marciayudkin

For More Successful Word Play, Name Your Business For Both the Eye and the Ear

By Marcia Yudkin

Around the lake from where I live, someone painted the name of their cottage on a rock by their driveway: Happy Ours. The first few times I saw it while walking by, I couldn't help wondering if this was a pidgin version of the English phrases “Happy This is Ours” or “Happily Ours.” The grammar of this two-word combination seemed weirdly off.

Then I said the name aloud to myself and realized it was a pun for Happy Hours.

I realize this is a summer cottage being named, not a product or company needing to attract the general public. Still, this name illustrates a pitfall I've run across occasionally in the business world – names that make sense when you hear them but bewilder you when you see them.

Ditto for an eating establishment in New Zealand called Deli ca Sea, which specializes in seafood. Until you stumblingly pronounce the restaurant name out loud, it baffles you. Another one with this weakness found in an online list of pun-named shops is Cute Ickle, a nail shop. What’s an ickle? Visually this name is inexplicable.

On the other hand, some playful names make perfect sense when you see them but not when you hear them. A yarn store in Kentucky goes by the name With Ewe in Mind. Hearing that, you wouldn’t realize it has anything to do with sheep or yarn. It’s a pun for the eye only. Having the same limited success (unless you pronounce the name with an exaggerated Hispanic accent) is Juan in a Million, a Mexican restaurant in Texas. One of the worst of this type I’ve spotted is IndiviJewelistic, which sells jewelry supplies in Great Britain. Imagine having to spell that one repeatedly over the telephone or on the radio!

Names based on puns or wordplay need to make sense both when heard and when seen. Some successes on that score include Once Upon a Crime, a mystery bookstore in Minnesota, The Washing Well, a laundromat in California, I Feel Like Crepe, a restaurant in Toronto and Church of Cod, which appears to be a fish restaurant in Alaska.

Other successes include Pane in the Glass, a glass replacement service in Texas, What Ales You, a pub in Vermont, and Eggs Eggsetera, a deli in England. In these instances, if you heard but didn’t see the name, you might not know it was a pun, but what you did hear and understand would make sense as the name of a glass service, a pub and a deli, respectively.

Avoid puns where someone misinterpreting what they hear understands something disreputable, such as Knit Wit, a women’s clothing store, Going Pottie, a pottery shop, or Master Bait & Tackle, a fishing supply shop.

If you're considering a name and you find you have to spell it out for people hearing it, or say it for people looking at it before they “get it,” then you have a name with a significant weakness. As we do at our naming company, eliminate it from your list of candidates, then brainstorm more if necessary.


Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms catchy tag lines, company names and product names according to the client’s criteria. For a systematic process of coming up with a compelling new name or tag line, download a free copy of “19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line” at www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm .

Author, Meatier Marketing Copy, available in paperback, Kindle, Nook, Audible audiobook
“There are few genuine thought leaders in the field of copywriting. Marcia Yudkin is one of them. The strategies she presents in Meatier Marketing Copy are all easy to understand and implement, yet profoundly insightful. If you want to write marketing copy that sizzles and sells, this book is a must-read.” - Steve Slaunwhite, Author, Start & Run a Copywriting Business, Co-Author, The Wealthy Freelancer