A name is the most important identifier of a person, a brand, state, a village, a business, a nation, a pet etc. The name implies race, era, societal culture and religion. No wonder, people take time to name their children, their business, their pet, their memoirs etc. Names have meaning and they do suggest character, traits and acumen of a person/business/state/nation/ product. Each name has power, people work hard to make the name outstanding and influential, and it must be valued.

Beyond just a memorable logo and tag line, good branding adds to the value of a company. It provides employees with direction and motivation, and attracts more and more customers easily. A brand represents the total sum of people’s awareness and experience of an individual, a company, a product, a school, college, a university, a hospital, a park, an auditorium, a nation, a river, a mountain, a flower and infinite things. There are countless components which go in creating a successful brand.

In this article I will be discussing some examples of how names were created of certain brands.

Do you know that Pepsi was named after the medical term for indigestion? The inventor of Pepsi, Caleb Davis Bradham, originally wanted to be a doctor, but due to some crisis in his family, he left medical school and became a pharmacist instead, according to the company website. His original invention, identified as “Brad’s Drink,” was made from a mix of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, and nutmeg. Three years later, Bradham renamed his drink, which he believed helped digestion; so he named it as “Pepsi-Cola,” taken from the word upset stomach, meaning indigestion.

Panera Bread Company is a chain store of bakery-café fast casual restaurants in the United States and Canada. Panera combines two words “pan” and “era.” According to Panera’s Facebook page, the chain store’s name has Latin and Spanish roots. In Spanish, “pan” means bread and “era” means age or time. So put together, Panera means “age of bread.” And, in Latin it means breadbasket.

Google owes its name to a typographical error. Its name came forward from a brainstorming session at Stanford University. Founder Larry Page was coming up with ideas for a massive data-index website with other graduate students, according to a Business Insider report. One of the suggestions was “googolplex” one of the largest describable numbers. The name ‘Google’ came about after one of the students accidentally spelled it wrong. Larry Page thought of keeping the name as erroneously spelled and registered his company with this name.

McDonald is named after two brothers who ran a burger restaurant. Raymond Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, used to sell milkshake machines. Once he met brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, who ran a burger restaurant in San Bernardino, California. The McDonald brothers bought several of Kroc’s Multimixers and he was so impressed by their burger restaurant that he became their agent and set up franchises around the US. Years later, he bought rights to the McDonald’s name.

Adidas is not an acronym for “All Day I Dream about Soccer”; it’s a fallacy of many people. It turns out the athletics-apparel brand is named after its founder, Adolf Dassler, who started making sport shoes when he came back from serving in World War I, according to the LA Times. The name combines his nickname, Adi, and the first three letters of his last name, Dassler.

Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of Rolex, the expensive watches wanted a brand name that could be understood and pronounced in any language. He tried combining the letters of the alphabet in every possible way. He thought of hundreds of permutations and combinations by setting and fixing the alphabets. But, none of them felt quite right. One morning, while riding on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus along Cheapside in the City of London, the name “Rolex” struck in his mind and ears.

The name LG came from the merger of two companies, Lucky and Goldstar, the acronym of both companies. It was officially decided to use the brand name as LG.  It is a conglomerate in South Korea. When the company started marketing its products to the west and English speaking countries the company rethought about its name using the same acronym as “Life’s Good” as a backronym (an acronym deliberately formed from a phrase whose initial letters spell out a particular word or words).

Nike is the Greek goddess of victory and she often represented with wings. Her presence symbolized victory and she was often depicted as sitting next to Zeus, the Greek god. The swish designed signifies her flight.

SONY the leading manufacturer of electronics products for the consumer and professional markets is headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Sony comes from the Latin word ‘Sonus’ which means sound. And, ‘Sonny’ is a slang word used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster. The company was named after bright youngsters – Sonny boys working in sound and vision. The name Sony was also chosen because it could be pronounced easily in many languages.

Vodafone was formed under the Racal telecommunications brand and as was launched in January 1985 under the name Racal Vodafone Holdings Ltd. The name Vodafone is derived from three words which are of significantly important for the industry. The short explanation could be described with the naming formula voice, data and phone. The idea of this name came from Saatchi & Saatchi (the advertising agency) and one of the company’s original directors. It was the agency’s idea of spelling phone as “fone” which at first wasn’t accepted very well by the then CEO of Vodafone. Eventually he pondered over it and accepted the name. This is how the name “Vodafone” was born.

Brand building requires sincerity: Like we individuals have our personalities, style and image; brands also have their personalities. Brands make a personal connection with their customers. Just as people have values, goals, beliefs and even flaws, so do organizations. Customers connect with the brands if only they like them. The connection grows when brands deliver what is promised. Customers go by their own experience.

