III Scene I, Titania

“To have my love to bed and to arise;
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.”

Puking:

As You Like It: Act II Scene VII, Jacques

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.”

Marketable:

As You Like It : Act I Scene II, Celia

“All the better; we shall be more marketable .”

At Appella, we’re well into our second decade of shaking, shaping, bending, and compounding words to come up with creatively appropriate names for all kinds of circumstances.

To find out more about naming your brand with the Appella process, check out our website , find us on Facebook , and make sure to connect with us on LinkedIn .

A Shakespeare Riddle

Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:46:00 GMT

Here’s a riddle to commemorate 23rd April as William Shakespeare’s death-day.

Q: What have Windsor, The London Underground, Stratford and Appella have in common?

A: Appella’s name Oyster for London Underground’s new ticketing system opened in 2003 was conceived and promoted internally on the basis of its reference to the Shakespearean phrase: ‘The world’s my oyster’ which comes from the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor Act II, Scene ii, line 3. It is from a passage where Falstaff refuses to lend Pistol any money. Pistol responds, ‘ Why, then the world’s mine oyster, which I with sword will open .’

ISIS

Wed, 06 Apr 2016 10:38:00 GMT

ISIS. For many people, that stands for Islamic State, one of the most notorious extremist groups in the world. For others, it refers to the first daughter of Geb in Egyptian mythology. But, for some, it means business. As of today, over 80 companies in the UK have a registered trademark that uses the name “Isis” or a phonetic variant.

Typically, when we see a brand name failure, we assume it’s due to a lack of research or an absence of cultural understanding. When the American Dairy Association attempted to gain international awareness, they ended up asking Spanish speakers “¿Tienes leche?” rather than the iconic “Got Milk?” However, their translation is actually a double entendre to ask “are you lactating?” Ikea, who are known for their funky Swedish product names, released the “Gutvik” bunk bed in Germany without realising that “gut” means “good” in German and “vik” sounds dangerously similar to their equivalent to the English f-word.

However, some requirements for rebranding arise due to the uncontrollable and unforeseeable: developments of such scale and significance that virtually no one can correlate the name with anything else.

<h2> Enter ISIS. </h2>

Isis has been a popular name for products and companies. She was the goddess of health, marriage, and wisdom and therefore the perfect symbol to drive sales and success. However, since the rise of attacks accredited to Islamic State in the past few years, more and more companies have felt obliged to change their similar brand name.

Although the extremist group had been publicly known for months, Isis Pharmaceuticals didn’t undergo a name change until December 2015 when, after the attacks in Paris, their stock dropped 4%. They opted for “Ionis Pharmaceuticals” in a bid to retain some of the brand’s identity sans extremist connotation.

Ann Summers initially apologised for their Isis range of lingerie, named in honour of the Egyptian goddess, which debuted in late summer 2014. Although they claimed they wouldn’t take the line down, the products from the range on the website no longer bear the name but instead use “Goddess.”

Conversely, there are some brands and organisations that didn’t change. The Boat Race, an annual rowing event between Oxford and Cambridge, saw the name Isis as Oxford’s reserve crew. Named after a section in the River Thames, they have not made the change to something less newsworthy, nor has the student publication The Isis Magazine, established in 1892. Sometimes, tradition and heritage can outweigh even the most compelling argument for change.

Before the digital and social media age, which now drives so much consumer brand awareness, the same external pressure could force change. For instance, in the 1980s Robertson’s renamed and then renounced the Golly badge for its range of jams while DARKIE toothpaste transitioned to DARLIE (but retained its iconic logo). The speed and scope for transforming public perception brought by the internet, however, allows less time to think through such change. Ironically, Islamic State have been successful in their notoriety precisely because they’ve exploited those same social media networks. It didn’t matter how much research they had done in the naming process; ISIS gained fame instantly, rapidly, and negatively.

After building a brand for years, or, in some cases, decades, determining a new name can often be much more complex than finding the first. When a company rebrands to avoid association with an extremist group, time is of the essence and a hard earned reputation is on the line. That’s where Appella’s process really comes into its own, supporting creativity with rigour and efficiency plus an understanding of cultural and linguistic sensitivities to beat the tightest deadlines, making the process as quick and painless as possible all while retaining the brand’s integrity and reputation.

To find out more about naming your brand with the Appella process, check out our website , find us on Facebook , and make sure to connect with us on LinkedIn .

Generic Trademarks

Fri, 04 Mar 2016 11:31:00 GMT

<h1> Hoovering, Googling, and How to Stay a Brand </h1>

Do you put a Band-Aid on a cut or a plaster? Do you say you’ve done the hoovering or the vacuuming? When you conduct an online search are you, in fact, Googling?

Sometimes, when a brand sells a product so well it becomes synonymous with that product. Along with this recognition, the brand’s product becomes so popular that it becomes a prototype among consumers for that item. Going a step further, this brand or product can actually become what is called a proprietary eponym. When this occurs, the brand name or product name is what consumers nearly exclusively use to talk about a single generic item.

Also known as a generic trademark, this phenomenon is a lot more common than you may think. It could occur due to a quality product becoming extra popular or because a brand has invented a certain product yet to be effectively challenged. One such popular name is Kleenex for a disposable facial tissue which entrenched itself through its 1930s marketing “Don’t carry a cold in your pocket!” Another such name is Velcro for the hook and loop fastener (although it’s simply just the company’s name). Despite common usage, each is still protected as a registered trademark.

You may think that these brands are lucky to get loads of extra attention, which they are, but are we taking these names for granted? How grateful are we to have found a generic trademark, Zipper, rather than having to say “Johnnie, close your hookless slide fastener!”? Or what about having to say “moving staircase” in place of escalator (because that generates a totally different mental image)?

