What’s in a Name?

Have you ever thought about how your furniture got its name? Apartment Therapy has an interesting analysis of what different companies decide to call their products. Not surprisingly, IKEA has an efficient and totally logical system.

“Upholstered furniture, coffee tables and media storage have Swedish place names, while beds, wardrobes, and hall furniture have Norwegian place names. Bookcases are named for occupations (with the exception of the ubiquitous Billy!).”

As you’ve no doubt noticed while coveting an Aspen coffee table or a Gretta chaise lounge, most American chain stores (Crate & Barrel, etc.) pick generic sounding names that connote vague values toward which their customers aspire. Take one of my favorite stores, Anthropologie. Despite their “Oh this amazing ensemble? I just picked it out randomly from a pile of clothes that a garden nymph happened to leave on the floor of my gorgeous-yet-disheveled Parisian flat” style, they know exactly what they’re doing when it comes to pushing that impractical wardrobe on us for a mere $5,000.

“[Anthropologie’s] naming strategy fits perfectly with its boho-chic aesthetic. Names like Mathilde and Patrizia are romantically foreign; quirky, but not too unfamiliar or strange because of their American parallels Matilda and Patricia.”

All very interesting, and even though stuff like this always makes me feel like I’m being tricked, I will still gladly shop at all these stores. Plus it doesn’t really matter, because don’t most of us rechristen our furniture when we bring it home anyway? For instance, I have a large air filter in my room that was immediately renamed R2Clean2, and I have a couch which IKEA called Kramfors but which I now call Browntown. What does this say about my personal brand? Who cares! All that matters is that when people come over, I can say, in my most serious voice, “Have a seat on Browntown.”