Helpful words
Need a name but
don’t have a
budget?
We wrote two books about naming things, and you can buy them. Either you’ll end up with a name—or with the knowledge that paying us to do the work is worth it.
Hypefeast: Safe names are bland
For the brave souls who have decided to launch a consumer packaged goods brand in the past few years, brand naming was likely as important as their proprietary blend of herbs and spices. In the increasingly diverse and thoughtfully branded consumer goods world, standouts no longer whisper. They leap off the shelf, label forward, with…
Introduction to Poetry (And Naming)
- About: Branding, Naming, Positioning
In 1988 poet Billy Collins wrote Introduction to Poetry which was included in his collection of poems titled The Apple that Astonished Paris. It goes: I ask them to take a poemand hold it up to the lightlike a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a…
The name you want is taken. Here’s why that’s a good thing.
Let’s say you’re founding an AI company or launching an AI product. You’re going to change how people work, think, and create. And you know exactly what you want for your name: “short, memorable, punchy.” Ideally a real word. “Think Apple,” you say. “Think Stripe.” I get it. I really do. I’ve lived versions of…
Navigating a snowstorm of logos
- About: Naming
We often say the name is the one thing that shouldn’t change. At the same time, we expect most other brand elements to change over time—brands evolve, logos change, typography gets updated, art direction shifts—but generally, we presume that they stay the same for a while. And it’s usually just one logo, or a small…
Don’t name your company a letter of the alphabet.
- About: Naming
It’s an appealing idea, naming your company a letter. While there are over a million words in English, depending on what counts as a word*, there are only 26 letters. So if you can equate your company with one of these elemental building blocks, it stands to reason that you’ve just acquired a pretty big…
Why is it so hard to hype AI at launch?
- About: Branding
Credentialed crowds. Cinematic intros. Surprise celebrity cameos. Awkward live demos. By now we all know the hallmarks of a major tech launch event, like the “Made by Google” hardware showcase, the Meta Connect developer conference, Apple’s annual iPhone release, or Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked. As namers with one foot in the tech industry, we treat these…
Descriptive naming doesn’t have to be boring
- About: Naming
Descriptive names have a reputation for being boring. It’s well earned. Many descriptive names are very boring indeed: Mailboxes Etc., Discount Tire, Lamps Plus, AirTran and The Water Store come to mind. All of these companies use their name to answer the question “What can I buy from you?” In the case of Mailboxes Etc.,…
The Name of the Game: Emotes and Emotions in the Language of Games
- About: Naming
Naming in games can be blunt, poetic, or just plain weird, and Drew Scanlon has seen it all. From his time at Giant Bomb to producing shows for Twitch, he’s been at the intersection of gaming communities, the language of play, and digital cultural moments that become part of gaming and popular culture. We talked…
Is AI going to take my job?
- About: Naming
My job is to come up with good brand names: to find interesting, appropriate words for things. It takes time, effort, and is often seen as “the fun part” of what I do, which it is. I love my job. Another, more time consuming, and arguably more important part of my job is helping clients…
Branding for the Head and the Heart: An Interview with Made of Millions’ Esther Fernandez
Passion projects are a hot topic around here. We often daydream about which companies or products we would be enthusiastic to name from minor league sports teams to hammocks. Even though we mostly concern ourselves with working with kind and communicative folk, we all individually hope that our one dream project comes in the door….