What is a name?
Our definition
A name is a word or phrase that identifies a specific person or thing. A name could be something singular, like James or Mueller, or a collection of words, like James Jeffry Mueller (he/they). Or it could be Amanda or Katherine or Cher, or Apple or Interbrand or Tortoise, or Double Cheeseburger or Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Graphite.
There are two key components of a name: consistency and uniqueness/
Names are consistent so that everyone knows what they mean: if some people called us Tortoise and others called us Janitor, that’d be pretty confusing, since folks might not realize that they were talking about the same branding think tank and community. If some people called Wendys’ quarter-pound bacon cheeseburger Son of Baconator and others called it Baconator Jr., folks might get confused about exactly how many Baconator variants there were and what differentiated them.
Names are unique so that everyone knows that they mean exactly one thing. Wendy’s has the Baconator and Son of Baconator to describe two different sizes of burger, and to distinguish them from the BBQ Bacon King or McCrispy Bacon Deluxe. By contrast, Burger could only be a name at a restaurant with only a single hamburger option on the menu.
Opposing views
You might not have thought of this in exactly this way before, but it probably doesn’t feel like a surprise. So why are we even exploring this question?
When it comes to naming, and especially naming systems, a question often comes up: “What kinds of things should get names?” Obviously a company has a name, and probably a hero product, but what about standard products, or mere features? In Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max 512GB Deep Purple, how many of those words are names? If I’m in brand governance at Apple, how far does my responsibility go?
Our perspective is a simple one: holding to our definition above, then anything that needs to be consistently, uniquely identified needs to have a name. And, yes, that name might be something highly distinctive, like Apple or Spotify or Gucci. But it might not. Food Network is a name, too, and so are elements of Apple’s portfolio, like TV, Watch, and Music. And so, we’d say, are feature descriptions like 512GB and experience elements as fundamental as menu items like Settings and Save.
Others vehemently disagree, but they all draw the line at different places. Here are a few:
Deep Purple is a name because it’s not merely generic: 512GB isn’t, because it’s generic.
iPhone Pro is a name because it describes a substantially different form factor, while Max isn’t because it’s just a variant of size. Pro on its own isn’t a name, either, because on its own it just describes an attribute.
iPhone is a name because it’s trademarked, but Pro isn’t because it’s not.
The use cases
We think it’s best to view any consistent word as a name, not just as a matter of ideological purity, but as a matter of practical convenience. See, whether you’re deciding the name of your company or deciding whether to call the Settings pane Preferences instead, the same skillset comes into play. Offering naming support to product teams when the stakes are low and the answers are obvious builds goodwill and relationships, which can help you overcome the true main hurdle of naming, which is socialization. If you’re seen as the helpful word nerd to be looped in early, rather than the brand cop to be snuck past til the last moment, you’ll be able to do a far better job when the time comes to name a product line or business unit.
The main risk here is that people may start to believe that every name, even basic feature names, needs to be trademarked. This isn’t the case, of course, as not all names are trademarked, and many trademarks aren’t names. We think it’s a worthwhile risk — the only potential downside is people coming to the brand team too early to help, which we think is likely just a benefit in disguise. The earlier they come, the earlier you can help, and start forging a positive relationship.
Next steps
Want to understand the kinds of names? Check out our naming crash course.
Have questions? Have ideas? Let’s connect.