Thinking on the craft of naming
How brand names work, what the world's most valuable names get right, and the criteria behind designing one.
The 9 types of brand names
Brand names don't emerge in a vacuum — they fall into explicit strategic classes. Here are the nine foundational types, with the advantages, trade-offs and global examples of each.
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Building a successful brand
Products are made in factories; brands are built in the mind. The strategic foundations — and the global growth formula — behind brands that last.
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The brand naming process
Naming is not a lucky brainstorm. It is a methodical, interdisciplinary process at the intersection of research, linguistics, psychology and IP law.
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Brand naming myths: misconceptions vs. realities
The naming landscape is cluttered with myths that drain budgets and trap teams in dead-ends. Four of the most common — dismantled.
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Brand name and length: perception, memory & global cases
“Shorter is better” is a dogma, not a law. Length isn't a success metric — strategic fit and cognitive load are.
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Generic trademarks and the strategic dilemma
A reinterpretation through global cases and behavioral perspectives. Becoming the word for a category looks like total victory — but it is a double-edged sword.
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Naming strategies for quick-commerce brands
If you entered the rapid-delivery business today, what naming strategy should you choose? Lessons from the category Getir created.
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What a brand name is, and what it does
When deciding on a new name, companies should also consider the job a brand name is meant to do. In every market the brand has a role — and the name must be chosen to fit it.
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What the world's 51–100 most valuable brand names get right
A look at the advantages, trade-offs and naming approaches behind the second tier of the world's most valuable brands.
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What the world's top 50 brand names get right
What do the names of the planet's most valuable brands mean — and how were they built? Part one of the breakdown: the top 50.
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An overview of brand-name design criteria
Naming is more systematic than it looks. An objective set of criteria beats personal taste every time.
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Brand-name design criteria — Part 4: spelling, sound & personal taste
The final part: how spelling and pronunciation, the power of sound, and your own preferences shape a name.
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Brand-name design criteria — Part 3: association & distinctiveness
Two forces that decide whether a name owns its own space: the associations it builds, and how distinctive it dares to be.
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Brand-name design criteria — Part 2: tone, unwritten rules & meaning
In part two: the tone a name carries, the unwritten rules of an industry, and the choice between literal and invented words.
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Brand-name design criteria — Part 1: memorability
Naming a business is like saying you want to go to Istanbul — knowing the destination isn't enough; you need to know the route.
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