Vol. 66 No. 1 (2018)
Article

Out-of-the-blue Names of Paint Colors

PDF
  • Jan Tent
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00277738.2017.1344463

Published 2018-01-02

Copyright (c) 2018 American Name Society

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Names of products play a significant role in their marketing, and are designed to express images with which buyers can identify. Manufacturers therefore pay close attention to their product names in order to maximize sales and to distinguish their products from those of competitors. The meaning of a product name would appear to be a crucial factor in its choice. A product designed for a specific consumer would benefit from a transparent or trendy name recognized and appreciated by the intended buyer. However, this tenet does not seem to apply to paint color names. Often these names tend to be enigmatic. This paper investigates the color names of 10 paint manufacturers in Australia and New Zealand. More than 10,700 color names were collected, classified, and quantitatively analyzed. The majority of names had enigmatic labels. The reasons for this are explored.

PDF

References

  1. Aronoff, Mark. 1981. Automobile semantics. Linguistic Inquiry 12: 329–347.
  2. Boerrigter, Reina, and Harm Nijboer, eds. 2012. Names as language and capital: Proceedings names in the economy III, Amsterdam, 11–13 June 2009. Amsterdam: Meertens Instituut. <http://depot.knaw.nl/12899/>
  3. Danesi, Marcel. 2006. Brands. New York, NY: Routledge.
  4. Danesi, Marcel. 2009. Dictionary of media and communications. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.
  5. Danesi, Marcel. 2011. What’s in a brand name? A note on the onomastics of brand naming. Names: A Journal of Onomastics 59: 175–185.10.1179/002777311X13082331190119
  6. Domingue, Rebecca. 2010. Bigoted housepaint? Taubmans needs to explain this! Equal Love Armidale. <https://equallovearmidale.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/bigoted-housepaint-taubmans-needs-to-explain-this/> (accessed 11 March, 2017).
  7. Evans, Joseph C. 1967. Some current American pencil names. Names: A Journal of Onomastics 15: 32–38.
  8. Grice, Paul. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Syntax and semantics, Vol. 3 speech acts, ed. Peter Cole and Jerry L. Morgan, 41–58. New York, NY: Academic Press.
  9. Gutknecht, Christoph, and Erwin Wehking. 1985. Produktnamen. Eine Eigene Subklasse Konkreter Substantive? [Product names. A subclass of concrete nouns?]. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 67, no. 68: 77–89.
  10. Harder, Kelsie B. 1999. A medley in the spectrum: Color names. Names: A Journal of Onomastics 47: 243–248.10.1179/nam.1999.47.3.243
  11. Heckler, Susan E., and Terry L. Childers. 1992. The role of expectancy and relevance in memory for verbal and visual information: What is inconguency? Journal of Consumer Research 18: 475–492.10.1086/jcr.1992.18.issue-4
  12. Hernández, Lorena Pérez. 2013. A pragmatic-cognitive approach to brand names: A case study of Rioja Wine brands. Names: A Journal of Onomastics 61: 33–46.10.1179/0027773812Z.00000000038
  13. Kelly, Kenneth Low, and Deane Brewster Judd. 1976. Color: Universal language and dictionary of names. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards.10.6028/NBS.SP.440
  14. Kremer, Ludger, and Elke Ronneberger-Sibold, eds. 2007. Names in commerce and industry: Past and present. Berlin: Logos.
  15. Kurrasa, Paola Cotticelli, Alfredo Trovatob, and Vania Vigoloc. 2012. Brand name and brand image between linguistics and marketing. In Names as language and capital: Proceedings names in the economy III, Amsterdam, 11–13 June 2009, ed. Reina Boerigter and Harm Nijboer, 13–31. Amsterdam: Meertens Instituut. <http://depot.knaw.nl/12899/> (accessed March 9, 2017).
  16. MacGregorm, Bayne. 2010. Taubmans offensive paint to be renamed. Equal Love Armidale. <https://equallovearmidale.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/taubmans-offensive-paint-to-be-renamed/> (accessed March 11, 2017).
  17. Mandler, George. 1982. The structure of value: Accounting for taste. In Affect and Cognition: The 17th Annual Carnegie Symposium on Cognition, ed. Margaret Sydnor Clark and Susan T. Fiske, 3–36. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  18. Miller, Elizabeth G., and Barbara E. Kahn. 2005. Shades of meaning: The effect of color and flavor names on consumer choice. Journal of Consumer Research 32: 86–92.10.1086/jcr.2005.32.issue-1
  19. Nuessel, Frank. 2010. A note on names for energy drink brands and products. Names: A Journal of Onomastics 58: 102–110.10.1179/002777310X12682237915188
  20. Nuessel, Frank. 2014. A note on the brand names for ‘bath salts’. Names: A Journal of Onomastics 62: 49–56.10.1179/0027773813Z.00000000067
  21. Nuessel, Frank. 2016. A note on selected brand names of E-Cigarettes. Names: A Journal of Onomastics 64: 41–49.10.1080/00277738.2016.1118864
  22. Piller, Ingrid. 1999. Variation in automobile naming. Names: A Journal of Onomastics 47: 83–10.10.1179/nam.1999.47.2.83
  23. Ries, Al, and Jack Trout. 1981. Positioning: The battle for your mind. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
  24. Romanova, Tatiana P. 2016. Marketing message components in commercial naming. Voprosy onomastiki [Problems of Onomastics] 13: 140–150.
  25. Sjöblom, Paula. 2016. Commercial names. In The Oxford handbook of names and naming, ed. Carole Hough, 453–464. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  26. Sjöblom, Paula, Terhi Ainiala, and Ulla Hakala. 2013. Names in the economy: Cultural prospects. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars.
  27. Wochele, Holger, Julia Kuhn, and Martin Stegu, eds. 2012. Onomastics goes business: Role and relevance of brand, company and other names in economic contexts. Berlin: Logos.
  28. Zelinsky, Wilbur. 2002. Slouching toward a theory of names: A tentative taxonomic fix. Names: A Journal of Onomastics 50: 243–262.10.1179/nam.2002.50.4.243