8 Naming 1: Give yourself two meanings

8

NAMING 1: GIVE YOURSELF TWO MEANINGS

Naming is a specialism within branding which can take months, and millions. Considering the amount that organisations spend on packaging, advertising and many other things that go into launching a new brand, it’s understandable that they want to get the name right. Some use specialist agencies, but most companies invent their own names, some of which are excellent.

When you’re naming a brand in English, you are presented with an array of potential double meanings which sometimes work for you, but can work against you. If you’re naming in English, and English isn’t your fi rst language, please do check with a native speaker that you haven’t mistakenly used one of our many many double meanings. Some of them can be rather rude. On the other hand, when you do it successfully you create a memorable name for yourself.

The idea Yogamatters is a small British company started at the end of the 20th century. Unsurprisingly, their very fi rst product was yoga mats. Given that a hatter is someone who makes or sells hats, it’s reasonable to think that a matter would be someone who makes or sells mats. Everyone at Yogamatters practises yoga and many are qualifi ed teachers; they even have their own yoga studio at their

north London premises. So it’s equally true to say that yoga matters to them.

They use a play on words that will make people smile in recognition. They’ve positioned themselves as a committed, friendly yoga organisation by combining two words in a playful and intelligent way.

There is no easy way to set about a naming project. Sometimes a name will come to you seemingly out of the blue—probably from years of thinking about brand names and collecting inspiration from all around you—but there is no guarantee that this will happen when you want it to.

In practice • Write down all the words you can think of that apply to your organisation. Combine them in pairs, then see if something useful drops out. • Always check that the name isn’t already a registered trademark in your area of business.