Business Naming Basics

Business and product names can carry a certain mystique or even a classy tone if derived from foreign words.

But there are some warnings. First, be sure the phrases generated are pronounceable in English. And second, be sure to have a native of the country you’ve “borrowed” the name candidate from look at the name for any problems in the translation. Sometimes context will dictate the meanings in other languages just as they do here (what does “mean” mean?).

So if you don’t know Italian, French, Spanish, etc., how do you explore foreign-derived words and phrases?

Well, one way is to use the many published foreign phrase dictionaries. I own four or five. But the problem is that it’s difficult to find translations of the words you want to specifically use. You need to know something of the foreign language because they’re arranged alphabetically by foreign phrase.

You can also use a good English-to-French or English-to-Dutch dictionary for single words. But it’s time-consuming, particularly if you’re attempting to develop names based on a phrase.

Well, there’s a better way – a way only the Internet could provide. There’s a site called SDL|Translation that allows you to type in an English phrase, select translating language and click for translations.

In fact, for any particular language you can enter multiple phrases and words in English, click and get translations for each that you’ve entered. You can copy your English list and paste it into the Spanish translator, get your results and paste the list into the Chinese translator, and then another and another.

And, yes, the service is free.

So if you want to explore relevant words and phrases in foreign languages, try SDL|Translations.

Bonne oeuvre

Related business naming posts:

1. Business Naming Posts From Other Naming Blogs – July 28, 2009 Steve Saleen Drives Into a Company Naming Crisis July 28, 2009 - Yes, a clear reason to resist ego-naming...
2. Name Ideas Might Encompass Format As Well As Words There can be a graphic component to a name that helps set it apart, and perhaps, get it through the...
3. Tacking for Company Names Isn’t Tacky At All Some business naming techniques have a long history, yet still manage to produce fresh name candidates. The activity of “tacking”...
4. Synthetic Company Naming Suffixes And Prefixes Almost all the suffixes and prefixes we use in English come from the Latin or Greek. But for business naming,...
5. Business Naming Terminology Helps Identify Name Effectiveness Like almost anything else, corporate names can be classified by type or category. Why would you want to do this?...

Tags: Naming Ideas // Add Comment »