How many types of names are there? At A Hundred Monkeys we divide our naming taxonomy into 29 species. We tend to find a new species or two every year — depending on how much time we have for exploration. Ask a trademark attorney and they’ll simplify it to two types–evocative and descriptive. Typical. Lawyers. While there’s healthy debate about how many types of names there are, something has always irked me about this way of categorizing them. Who does it help? Categorization is of limited utility to someone trying to come up with names. Sure, you can play around with different types as a way of ideation. Maybe a utilitarian name works here. Would an acronym work there? But this is, at best, tangential to what you’re trying to accomplish. The type of name really doesn’t have a whole lot to do with whether it’s successful or not.
What if we were able to categorize names in a way that told us something about how they worked?
While naming is too subjective and audiences are too diverse to unequivocally say that a particular name is good or not, people’s initial reactions give us valuable information about how they’re working. Names are most potent when people are coming in contact with a brand for the first time. They are meant to attract and intrigue people. They get people to pay attention in a busy and crowded world. After these initial interactions, names are living things whose definitions are shaped by the experiences people have with the brand. Because of this, people’s initial reactions to names might be the best evaluation tool we have.
One important note about context: I’m not talking about testing or focus groups. As soon as you remove names from the context in which people normally come in contact with them, your experiment becomes useless. Same goes for asking people to pick which name they like best. People outside the industry never come into contact with names this way. So sure, you’ll get an answer, but it won’t tell you much. Names are creatures of context. When people see a name for the first time it is accompanied by a logo or an ad or a conversation. All of these elements work together to shape the initial impression of a brand. People aren’t being asked to levy a judgement. So, to be clear, this isn’t about testing. It’s about categorizing names in use.
Names elicit a wide variety of responses from people. This is an attempt to place these primary responses into categories.
- Questions
When people come in contact with new things, brands or otherwise, they often have questions. If it isn’t immediately obvious where a brand fits into their lives, people are forced to do some mental calculation to figure out what a new brand means and what it’s similar to. A lot of marketing people see this “confusion” as a bad thing. I disagree. Take A Hundred Monkeys. When someone asks what I do I say, “I run a company called A Hundred Monkeys.” It’s nearly impossible not to ask a follow up question. A Hundred Monkeys could be anything. We could be zoologists or anthropologists. The name begs for a follow up question and these questions keep people engaged. Names that are easy to figure out and categorize are just as easy to forget. We remember that which asks something of us. A question is actually a great response. It increases the likelihood they’ll actually remember you. Everyone is looking for brand engagement. Here it is. Most importantly, their question should segue nicely into your pitch, further cementing your name in the minds of your audience. Like this:
“Why’s your bakery called Prytania?”
“Prytania was the name for the oven in the middle of ancient greek villages. We like that it connects baking with a sense of community.”
2. Facial response
Often, people’s responses to new names aren’t vocalized. In the same way that a smile or scowl gives you valuable information when you meet someone new, people’s faces betray their reactions to new brands as well. While these reactions cannot always be read clearly, they are too strong to ignore. For what facial reactions lack in specificity, they often clearly articulate sentiment–even if you aren’t sure why. If someone smiles when they hear your name for the first time this is undeniably a good thing. Take a name like Big Ass Fans. People might not speak up when they hear the name initially but if you don’t see a smile flash across their face you should check for a pulse. Conversely, if someone sees your brand name and looks like you insulted their grandmother, you might want to ask a few follow up questions yourself.
3. Recognition
Even if someone has never seen your brand before, they might recognize its component parts. Take Eero — the name we developed for the San Francisco-based in-home Wifi company. Eero is a reference to architect Eero Saarinen. While Saarinen died well before Wifi was a thing, the name still brings to mind modern Scandinavian architecture for those who know his work. If architecture isn’t your thing, the name will elicit a different response–likely a question, which gives the team at Eero an opportunity to tell their story.
While recognition can plant interesting pictures in people’s minds it can also lead to dead ends. Take, for example, the brand Annie’s, the company that makes the mac & cheese with a cult following. Even if I’ve never heard of them, I recognize their name right away. That’s about it though. Maybe I move into associative territory from there and think about people named Annie I know. This may help memorability a bit but the name is basically a dead end.
4. Association
Because of our desire to categorize, our brains are associative by nature. When we run into a word we don’t recognize, we rack our brains for similar findings. Take the name Qdoba. I have no idea what it means. I don’t think anyone does. Given their southwestern motif, the first word that comes to mind for me is “adobe.” The initial “Q” also makes me think of barbecue. Obviously these associations will vary from person to person. That’s one of the issues with names that yield an associative response. Unless people have very visceral associations, memorability on these types of names isn’t great.One way that Qdoba makes up for that is by breaking english convention with the previously non-existent “Qd” combination.
It’s important to note that we don’t always flip into associative mode when we run into words we don’t know. There’s an important distinction between words that feel coined or invented and words that we recognize as words but can’t define. We are much more likely to look up words we recognize or try to look for roots we might know. Take the name Alabaster. You may not recall that it’s a translucent form of gypsum but it still feels like a real word. When we run into inventions like Verizon or Xfinity we intuitively know there’s nothing to define and switch into associative mode.
5. Press ignore
The worst reaction for any new name to get is no reaction at all. This happens with obvious names, descriptive names, and cliché names. Because they feel so familiar and understandable we expend little-to-no mental energy processing them. We quickly categorize and likely forget forever. If you run into one of these brands enough times they’ll eventually move into recognition territory. It took me four or five calls and meetings with my house painter to remember they were called Green Valley Painting. Most new brands don’t have this luxury. They need to make an impression, and it needs to stick. If you can’t recall the name, how are you going to recommend it to anyone? I saw a painting truck in San Francisco about a decade ago that said Persnickety Painters on the side and I’ll likely remember that name for as long as I retain my mental faculties.
