Coining a Name: How to Kleenex-ify Your Product
I looked at *hundreds* of names to find what makes them stick
A few years ago, a mysterious package showed up at my door. Inside, there were two glass vials of sand-like powder, a small spoon, a dish, and an A4 piece of paper with instructions.
I checked in with my boss. Yep, this was the latest naming assignment: a new type of skincare aimed at bringing essential nutrients from food directly to your face, delivered through your skin barrier.
The instructions were straightforward: mix the powder with whatever moisturizer you use, one vial for the mornings, the other for nights.
There wasn’t anything quite like it on the market, and frankly, I didn’t even know what to call it in the meantime — “the substance,” maybe? But of course, nowadays that means something else.
I got down to business brainstorming and writing down all the words that came to mind. This was the kind of project I love: not just naming a product, but coining a term for something new.
What’s exactly is a coined name? Think Kleenex for tissues or Xerox for photocopying. It’s a product name that transcends branding to become the go-to term for its category. More recent examples? Spanx for shapewear, SodaStream for water carbonation, and Oura for smart rings.
That skincare project is what first piqued my interest in understanding what makes a name stick in the lexicon. What makes a name go beyond the shelf and into everyday conversation? Over the past week, I’ve been pulling together a list of coined names, categorizing them, and searching for common threads.
But before I share my findings, let’s go back to the substance for a moment…
So.
I mixed the skincare powder in the dish. Sniffed it. Applied it. And my coworker and I spent the next few days brainstorming. The name we liked best? Skin Vitamins. To make it more nameable, we suggested calling it Skinamins. It felt catchy and descriptive, a name that could hold its own in the language of the consumer.
But the client didn’t go for it.
Instead, they chose a Greek name that didn’t describe the product at all, aiming for something more luxurious. A quick Google search shows that this brand hasn’t picked up much traction in the five years since I worked on it.
So, a lesson for founders: a product that’s hard for customers to describe is hard to remember, share, and spread. And while you might have ideas for how you want your brand to feel — a simple, snappy name can make all the difference in whether or not your product takes hold.
So, how do you create this kind of name? To develop a working theory of tips and tricks — I looked into hundreds of brands to find the ones that had managed to stick the landing, coining names for products, methods, and entire categories.
I found that each name could be sorted into one of three groups. In true Nameist fashion, I decided to give each group a little name to make it easier to remember.
First, we have the Snappy Inventor.
These are products that bring a new invention or idea to the market. The Snappy Inventor introduces customers to a new product category — one that either didn’t exist before or had never been branded well enough to be distinct.
Examples of Snappy Inventors:
GoPro (action cameras)
AirPods (wireless earphones)
Fitbit (fitness tracker)
Spanx (shapewear)
Poo-Pourri (bathroom air freshener spray)
Ruggable (washable area rugs)
Squatty Potty (toilet stool for better posture while using the bathroom)
SodaStream (water carbonator)
Oura (smart ring)
Huel (meal replacement powder)
Magic Eraser (cleaning sponge)
Roomba (robot vacuum cleaner)
Peloton (at-home fitness equipment with virtual classes)
Then, there’s the Said-It-Best.
These are products that simply found a better word for their category. Our brains are constantly looking for shortcuts. If there’s an option to make a term shorter and snappier, we’ll take it.
Examples of Said-It-Bests:
Post-it (sticky note)
ChapStick (lip balm)
Q-Tips (cotton swab)
Tupperware (plastic food storage)
KeepCup (reusable cups)
Crock-Pot (slow cooker)
Ziploc (plastic bags)
Hydroflask (insulated water bottle)
Febreze (air freshener)
Squeegee (window cleaner)
Postmates (delivery service)
Swiffer (auto spray floor cleaner)
Finally, we have The Branded Method.
This category is for brands that take something ordinary and give it a new name to make it feel special. A smart move for savvy businesses and creators. If you have a technique, a process, or a service that’s a little different, brand it, name it, and thus, own it.
Olaplex turned its hair repair method into a brand. The Wim Hof Method is a simple breathing technique that became a personal brand. And The Genius Bar rebranded customer service into a high-value experience. The Branded Method is all about turning nothing into something — or more accurately, turning your process into a product itself.
Olaplex (hair repair method)
The Wim Hof Method (breathing method)
Vuori DreamKnit (soft fabric technique)
KonMari Method by Marie Kondo (cleaning method)
Genius Bar (Apple tech support)
DryBar (blowout salons)
UberPool (Uber ride sharing service)
Bulletproof Coffee (butter and oil coffee method)
Uniqlo HeatTech (fabric technology)
As I sorted through different coined names, a few clear trends emerged. Some I expected, some that surprised me. From there, I began outlining a working process to follow for future naming projects. Here’s what I came up with — my four key tips for creating a coined name.
