In today’s San Francisco Chronicle (by Patricia Yollin):

Nzadi is one of the most obscure tongues in the world. That’s exactly why a UC Berkeley class has embraced it.

“There’s nothing like the joy of discovering a language from scratch,” said Cal linguistics Professor Larry Hyman.

The 10 students in his course, Introduction to Field Methods, are focusing on Nzadi this semester - the first such effort in any college or university to examine this remote member of the Bantu linguistic family.

“It’s a chance to study a language that nobody has studied before,” said graduate student researcher Thera Crane. “That opportunity does not come around very often.”

Nzadi is spoken by thousands of people in fishing villages along the Kasai River in Congo, a country with about 220 languages.

When I was a grad student at UC Berkeley, I took this class; it’s a requirement on your way to getting a PhD. For me - and most of the other students, I think - it was one of the most fun and intense learning experiences we had. For the first time, we were actually doing field research: the class sits down with a native speaker and starts from scratch, asking for the most basic words, like “tree” and “nose” and “mother”. You have to transcribe the words, working to build up enough of a vocabulary to make simple sentences. I think this particular class is so lucky to get to analyze a previously “obscure” language (obscure to us in the West, certainly not to its native speakers in Africa).

My class was supposed to study a Tiberto-Burman language, but our informant eloped with her boyfriend right before classes started, and we ended up with Irish. Which was good for me, because Irish has palatalized consonants, and that formed the basis of my Master’s Thesis. I’m still going to prove that palatalized consonants in Japanese, Irish, and Russian are NOT the same. You just wait.

In the meantime, go UC Berkeley Linguistics Program! It’s what got me into naming in the first place.

Tags: African languages, language, linguistics
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As a member of the American Name Society, I get to enjoy all the name-related news on the email list. Today, someone called our attention to a website called Roger & Randy - it’s about business travel, done by two guys named (wait for it) Roger Collis and Randy Petersen. Full of great information. Easy to read. Great content. But the name…

I’m American, and even I can’t look at that name without saying “Too…many…jokes…”. For those of you who are British-impaired, let me explain: “randy” means “sexually excited”, and “roger” means…well, I don’t think I can say it out loud, as this is a family blog. But let us just say that one leads to the other.

I browsed around the site to see if R & R are aware of this secondary meaning, but I couldn’t find anything incriminating. Maybe they know and they just sigh and ignore it. Hey, they can’t help what they were named! But to all you web entrepreneurs out there: a little linguistic analysis goes a long way.

Tags: business naming, Company Naming
Posted in Fun stuff, In-the-News, Language use | 1 Comment

There are times when a snappy descriptive name for a product or program can be just the ticket. And there are other times when you can be…well, a little too descriptive. As in the case of the mayor of Akron, Ohio, who had the bright idea of privatizing the city’s sewage system as a way of raising money for college scholarships, and branded the initiative with the name (get ready for it) Stools for Schools. Stools for Schools??? I guess it’s official now: our educational system is truly in the toilet.

Tags: education naming, school naming
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As the Beijing Olympics draw closer China is back in the forefront of the world’s consciousness. Western companies have been drawn to the promise of China’s enormous market potential for decades but there are complicated issues to consider when launching your brand in this incredible country. Checking in with some naming experts will definitely wade through language and cultural obstacles. Here’s a piece published recently about the nuances of brand naming in China by our very own Burt Alper. Click here to read Burt’s article.

Tags: Beijing Olymics, Brand Naming, Branding, China, international naming, naming
Posted in Brand Naming, Branding, Language use | No Comments

The lovely and talented Burt Alper was asked to provide some comments on baby naming for a fun show on the BBC Radio 4 program Word of Mouth. You can listen to the whole show here, or you can just click below to hear Burt’s remarks.

