The Compendium of Amazing Names (CAN): A

Amazon

An Evocative E-Commerce Name That’s A Force of Nature

When Jeff Bezos created Amazon in the 1990s, many alleged “branding experts” thought he should have named the company “Books.com.” Bezos knew better. He understood that you can’t build a lasting brand, one that can grow above and beyond mere commodity-value associations with the goods and services it offers, if it is saddled with a boring, generic name that is only about such goods and services. Look no further than Pets.com et al to see just how right he was. Bezos realized that only a very different, evocative name like “Amazon” would set his brand apart from the thousands of newly hatched Internet companies launching every month. The name Amazon metaphorically evokes depth, breadth, power, speed, flow and an awesome force of nature, all of which the company has come to embody in the world of e-commerce.

[ Amazon ]

Antidote

Relief From The Common Continuing Medical Education Name

Every year, physicians and other health care professionals are required to take a certain number of continuing medical education (CME) credits, to stay up on advances in their medical field. In a sea of sound-alike, blandly descriptive names that populate the CME market space, one name, Antidote, stands far above the rest. It’s “the cure for the common CME,” and you know with a company name like Antidote, which we created, the experience will be different.

[ Antidote: case study | website ]

Apple

An Iconic Brand Name With Deep Meaning, Myth and Story

Apple is the iconic brand we know today because its founding Steves–Jobs and Wozniak– had the vision in the 1970s not to name it “Simplicity Computing.” Or Compaq, Gateway, Acer, Tektron or AST for that matter. They chose instead an evocative name that metaphorically demonstrates the key positioning of simplicity, warmth and humanity. And if it had come down to a choice between two “fresh fruit” names, such as Apple or Strawberry, you need look no further than the incredible depth of cultural meaning, myth, story and history behind the word “apple,” from the Garden of Eden to Isaac Newton, Johnny Appleseed, “an apple a day,” Apple records, and all the varieties of apples, such as macintosh. Strawberry has… Strawberry Fields, Strawberry Shortcake, and that’s about it. And because of that choice many years ago, this company is the Apple of our eye today.

[ Apple ]

Aria

A Beautiful, Elegant Las Vegas Resort Hotel Name

An aria is an elaborate melody sung solo with accompaniment, as in an opera or oratorio. Aria is beautiful, elegant name for a beautiful, elegant, major resort hotel on the Las Vegas strip, which we created for MGM Resorts International. It definitely captures the “not a typical casino” vibe of the resort, as you don’t usually associate opera, or any “high culture,” with Las Vegas. This hotel, and this name, changes the conversation about the resort experience of Las Vegas.

[ Aria: case study | website ]

Audience

An Elemental And Direct Television Channel Name

A name we created for DirecTV that is elemental, almost primal, in its direct invocation of a television channel’s reason to exist: pleasing its Audience. Powerfully direct, yet never done before, and full of resonant possibilities.

[ Audience: case study | website ]