catchword

catchword Catchword is a dedicated brand name development firm with over 17 years experience creating industry leading product, service and company names.

Clients hire us (and rehire us) because we treat naming not just as a creative assignment, but as a critical business and branding exercise. Sure, we come up with “cool” names (some would even say super cool), but not before we’ve taken the time to really understand you and your overall business and branding objectives for the name. Whether we’re naming a new company, two newly merged companies, a

new platform, a new family of products, a new doohickey, or a feature of a new doohickey, we don’t start to imagine actual brand names until we’re Swarovski about the who, what, where, when and why. Our client include McDonald's, Starbucks, Marvell, Purina, Corning, Allstate, Time Warner Cable, Johnson & Johnson, Wells Fargo, Peet's Coffee, Rogers Communications, and many others. We specialize in the following:
Brand name development, naming strategy, naming architecture, naming protocol, name screening, linguistic and cultural analysis. We are based in Oakland, CA and New York, NY.

Mateo just entered the top 10 baby names. Looks like he's making a name for himself—literally.
05/12/2025

Mateo just entered the top 10 baby names. Looks like he's making a name for himself—literally.



Liam and Olivia have, for a sixth year together, topped the list of names for babies born in the U.S. in 2024.

Warning: Reading this list of beautiful words may cause excessive loquaciousness, mild eunoia, and spontaneous sesquiped...
05/06/2025

Warning: Reading this list of beautiful words may cause excessive loquaciousness, mild eunoia, and spontaneous sesquipedalianism. Proceed at your own lexical risk.



They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder — or in this case, the linguist. Find out what some experts consider to be the most beautiful English words.

Google’s AI is cooking up idioms like a robot that’s never seen a kitchen. Let’s not put all our forks in one toaster.  ...
04/25/2025

Google’s AI is cooking up idioms like a robot that’s never seen a kitchen. Let’s not put all our forks in one toaster.



Never put a tiger in a Michelin-star kitchen

A solid look at how brands use numbers in names, logos, and packaging. Catchword recommends caution when considering a n...
04/25/2025

A solid look at how brands use numbers in names, logos, and packaging. Catchword recommends caution when considering a number as a name, whether a figure (1, 1st) or word, cardinal (one, two, three) or ordinal (first, second, third). As noted in this piece, numbers are often harder to own and may not communicate your message effectively



Lamar Jackson and Dale Earnhardt may have butted heads over the number 8, but in some types of logos, it turns out the numeral 2 is No. 1.

We're delighted to announce that ranking and review site The Manifest has recognized Catchword with a 7th annual award f...
04/24/2025

We're delighted to announce that ranking and review site The Manifest has recognized Catchword with a 7th annual award for excellence as a company.
Our deepest thanks for all our clients who graciously took the time to leave a review. You all rock!

04/17/2025

could have been Conchilla. Who knew?


Good move, almost. Because proper nouns in English are always capitalized (the company even uses the capital A in its co...
04/12/2025

Good move, almost. Because proper nouns in English are always capitalized (the company even uses the capital A in its communications), the lowercase "aberdeen" is a needless complication.
See our review of the original name change: https://shorturl.at/RL2ns


https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9nkeg79gyo

The investment firm will now be called aberdeen group as it hopes the name change will remove "distractions".

Some Canadian companies are rethinking their decision to brand American. Any time you tie your brand to an entity outsid...
04/11/2025

Some Canadian companies are rethinking their decision to brand American. Any time you tie your brand to an entity outside your control, you risk being pulled down with it. (Fortunately, looks like these co.s are doing fine after reassuring customers that they are 100% Maple.)



Canada’s tariff war with the U.S. has many homegrown companies hoping customers remember there’s more to them than their names.

Other languages out here calling pie charts ‘cheese wheels’ and ‘cake diagrams’ while English just… settles. Step up you...
04/03/2025

Other languages out here calling pie charts ‘cheese wheels’ and ‘cake diagrams’ while English just… settles. Step up your game, data nerds.



Pie charts have delicious names all around the world—in French, it’s a *chart de camembert*!

Some of these place names are so long, you’d run out of breath before finishing your GPS voice command.
03/31/2025

Some of these place names are so long, you’d run out of breath before finishing your GPS voice command.



The map above shows the location of places with the longest names in Europe. Here's the full list:

Someone just paid $34,000 for Twitter's 560-pound bird logo. That's one expensive tweet!
03/28/2025

Someone just paid $34,000 for Twitter's 560-pound bird logo. That's one expensive tweet!



Twitter may be dead, but the 12-foot tall bird logo from its San Francisco headquarters can be yours forever if you have enough money.

My cat says 'meow,' but according to this, she might also be saying 'miau,' 'nya,' or plotting world domination in 21 la...
03/20/2025

My cat says 'meow,' but according to this, she might also be saying 'miau,' 'nya,' or plotting world domination in 21 languages.



Analyzing animal onomatopoeia across languages can demystify how we shape sound into meaning.

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409 13th Street Fl 12
Oakland, CA
94612

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
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