Some brands lost trademark protection for their brand despite trying to retain it for as long as they could. Originally trademarking the name Tabloid, a blend of “tablet” and “alkaloid,” Burroughs Wellcome & Co deployed it to protect their innovative condensed pill product from less expensive imitations. Winning case after case for the trademark, the name Tabloid was soon synonymous with “quality” and used across the business for other Burroughs & Wellcome Co products. But, due to a finding in a case in 1903 where the judge ruled the name Tabloid had gained a secondary definition and the trademark was no longer exclusive to Burroughs & Wellcome Co. Today, we use the word “tabloid” for small format newspapers (those with condensed stories).

But, how do you stop your brand becoming a victim of its own generic success? Ultimately, it comes down to how others – the consumer and the media – use the name. That use can be shaped by the brand owner. Registering it as a trade mark is just one part of the jigsaw. To keep the brand seen as such, visualize it as a brand, capitalized and marked TM (or ® when it’s registered); avoid using it as a verb; and, for innovative products, nurture a generic descriptor to sit alongside it. That way, a great name can build your brand with less risk of simultaneous self-destruction.

To find out more about naming your brand, check out our website , find us on Facebook , and make sure to connect with us on LinkedIn .

Coffee

Tue, 02 Feb 2016 16:40:00 GMT

<h1> Ordering Coffee Everywhere in the World </h1>

Knowing how to say “hello” in the local language where you’re travelling is important. That first extension of politeness is essential to start a conversation. Equally as important is being able to express gratitude as you more than likely will be asking someone for help. But, even more paramount than these decencies is being able to order a hot cup of coffee just how you like it.

As with many globally popular products, you can mostly rely on a single pronunciation to get by, much like Coca-Cola (Кока-Кола in Russian, κοκα κολα in Greek, kók in Icelandic). We get the English word “coffee” from the Arabic word “qahwah.” As you’ve probably already noticed, “coffee” sounds a lot like “café,” used in Spanish.

Using the word “café” or its variations will certainly get you far. “Caffe marocchino” will get you a hot coffee and cocoa blend in Italy, but only “antoccino” will get you a traditional coffee served with milk. “Café,” of course, works in Spain and many Central and South American countries yet you’ll need to specify further ingredients such as milk and sugar. Other variants of “café” also work in Vietnam (“ca phe da”) for hot coffee with condensed milk and ice, Senegal (“café touba”) to have it complete with African black pepper, as well as Austria and Switzerland (“café melange”) to have it topped with whipped cream.

Although coffee was once banned in Germany in the 17th century, a large coffee topped with ice cream, whipped cream, and chocolate chips can now be ordered via the variation “eiskaffee” (literally “ice coffee”). If you’re looking for something a bit more adult, “pharisaer” will get you black coffee with two shots of rum and some whipped cream.

In Hong Kong, java drinkers use 鸳鸯 (pinyin: “yuanyang”) for a lovely three parts coffee and seven parts Hong Kong-style milk tea. But this actually translates to “Mandarin duck” in English. Yet, outside of this Chinese city, 咖啡 (literally “ka” and “fei”) will do you just fine. In Swahili, the word for coffee is “kahawa.” The etymology is linked directly with the Arabic “qahwah.”

Touching each of the seven continents, the term “coffee” and its variants are incredibly global including phonetic similarities across number language families. Because the pronunciations of all of these terms are so similar, coffee can be ordered anywhere with ease by virtually anyone. Brand names, such as Coca-Cola, function similarly and with an easier pronunciation they can be more recognisable and usable by more people.

Find out more about brand names, language use, and what we do by visiting us at www.appella.net . Make sure to follow us on Facebook and connect with us on LinkedIn .

mobile phone names

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:43:00 GMT

We had look at the mobile phone market and discovered an interesting difference in naming strategies between the main competitors. First thing to note was the preference they all had for one word names. More stand out and faster communicability.

Blackberry focused on their own highly prominent brand name but use two figurative English words: TORCH and CURVE. CURVE instantly jumps out as being very similar to a common word for ‘bitch, whore’ (kurva, kurvë) in most of the main languages of South-Eastern Europe including: Czech, Slovak, Serbian, Croatian and Hungarian .

The global approach taken by HTC may have occasionally given them names that are not a perfect fit brand identity-wise. But with names like RADAR, TITAN, SENSATION and MOZART, the added value of world-wide recognisability and, therefore, appeal has meant that more borders can be crossed and more consumers reached for less extra branding. SALSA is an interesting one in that, in addition to the dance and spiced tomato sauce meaning, it also means ‘mud’ and ‘volcano’ in Italian and ‘parsley’ in Brazilian Portuguese. It isn’t commonly used in Czech or Polish either. So it is something of a global enchufla. (This is a salsa dance step where partners facing each other change positions around the same point by 180° keeping contact with one or two hands). That is to say, a lot of noise and not very much global mileage to show for it.

The figurative and abstract word variant option taken by Samsung probably meant easier and cheaper trademark work but probably slightly less global appeal compared with HTC. For instance BADA is very similar to pada Bengali and Hindi for ‘to fart’.

Motorola’s masculine and youthful approach covers a range of name types but sticks with a largely English language provenance.

LG’s VIEWTY and OPTIMUS are a bit of a mish-mash name wise, one clever one but that tends to makes you feel as if you have a speech defect and one ultra traditional namer’s kind of name that seems to come from the age of Dickens. Either that or the namers sent the name for their multi-national business services name down the wire instead of the phone name.