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.

Don’t Call it That
Go Name Yourself

Brand archetypes and where they come from

A lot of branding people like to employ archetypes as a way to model and build brands. Nike is often referred to as a “Warrior” brand. Harley Davidson is an “Outlaw” brand. So what are brand archetypes? Where did they come from? Most importantly–are they useful?  What are archetypes? Archetypes are models or symbols. Hercules…

Branding in late stage capitalism

Branding is supposed to represent what a company believes in and how they see the world. It’s a series of signals to customers and potential customers showing what’s valued. But most brands have competing interests. If a brand isn’t making money, it probably isn’t going to be a brand for too much longer. So while…

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)

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?

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…

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