A variety of snack bars at Trader Joe’s. Photo: Ali SellDon’t worry, there will be no brand names thrown in jail today.
Rather, let’s explore the wide range of names behind “nutritional/functional snack bars”—also known as protein bars, energy bars, pre/post-workout bars, and longevity bars—a category of health and wellness snacks that’s grown exponentially in the past 30 years.
(Throughout this post, I’ll refer to them all as “snack bars.”)
Tequila is synonymous with Mexico for good reason. It’s a carefully cultivated distilled spirit that’s agave-grown, guided, and guarded by Mexico’s Tequila Regulatory Council (TRC)—even when it comes to naming¹.
However, there’s one brand name that stands out to me. It truly captures the story of rebellion and the nation’s fight for independence: Casa Dragones. Let’s raise a glass to this memorable brand name and savor the rich cultural heritage behind it.
[Read more…] about Casa Dragones: A Brand Name Born from Rebellion
Photo by Gary Meulemans on UnsplashWe love to wish each other well. We’re obsessed with health and wellbeing. And we do our best to mean well, bode well, and fare well.
With all of these positive connotations packed into a four-letter, one-syllable word, it’s no wonder namers and brands are drawn to it.
So, how do brands know when to leave well enough alone? Is there room for more or has the you know what run dry?
[Read more…] about Well, Well, Well, What Names Do We Have Here?
Daisy Bell, give me your answer do!
Sometimes the unlikeliest of songs from the past can echo across vast stretches of time. It seems improbable that the people who sang with voices long since silenced ever imagined us, living far in their future, discovering and marveling at what they left behind.
They have given us, inadvertently, a time machine into the past.
A perfect example of this is a song called “Daisy Bell (Bicycle Build for Two).” Seventy-six years after its debut, it appeared again in the great 1968 Stanley Kubrick film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. And it’s now even more relevant.
Let’s dig into its story and lasting influence.
[Read more…] about Daisy Bell, Official Song of the Singularity?
Pour one out for the penny.
A few hours before I wrote this blog post, the U.S. Mint pressed its final one-cent coin. In a naming ode, of sorts, this post celebrates the humble penny as an icon of American culture.
While it represents one hundredth of a dollar, its cultural impact adds up in the names and idioms it inspired over the past 232 years.
[Read more…] about Penny: The One-Cent Coin on a Two-Century Naming Streak
(L) From The Glorious Nosebleed (1975); courtesy of The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust. (R) Edward Gorey; photo by Bruce Chernin; courtesy of The Edward Gorey HouseEdward Gorey is known as many things—writer, illustrator, designer, enigma—but not as a namer. Nonetheless, it came with his creative territory, which is vast, playful, and unsettling in a good way.
Gorey’s imagination opened new literary realms similar to one of his influences, Lewis Carroll, or like another prolific writer with magical naming powers, Tove Jansson.
Any Gorey fan, this namer included, delights in the imaginative and memorable names in his literary works. Invented character names, place names, words for objects, and expressions—all infused with a singular Gorey-ness—punctuated this year, in celebration of 100 years since his birth.
“What’s in a name?”
Dammit, Shakespeare. It’s a good line. So good, in fact, namers are over it. Maybe that’s because other writers have borrowed it for about 430 years. These days (as in, the 20th century), “What’s in a name?” is ubiquitous in articles and opinion pieces on naming and brand names to baby names and surnames.
While it’s an impressive run for a line written around 1595, it’s time to give it a well deserved rest. It’s overused. It’s become tired and uninspired. In an industry that champions originality, why do so many still fall back on The Bard?
In articles, “What’s in a name?” often appears in a title followed by the quip, “Quite a lot, actually.”
We’ve taken Juliet’s rhetorical question (about Romeo’s surname and their fateful future) and turned it into a literal one, asked with the expectation of delivering an answer.
[Read more…] about “What’s in a name?” The Line Namers Love to Hate
The brand name Shinola is a Zinzin favorite. In fact, we think Shinola is one of the best invented names in the American lexicon.
Let’s face it — if we didn’t have strong opinions about these things, you could say we don’t know shit from Shinola…and we simply can’t have that.
In this post, we set out to explore Shinola in all its storied history and renewed glory.
