Naming briefs
Short takes on names of note.
In the naming business, a naming brief is a detailed written document that serves as a road map for name development and legal review. (Read more about the naming brief here.) The naming briefs in this newsletter are something else: short reports on names I’ve spotted in the wild or in my reading. First in a series!
Kindbody.
Kindbody calls itself “a new generation of health and fertility care.” The first clinic opened in New York in 2018; there are now more than 20 clinics around the U.S., with more scheduled to open soon. “Kind” is an efficient way of communicating the company’s emphasis on accessibility and affordability—pricing is transparent, and employees are “empathetic care navigators” for your “health journey.” (Everything is a journey.) Bonus association: If you know that German, kind = “child,” it’s kind of satisfying.
Millennial names.
“Every generation has its own look and sound. Distinctive clothing, hair, music, movies…and baby names,” writes Laura Wattenberg on the Namerology blog. If you were born between 1981 and 1996, the names that define your Millennial generation are Chelsea, Kelsey, Brittney, Whitney, Casey, Lacey, Justin, and Dustin.
Uniqlo : C.
Global fast-fashion behemoth Uniqlo’s latest collaboration (or “collab”), with British designer Clare Waight Keller, dropped today online and in brick-and-mortar stores. Keller, who designed Meghan Markle’s wedding dress, calls her collection “C,” which is an allusion to her own first initial but also oh so much more. As she explained in an interview on the Uniqlo site, “C stands for multiple layers of things. Sometimes it’s connected to a collection I’m working on. Sometimes it’s just a spirit. It stands for casual and chic, city, clarity, connection, capsule, connectivity, creativity.” And maybe it’s a nod to the initials of two of the fashion houses Keller formerly led: Calvin Klein and Chloé.
Gromeo.
It’s rare that I encounter a portmanteau name that isn’t a shitmanteau. (Thank you, trademark lawyer Jessica Stone Levy, for coining that indispensable word.) Gromeo—the brand name of a self-watering “living wall”—passes the test. A blend of “grow me” and, yes, “Romeo,” it’s fun to say and easy to love. And the products—made in the San Francisco Bay Area, mini versions of the gorgeously impressive living wall at SFMOMA—look wonderful. Here’s an odd thing, though: When I searched the trademark database to see whether the (TM) after the name might have turned into an (R), I didn’t find this product. Instead, I found a Gromeo trademark registration filed in 2018 by a Chinese company for “baby feeding pacifiers; breast pumps; gloves for massage; love dolls; massage apparatus; menstrual cups; nursing bottles; sex toys; vibromassage apparatus; [and] electric massage apparatus for household use.” An … interesting array, wouldn’t you say? That registration doesn’t rule out a trademark for living-wall Gromeo, which would occupy a different trademark class than the sex toys and so forth. But the absence of any filing by Gromeo’s parent company, Habitat Horticulture—which introduced Gromeo in 2020—is a little troubling. Protect that name!