I was pondering the name “XM Radio” yesterday and I decided that it is quite a good brand name. It indicates radio, modeling after FM and AM (which are utilitarian abbreviations) but throws in the new-and-exciting (or extreme) prefix of X.
Good job to whoever came up with that one.
I think both Microsoft and Apple turned out to be good. Microsoft because it’s so techy it hurts. Apple I like because it not only gave them the opportunity to have a very nice logo, but also to name its flagship product (Macintosh) in a way that tied it to the company name but only if you think about it for a second.
FYI, here’s a blog post explaining the origins of fifty corporate names. (Example: Sprint is shortened from Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Communications.)
“Apple” is actually a textbook example of why you should try to stay away from existing words when planing a brand name. It gave Apple Computers many a headache (see Apple Corps v Apple Computer - Wikipedia).
The apple logo itself is pretty good though in terms of distinctiveness, but not perfect.
I like AVEX - it doesn’t mean anything (at least in English) and it sounds a little like APEX, but probably not close enough to cause legal problems.
This name grosses me out. Milk, I trust. Silk, is akin to them shouting “it’s not milk” for me. I know it’s soy, but it might as well be soylent green or malk.
Verizon is a portmanteau of veritas and horizon. Not super, but it rolls off the tongue.
McIntosh is a variety of apple. Apple also once tried to market a PDA called the Newton. They might have had another short-lived product named after another variety of apple, but its name escapes me. It was certainly a more fun naming scheme than iThis and iThat.
This isn’t a terribly well-known product outside of a fairly niche industry, but here goes.
My first job out of college was writing the UI for a software program called “Unity”.
It was front-end software for controlling an office building’s various systems. Since it controlled the hardware of various different manufacturers, I always thought that the name “Unity” was very clever.
Yeah, Verizon is on DeweyFinn’s link there as “vertical horizon.” That’s a good one.
The page in the link doesn’t quite fit for where I’m going here (most of them are “this business name is from putting the owners’ names together”) but “Commcast” is actually pretty good. Communication + broadcast.