Word of Mouth

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It’s no wonder that with soaring gas prices, car companies are rolling out their gas alternative car models. The two that I’ve seen get a lot of press coverage recenlty are the Honda FCX Clarity and the Chevy Volt. The Clarity is Honda’s new hydrogen fuel cell car that begins beta tests this week in Southern California (but, only if you’re a famous Hollywood type). And the Volt is Chevy’s plug-in electric concept vehicle that is expected to be available to the masses in 2010. While neither car will be ready for the consumer market for a few years, they are both already causing quite a buzz.

What hit me almost immediately was that both car names are real English words. I wonder if concocted words or a Latinate name style was ruled out because Toyota seems to owns that style with Prius. (For those of you who don’t know, Prius is a Latin comparative adjective or adverb, with meanings “ahead, in front, leading; previous, earlier, preceding, prior; former; basic;” fitting for such a car in the green vanguard.)

I like what each of the new car names conveys about its car model. “Clarity” focuses on the environmental benefit, and perhaps even suggests how simple a decision it should be to purchase one. The name also fits nicely with Honda’s other real-word names: Accord, Element, Civic, Pilot, Fit, Odyssey, etc. All of these words (maybe with the exception of “Fit”), are real words with elegant connotations. Either that, or Honda has done a great job of imbuing each of the brands with elegance and reliability. Either way, I think Clarity is as equally elegant and evocative as each of the names in the Honda brand roster.

“Volt” appeals to Chevy’s tough and exciting brand image. The name is electrically charged, powerful, and punchy. Instead of conveying the benefit, Volt implies the radical new technology. (Similar to the way Zap car does.) Much like the Chevy Cobalt, the Volt has a strong, exciting, and charged tonality. The Volt electric car marks a huge energetic shift for General Motors. The Volt (hopefully) effectively launches Chevy into the green car revolution. If Chevy hasn’t already gone under or severely missed the green boat by waiting until 2010, then the Volt may signal a new era for the American auto maker. The name aims to capitalize on this monumental change in the automotive tides.

Of course, let’s not forget about the Smart Car that’s already selling its super efficient models in the U.S. In fact, by next year they plan on having a fully electric model available for sale. At $12,000 for the current gasoline-burning model, it’s no wonder that I’m seeing them pop up all over San Francisco. In parking-starved SF, it also doesn’t hurt that you can park two of these adorable little guys in the one SUV’s street parking space.

More green cars! And please, more exciting green car naming!

Tags: auto naming, automobile naming, automotive naming, car naming, Chevy Volt, electric car naming, green car naming, Honda Clarity, Smart Car, smart car naming
Posted in Brand Naming, Language use, Product Naming | No Comments

We recently made some interior design upgrades in our office. (See next week’s post for some visual examples.) Part of our redesign included swapping out our old Catchword sign for a new and improved one. Some of the old letters stuck around and we like to play word jumble with them, concocting all sorts of fun phrases. Here’s one I created when my iMac suffered a power supply failure last Friday. These G5 iMacs sure aren’t the sturdiest machines Apple ever built. (Notice the clever rearrangement of “d” to make a “p.”)

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Tags: fun with words
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Occasionally we encounter start-up technology clients who tell us they want their name to be so popular it gets turned into a verb. Like, Google or Xerox. Oh ho ho, no you don’t! These big-name companies spend a lot of money fighting the genericization of their famous brand names. They all want to protect themselves from their brand name becoming so generic that they lose their trademark rights.

Case in point. Kleenex recently took out this full page ad in Brandweek; surely not pocket change. (Keep reading after the image for more of the blog post.)

If you can’t quite read the text, it says:

You don’t need a Social Security number to get your identity stolen. When you spend nearly a century building a name that people know and trust, the last thing you want is people calling any old tissue a Kleenex® Tissue. Simply put, ‘Kleenex’ is a brand name and should always be followed by an ® and the word ‘Tissue.’ Please help us keep our identity, ours.