[Read more…] about Shinola: An Invented American Brand Name We Love
Villains—we love to hate ’em. In film, TV, and classic literature, they are larger than life fictional characters who dream and scheme in dastardly ways. Their goal is usually to foil the pursuits of a story’s protagonist by any means necessary. It’s usually safe to throw in control and world domination too.
The how’s and why’s of villainous motivation aside, as a Zinzin namer, I’m drawn to their awesome names (shocking, I know), particularly villains named or known by one word. In this category, invented names are my favorite. The one exception in the list below is Shakespeare’s Iago, a given name. But Iago is like the grandfather of baddies – so I count it among my 10 favorites.
[Read more…] about Naming Villains: 10 Great One-Word Names for Fiction’s Biggest Baddies
Are you fiercely loyal to a brand? How much does the brand name influence your loyalty? Maybe you love the way it looks and sounds, or its naming origins and brand lore.
Of course, factors other than names influence brand loyalty. For instance, I think the psychology of nostalgia in naming and branding teaches us a lot. So does location. (The Red Vines/Twizzlers divide based your home state is real!)
However, let’s explore names alone using some familiar American brand rivalries. Pretend, for a moment, you don’t know much about these brands—it’s just a list of names. (Nearly impossible, but worth a shot.) Are you drawn to one brand over the other based on the name itself? If so, why?
[Read more…] about Brand Names: Familiar Rivals and Fierce Loyalty
Source: Photo of a green tree python in Australia by David Clode via UnsplashThe Year of the Snake is here. It’s the animal that coincides with the Chinese zodiac for Lunar New Year 2025, generally symbolizing the opportunity for wisdom, renewal, and growth.
Leading up to Lunar New Year, many brands take the opportunity to launch campaigns around this annual celebration of good luck and fortune. However, it got me thinking about brand names, specifically snake-inspired names. There aren’t many.
Is there a reason behind this dearth of slithery names? Or is this a python-sized opportunity? Let’s take a look at some existing snake-inspired brand names, from established brands to growing ones – brands that evoke the symbolic serpentine sensibility.
[Read more…] about More Snake-Inspired Brand Names, Pleassse
Source: Photo by Rajiv Bajaj via UnsplashIt recently dawned on me to highlight Sunday brand names. I planned to feature brand names with other days of the week, but my seemingly bright idea took a turn. That’s because Sunday names eclipsed them all.
From apparel and beauty brands to lawn care, furniture, and more, Sunday rises to the top. So, it leaves me with one burning question: why?
Let’s take a look at the name Sunday (in three “hot takes”), examples of brands it inspired, and whether it’ll continue to shine or inspire brands to seize other days.
Photo: Hanny Naibaho, UnsplashFrom beans to brew, coffee tells a story. And if there’s one group that understands the power of storytelling through naming, it’s independent coffee roasters.
There are so many great names in this industry, and coffee roasters here in the San Francisco Bay Area are no exception. From Andytown to Wrecking Ball, let’s explore the backstories brewing behind 15 evocative names.
[Read more…] about The Power of Story in Naming: SF Bay Area Coffee Roasters Get It
Naming pro softball teams sounds dreamy if you’re a namer like me who loves fastpitch softball. I’m thrilled about the new league Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) launching four new pro teams. But I don’t love team names: Bandits, Blaze, Talons, and Volts.
As a softball and general sports fan, the names leave me uninspired (in an inspiring era in pro women’s sports). And as a naming professional, they leave me wondering who exactly chose these names and why? What about them hit the mark (aka brand positioning)?
Basically, why do these names bug me so much?
It left me with one option: Step up to the plate to answer this naming conundrum. What follows is my best guess at how these names came to be, along with a greater appreciation for the challenges of naming in sports.
[Read more…] about Naming Pro Softball Teams with No Base to Call Home (Yet)
When did Max become so popular in brand names worldwide?
I’m not even talking about brands inspired by a founder’s name/nickname, although plenty in that category exist. More specifically, I’m referring to the use of Max, short for maximum, at the beginning or the end of a brand name, as a superlative modifier to connote the utmost or greatest, similar to Mega, Plus, Pro, Ultra, etc.
In fact, after writing this blog post, the world received breaking brand news: this summer, max, the global streaming platform, is to return to its former name, HBO Max. We at Zinzin assume it finally dawned on them that there’s only one HBO brand in the world, but there are millions of Maxes.