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About Naming

The best brands no one is talking about

When people talk about the best brands, the same names always tend to show up: Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple, Disney, Patagonia, Ikea. So let’s take a moment and give these massive mega brands a round of applause. They mostly do a great job and deserve the credit. At some point, though, people get tunnel vision on…

ai-branding-billboard

If AI is so exciting, why is AI branding and marketing so boring?

Living in the Bay Area, it’s hard to avoid AI ads. Driving on Interstate-80 through San Francisco is a gauntlet of 40+ billboards in less than a mile—nearly every single one is about AI. Ads on YouTube are the digital equivalent. Salesforce, IBM, SAP, Meta, Google, Apple (all links to their AI offerings)—every one is…

Dream projects

Some people dream of starring on the silver screen, flying to space, or teaching dolphins to read. We grew up loving language and searching for the right words. With more than 75 years of combined experience naming companies and products, we’ve been lucky to name a supersonic jet, a watch company, Earth-friendly activewear, mindfully-crafted tequila,…

Want a free name? Inquire within

Do you anticipate feeling anxious or hesitant over selecting a name for your company or product? Would you rather put that decision in the hands of seasoned professionals? Do you also like the price of $0? Well, you’re in luck. Submit your proposal here and once a year we’ll select a client to work with,…

Making it personal

When brand backstories take a front seat There’s an unmistakable art to the Shark Tank pitch. It almost always begins with a founder’s personal anecdote that introduces a very relatable problem, and then goes on to explain how their product is finally solving it. In other cases, it’s fueled by more of a passion than…

We Do This Every Day: the Case for Professional Naming

We all perform routine tasks on a daily basis: brushing our teeth, preparing morning beverages, gazing at screens, and, possibly, perfecting personal crafts. Most people are lucky to get good at a hobby or two. Naming things is not typically one of those two things. In the naming biz, we see people take a crack…

Branding Can Only Take You So Far

There’s a simple formula to surf films: show people surfing. Rarely do these movies consist of an overt, or even covert, narrative or message communicated to the audience. Plus surfers don’t care much for propaganda. But on Saturday October 12, 2024 I attended the premier screening of Circles: An Ode To Shredding directed by Dana…

Destination vs. Wayfinding in a Naming Ecosystems

“See the city, see the zoo, traffic light won’t let me through.”  – Phish Where did you go recently? Maybe you went to the grocery store or maybe you flew to Salt Lake City. In any event, you had a destination in mind and how you got there was simply an exercise in wayfinding. A…

Read, Read, Read. Read Everything.

William Faulkner won the Nobel Peace Prize for literature in 1949. Two years earlier in 1947 he spoke to students of the English Department at the University of Mississippi. During a question and answer session after the talk, he handed down some advice to the students on how to be better writers. Here’s an excerpt…

The powers (and limitations) of names in defining a category

  • About: Naming

One of the best parts of this job is the newness of it all. Naming is one of the first milestones of a newborn idea. That means we get unique insight into some groundbreaking developments, from AI systems to krill-derived protein supplements. Most of the time we’re trying to help founders stand out in a…

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