The upside of having your name used as the generic term, or as a “verb” is that you own top-of-mind presence with the consumer. The downside is that when your name becomes synonymous with the category name, any one of your competitors (or all of them!) can use it to describe their own similar product.
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Tags: generic name, kleenex
Posted in Advertising, Brand Naming, Company Naming, Language use, Trademark | No Comments

Ford recently announced that it is relaunching the Fiesta as a worldwide brand (see article). I love this naming strategy, but it doesn’t always work. Ford’s justification is two-fold: the name already has some existing equity (albeit, not all positive) and by using one name in multiple markets, they can trim down their marketing expense.

But from a naming consultant’s perspective, they got lucky. Fiesta is one of those words that has near-global awareness. The Spanish word (meaning festival or celebration, from the Latin festum/festa, meaning “feast”) has transcended borders and is now commonly understood by native English speakers (as well as speakers of dozens of other languages). Because the car is targeted at new car buyers (typically a younger demographic), the idea of a celebration ties in nicely with the broader marketing message for the car (again, across geographic borders).

Creating names with such international consistency is tough. Just ask the folks at VW. Can anyone spell Tuoreg? Taureg? Touareg? Or ask the folks at Buick. Who knew that Lacrosse was a Canadian slang term for masturbation? If they had done the linguistic research we offer our clients, they would have known before they launched.

Some of you may want to include the infamous “Nova” in this mix. However, let us dispel the myth once more. Yes,� when literally translated, “no va” would mean “doesn’t go” in Spanish. Yet the car is still sold (quite successfully) in Spanish-speaking countries. This is possible because people don’t usually parse brand names this way. I love the counter-example offered by Snopes.com: would anyone think twice about buying a dinette set that used the brand “Notable”? (Get it?)

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Kudos to Ford for coming up with (and now relaunching) a brand name that sends the right message to a global audience. If any of you readers out there are looking for a new brand name that functions equally well in multiple international markets, Catchword can help.

Tags: auto naming, automotive names, car names, Ford Fiesta
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We all know the difference between white-collar and blue-collar jobs. But recently I’ve been hearing a lot more about green-collar jobs. I found myself wondering where the term green-collar came from? And, what other colorful collars exist?

Laurel first heard about green-collar jobs on NPR a few weeks ago. I heard John Edwards mention them during his campaign in 2007. In actuality, the term has been used since the late 1970s to refer to jobs in both the environmental and agricultural sectors.

The term green-collar steps away from the traditional metaphor for colorful collars. Blue-collar refers to the actual blue color of industrial uniforms. And white-collar refers to the white business shirts worn by office-types. Whereas green does not directly reference the color of the shirt, as much as the industry itself. How dare the color green brazenly flaunt the rules of this color-scheme, you may ask? Well, hold your criticism-of-the-green for a moment. As it turns out, green was not the first color to break the rules.

Pink-collar was a term originated in the early 1970s to refer to the female-dominated work roles of the time (secretary, waitress, receptionist, etc.). Gold-collar refers to someone with more than a high school education, but without a full college degree who is over-qualified for the job they hold. And grey-collar refers to jobs that require both blue-collar and white-collar responsibilities (and occasionally the post-retirement aged workforce). Pink, gold, grey, and green all deviate from the rules of the blue/white collar scheme Now you can say your apologies to the color green for being so quick to judge…

What I want to know is: In an uber-patriotic country like ours where blue and white are already represented, where’s the red-collar? Maybe red-collar can refer to government jobs. Or is red already too tainted by it’s McCarthy-era ties to communism? What about the creative job market (musicians, artisans, etc.)? Shouldn’t they get a jazzy, eccentric color? Like indigo, perhaps. Or maybe they should be identified by their stereotypical black turtlenecks, hence black-collar. And, should the gay and lesbian workforce claim the rainbow-collar?

I think the collar-system needs more collar-colors. As my own wardrobe would suggest, I’m a big fan of lots of colorful shirts and collars:

Tags: green collar
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