Nomen omen: Recent trends in company names

Abstract

Theoretical background: It is a well-known fact that a name should be original and distinguish a business from the competition. It should also meet several other criteria, such as being easy to pronounce and remember, and being connected with the specifics of the company’s operations. Company names, as with any other names, are important because people react to a word the same way they react to the object this name denotes. Therefore, the length of a company name and the words it contains are important. Moreover, in the marketing nomenclature what carries the most significance is not the word itself but the so-called connotation, i.e. the direct reference to the object of the word and the entire set of features connected with it. When creating their own company names, entrepreneurs often use this aspect to better communicate with their target audience. This is enforced by both the growing competition and the expectations of consumers. In recent years, considerable innovativeness can be observed on the part of entrepreneurs who depart from traditional terms and decide on unusual names.

Purpose of the article: The following article presents trends in Polish company names from the perspective of marketing efficiency on the one hand, and linguistic innovation on the other. The purpose of the article is to determine the kind of linguistic changes and their assessment from the viewpoint of communication effectiveness.

Research methods: The empirical section includes the analysis of 247 names of companies that provide hairdressing services, while the theoretical section concerns the issues of creating a brand and the lexical side of it. In particular, the considerations concern the linguistic norms and marketing principles behind creating company names.

Main findings: The findings indicate that the names ceased to be original but from a marketing perspective they became more effective. The names became more efficient in terms of marketing communication, for example, the words "studio" and "academy" (studio or akademia in Polish) carry a lot of content and connote expertise, knowledge and elite. Of course, the name and surname of an owner (which were popular in the past for hairdressing companies' names) does not include such information. Of further interest is that foreign sounding words have also disappeared almost completely; in particular, the number of words from English has decreased. Therefore, by using words with a more universal meaning and domestication in the Polish language, a company evokes positive reactions and associations, which are very important in the first contact between a customer and a company.