Organizations need to work on delivering exactly what they communicate regarding their brands. They need to decide on their brand’s personality traits and deliver them as promised.  Over-promising and under-delivering turns out to be short-term marketing strategy.  In fact, it’s often cheaper and easier to create hype, than providing genuine substance.

Initial marketing hype can create little success, but after it fades, organizations fall flat and struggle to retain customers and struggling for their existence. The core issue in branding exercise is maintaining the brand authenticity. And what is a brand? It’s a name!

 A name is the most important identifier of a person, a state, a village, a business, a nation, a pet etc. The name implies race, era, societal culture and religion. No wonder, people take time to name their children, their business, their pet, their ventures etc. Names have meaning and they do suggest character, traits and acumen of a person/business/pet/state/nation. Your name has power, therefore respect it.

We also see that some people hardly give any importance to their own name; I usually make it a point of asking people when I meet them, what their name means. I have seen blank expression on most people’s face because they are clueless about the meaning of their name. For most of them their name holds no power, no significance and no value. Your name has a meaning that defines you. While your surname explains on heredity, your given name is the stamp of your personal identity. There is a treasure in your name and that treasure is its meaning.

Do you know that words contain great power? In fact the Bible says that the universe, the world, everything we know was created by the word of God. So the power of names is indeed an amazing and exclusive thing.

The name given to the child is going to get repeated all through its life and may be even later. So the name should be one with profound meaning and should make sense in it rather than just serving as a tag. Hence, in the Hindu religion the naming ceremony has its significance. The child’s horoscope is prepared and depending on the star sign a name is chosen. A newly born child is given name of deity, the star in which the child is born, the name of the forefathers etc. According to the date and time of birth of the child, a particular letter of the Sanskrit alphabet associated with the child’s solar birth sign (Soorya Rashi) is chosen which would prove lucky for the baby and the family. The baby is then given a name starting with that letter.

Names have their roots, origins and versions in all religions. Germanic names characteristically convey aggressive attributes with such meanings as “strength”, “brightness,” “warrior”, “bravery” and “glory”. You will find the “bert” which is a core element common to many Germanic names; “bert” means “bright”. Examples are Albert and Robert. French names are usually variations of Germanic names. Some examples are: Robert, Charles, Henry, William and Albert. It is common in France to have two given names such as, Jeanne-Marie and Jean-Claude. Traditionally, the French are named after Roman calendar saints as with, Marie for Mary and Bernard for St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Celtic names, like Alan, Brian, and Brigid are anglicized versions of early Celtic forms. Christian saints dominate the list along with Celtic mythological figures such as Bran or Bron. The most common Celtic girl’s names are Lynn, Shannon and Eileen.

In Islam, baby is named on the day of birth, by his mother and father who make a decision together on what the child should be called. They choose an appropriate name and on the baby’s day of birth the father must have a sheep slaughtered and given to the poor to give charity on his babys birth. If he does not have enough funds he may do it anytime in the future as long as it is done in general.

Some people choose nature names which generally derive from the elements of nature such as, the names of flowers, birds, colors, stars, sun, moon, water, earth, air and fire. English names like Violet, Rose, Jasmine, Daisy, Dawn, Ruby, Pearl, Crystal and Sparrow are all examples of nature names, and Indian names such as Jai, Jui, Gulab, Varsha, Pawan, Rudra, Devika, Salil etc denote special qualities and attributes of nature. If you possess a nature name you please find the metaphysical attributes and properties that are associated with your name. Please research the particular element of nature to gain further insights into the power of your name.

Trait names often remark on virtues and principles. For example – Shalini, Sheela, Dayanand, Nirbhaya, Satyasheel are some Indian names which suggest personality traits. Trait names revolve around faith, hope, charity, intelligence, bravery, intelligence etc. It is believed that a girl or a boy possessing a trait name personifies that virtue throughout their life and grow to motivate others.

Very small (tiny) names are sometimes used to distinguish between two or more members within a family. In English, Robert may be changed to “Robby” or “Bobby” and “Danny” is frequently used for Daniel; while Bablu for Balwant, Raju for Rajendra, Pammi for Parwinder so on and forth in Indian names.

Your name is the link between your intelligence, your mind, your language, and your conduct. You can make a good, a bad or an ugly brand out of your name. You can make miracles if you wish so.  The more you understand about yourself, the more you’ll see and appreciate how unique you really are, and the more you’ll respect yourself. Discover your principles, personality, and talents. Stop pandering to other people’s approval and start developing your own standards.Learn to handle criticism. Forgive yourself of guilt or remorse. Accept yourself by being comfortable in your own skin and to learn to love and accept the person who you are.  Maintain a positive attitude and believe in your choices. Take good careof your body and mind both. Forgive others and shed the negativity. Avoid getting overly emotional it does not help. Most important spend time with the people who respect you. Work on bringing in positivity in your life; thus make your name powerful.