It’s an fascinating, difficult, together with marvelous time facing be a girl. Moreover, likewise, it’s an fascinating, difficult, together with marvelous time facing be naming manufacturers catering completely facing girls.

These tasked with selecting a reputation for a product or firm geared towards girls occupy loads facing take into account. Be going to they lean toward conventional definitions of femininity, à la Miss Sixty or Victoria’s Secret? Or is it increased compelling facing keep away from conventional notions of femininity together with create fiercely female names like Nasty Lady—a trend model title that predates the Pussyhat Mission however reverberates with the carbon uncooked together with raucous “woman energy”?

Or maybe it is best facing keep away from both excessive by growing a reputation that simply hints on the female—an method efficiently demonstrated by the energetic put on model Oiselle.

So… what are some concerns for naming a female-focused model?







What are you naming?

Earlier than starting any naming course of or making a reputation choice, rigorously take into account not solely the market but additionally the kind of product or firm being named.

For instance, the beer brewery title “Excessive Heel Brewing” was a misstep, as a result of gender has nothing inherently facing conclude with beer. Then again, the title LUNA works fairly nicely as an power bar, as a result of on this case gender is related: The bars had been designed with girls’s dietary wants in thoughts. That may be a worth proposition, together with giving the title a female slant subsequently is smart.

The carbon holds true for Stella Rising, a reputation River + Wolf developed for a selling together with media company for spirited, high-growth buyer manufacturers together with service corporations. Andrea Van Dam, the corporate’s CEO says, “We went from Girls’s Purchasing facing Stella Rising, a reputation that’s human-centric, not gender-restrictive. As a feminine title, Stella performs facing the truth that we’re a women-led firm with a ardour for magnificence. However [“stella”], because the Latin phrase for star…positions us because the company for rising star manufacturers of every kind.”

What makes a reputation ‘female’?

As soon as it is do determined facing reference femininity, it’s price exploring the methods that may be performed.







A method is facing use phrases or phrases clearly related to females, as is the case with manufacturers like Prima Donna (lingerie) together with She Is aware of (editorial terrace).

One other manner is thru referencing one thing related to girls, however much less immediately so. LUNA bars embrace this method: Historically, the moon has do a female image.

The Riveter, a Seattle coworking area for ladies, additionally takes that refined method. The title evokes World Battle II feminist icon Rosie the Riveter, who referred to as on girls facing maintain the US economic system robust by laboring in factories facing provide the entrance strains.

Whence does it sound?

Which means apart, the sound of the title also can reference the female. Linguists occupy studied developments within the sorts of names max generally assigned facing males together with females.

Names that begin with “smooth” phonemes—sounds which can be shaped with the tongue together with lips somewhat than the vibrating vocal chords, just like the F in Fiona vs. the A in Adam—are increased usually assigned facing ladies than facing boys.

Linguists occupy additionally found that phrases that sound ethereal together with delicate are perceived as female, as are phrases that finish in vowels, like Sephora.

Let’s unpack a number of female model names

Toward additional discover what makes a reputation “female,” let’s check out some examples within the activewear together with yoga clothes area.

Overtly feminine: Lululemon, Sweaty Betty, Soul Flower, Pink Lotus

Lululemon, Sweaty Betty, Soul Flower, Pink Lotus Subtly feminine: JoyLab*, Oiselle, Athleta, Alala

The names within the first group make use of a number of techniques facing convey femininity. Some use phrases like “flower,” “pink,” together with “lotus”—phrases etched in our collective consciousness as feminine. Others reap on the female by way of the usage of a feminine correct title—although it’s fascinating facing notice that “Sweaty Betty” is a far cry from “Betty Crocker.”

The names within the second group resonate as female-focused names, however they conclude so in a manner much less apparent than these within the first. Oiselle is a French phrase for hen, which in flip alludes facing “that feeling of weightlessness that max athletes be cognizant together with love,” in accordance facing the model’s web site. Alala is known as after a Greek goddess whose title signifies a battle cry: an excellent manner facing convey femininity together with energy. Athleta together with Alala additionally sound female as a result of every ends in an “a” vowel, as we beforehand famous.

Go genderless

Within reach is one other method for the title of a female-focused model—facing utterly keep away from any reference facing girls, whether or not overt or refined. This method has do efficiently taken by activewear/yoga-clothing manufacturers like Free Individuals, Ripple, together with Out of doors Voices.

It is usually the method utilized by Flamingo, a girl’s razor together with shaving-supply model. As defined on the Flamingo web site, the title “is a nod facing the one-legged pose you make within the bathe when you’re shaving your legs.” Pores and skin Laundry, a laser-and-light facial clinic that caters primarily facing girls, additionally avoids the ultrafeminine title varieties widespread within the spa together with aesthetic skincare business.

The large profit in utilizing a genderless title is that there with bells on is much less probability for a misstep, contemplating through what agency simple it’s facing offend or misrepresent piece of your viewers in immediately’s more and more gender-neutral together with gender-sensitive society.

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Be going to a model title embrace female attributes? One factor is obvious: The times of “shrink it together with pink it” are over. Any use of female attributes—within the title, design, or messaging—should be performed thoughtfully.

Furthermore, if a reputation is chosen that telegraphs girls’s energy, energy, together with mind, the enterprise it represents had higher embody these beliefs, too, in each its insurance policies together with its practices. In any other case, the title is not any much less a type of pandering than the “shrink it together with pink it” method of the previous.

*Identify created by River + Wolf