1. Be Descriptive: Get as close to what your product is as possible.
Can the product’s function be described in the name? Names like Hydroflask, KeepCup, and Squatty Potty all achieve this by combining words to literally define the product. They’re gold standards in coining a category. But literal doesn’t always mean memorable or trademarkable — and oftentimes a name that literally describes what a product does can feel too clunky. If Squatty Potty had been named something like The Toilet Bench, it likely wouldn’t have worked as well, and probably wouldn’t have gotten the trademark.
That’s why this rule also comes with a huge caveat: avoid overly general names. Convincing founders to avoid these is one of the biggest challenges of my job. Many like to argue that a general name makes it easy for people to understand their product, but that often means missing an opportunity to create something memorable, distinct, and, most importantly, hard to copy.
Try focusing on one core characteristic or word relating to your product and go from there. See how these brands did it:
Air Freshener → Fresh Breeze → Febreze
Quick Spray Mop → Swift → Swiffer
Tissues → Clean → Kleenex
2. Keep it SNAPPY
So, how do you know whether you’ve got a coinable name on your hands? I’ve got a rule of thumb for you: keep it SNAPPY.
S - Short
N - Nouns
A - Alliteration
P - Portmanteaus
P - Play on Words
Y - Yours
Short: Your name should be concise and typically no more than one or two words. Find the shorthand words that describe your product, and if they’re long, shorten them into their root word (or something close to it). Ex: Television → TV → TiVo
Nouns: People remember things they can touch, see, or picture in their minds. Aim for words that evoke concrete, real-world experiences. Ex. Nest feels cozy and secure, which is exactly what the product (a smart home thermostat) delivers.
Alliteration: Psychologically, the repetition of similar sounds helps cement a name in our memory. If you’re playing with words that capture your brand’s essence, see if you can pair it with a word that starts with the same letter. That’s why names like ForeverCup, PermaCup, and HoldCup don’t resonate as strongly as KeepCup.
Portmanteaus: One of the most common patterns among the names on these lists is the use of portmanteaus, blending two words into one to create something fresh and distinct. Think of names like GoPro, Ziploc, AirPods, and Fitbit. By merging familiar terms, these names simplify multiple ideas into a single, punchy name that feels intuitive and approachable.
Play on Words: Puns, rhymes, or twists make names stick. Take Poo-Pourri, for example (a mashup of Poo and Potpourri) people love the cheeky humor of the name as much as the product itself.
Yours: At the end of the day, it all comes back to this: your name should be yours. Not just some generic placeholder that anyone could use. You want something hard to replicate (and easy to trademark).
3. Use the Suffix Secret
A common pattern you might have noticed in looking at the lists of coined names is the use of a certain suffix: X.
My opinion is that ending on an “X” gives a name a certain sense of strength and expansion. It creates a word that’s both singular and plural, noun and verb. You also see a lot of “S” endings for the same reasons.
Kleenex
Xerox
Spanx
Olaplex
Netflix
Twix
Wix
Skims
Zappos
Postmates
Airpods
This trick won’t work for everything. Adding an “x” to the end of any word is definitely not my advice here. But when done well, it’s a well-exampled way to make a name stick.
4. Make It Easy to Expand
Here’s where things get a little tricky, and it’s something I’ve had clients ask me about recently: Does your product name become your brand name? It’s the age-old question of whether to go with something specific that perfectly describes what you’re offering right now, or something broader that leaves room for future growth.
Personally, I think it’s all about leaving some space to grow. A good brand name should have some wiggle room, something that can stretch as your product line expands. Take Olaplex, for example. It refers to the technology behind their hair treatment — specific enough to communicate what they’re about, but broad enough to work with future products. They didn’t back themselves into a corner.
On the flip side, you’ve got brands like ScrubDaddy, which created a whole naming convention for themselves with ScrubMommy when it came time to expand. It’s smart. They’ve set up a framework for more.
The key takeaway? Avoid names that’ll leave you explaining them in the future, or worse, force you to rename your brand as it grows. Pick a name that feels like it can breathe, evolve, and carry the weight of whatever new directions you take. Keep the door open.
Did I miss a good coined name on my list? Share your favorites in the comments. Also, in my next post, I’ll be renaming a few everyday items I think need better names. Do you have naming beef? Please share!