A history of Catchword in names & numbers
Since our start during the Wild West of the internet, brand identity has transformed from cottage industry to serious marketing discipline. For Catchword, an early focus on Silicon Valley and startups gradually yielded to deep experience across industries, and collaborations with market leaders in every space—Amazon, PwC, Intel, GM, Aetna, and McDonald’s, to name a few.
Read on for the story of our founding, then check out the yearbook, where you’ll find agency highlights and top brands we’ve developed from every year of our history. Share our journey from upstart to #1 in the world and catch a glimpse of the fascinating interplay of culture and branding.
The Story.
So a Stanford MBA, a Harvard MBA, and a Berkeley linguist walk into a bar…
… well, the Rockridge Cafe, actually. In early 1998, three co-workers, and language lovers, began talking about founding a new agency dedicated to the development of compelling names that are equal parts creative, strategic, and legally protectable.
At the time, specialized naming firms were few. Most companies created their brand names in-house or asked their advertising firm to do it. Maria Cypher, Laurel Sutton, and Burt Alper wanted to bring much more process and creative rigor to the nascent industry. In the midst of sea changes like the internet and globalization, they knew that the need for great, globally available names was about to explode.
On May 5, 1998, Catchword opened its doors in Oakland, smack in the middle of the dot-com boom. Many of our early clients were Bay Area dot-coms with startup funding, like Petopia and SquareTrade.
In January 2001, Mark Skoultchi joined the firm to head up East Coast operations and soon after became a partner.
Why the name Catchword?
An obvious question to ask a naming firm is why they chose their own name and how it expresses their brand. And you should ask. A naming company with a bland, unpronounceable, or hard-to-spell name isn’t worthy of your business.
Our name had to be memorable, evoke our pragmatic but fun personality—so nothing too whimsical or too academic—and suggest our services without limiting us as we evolved. We also wanted to avoid the words Name and Brand, which were a bit on the nose and also overly used in this business.
We explored every imaginable word, coining, and metaphor, resulting in an enormous pool of names. Some of the other finalists were Fluent, Lingo, In A Word, and Namesake (which we could not stop referring to as “na-ma-sa-ki”! And of course it violated the no Name names rule).
Catchword by the numbers.
#1
2
25+
99
650+
1300+
Catchword Yearbook
Let’s look at a few of our favorite names over the years and some key agency milestones. (Want to see more cool names? Looking for names in a particular industry? Check out our full portfolio.)
1998
Dreyer’s Dreamery
Our debut year produced some tasty names, including this one for Dreyer’s premium ice cream.
MAY 5, 1998 | CATCHWORD OPENS ITS DOORS
1999
Petopia
The name of this e-tailer of pet supplies, and poster child for the DotCom Boom (and Bust), is one of our all-time favorites and positioned Catchword as a leading naming partner for startups.
2000
SquareTrade
JANUARY 1 | CATCHWORD MOVES TO PERMANENT OFFICE IN OAKLAND’S TRIBUNE TOWER
MAY 23 | CATCHWORD COMPLETES 100TH PROJECT
2001
Ahold’s family of sodas - Rally, Dr. Bob, Quist, Ramp
Naming private-label brands to suggest well-known counterparts is more fun than a tub of tamarins. Over the years, we’ve named 20+ of these feisty challengers for Ahold (parent of Giant Food and Stop & Shop).
JUNE 24 | CO-FOUNDER LAUREL SUTTON PROFILED IN SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS TIMES
2002
Rancher’s Reserve
Catchword helped name Safeway’s new line of beef that’s guaranteed to be tender. Rancher’s Reserve became one of the supermarket’s top brands.
2003
CORA
Catchword’s been proud to partner with many nonprofits over the years, including this organization that serves victims of domestic abuse. We’re also proud to have created a name that’s both an acronym (Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse) and a personal name for discreet client communication.
2004
Quintess
The assignment was to develop a quintessentially elegant name for a premium vacation club. Cropping a meaningful term is a common namer strategy, and it worked perfectly for this luxury brand.
JULY 4 | CO-FOUNDER BURT ALPER PROFILED IN THE OAKLAND TRIBUNE
2005
FireEye
Company naming is often renaming. In 2005, a cybersecurity firm with the rather ho-hum name Netforts was reborn as FireEye. The Eye of Fire is an ancient symbol for omniscience—compellingly graphic and very cool.
NOVEMBER | CO-FOUNDER MARIA CYPHER PROFILED IN STANFORD MAGAZINE
2006
Popchips. ClickStart. Eska.
What do a popped potato snack, LeapFrog’s intro computer for preschoolers, and glacial water from Canada have in common?
Good taste in naming agencies. 😃
2007
Vudu. Crazy 8 (for Gymboree).
The streaming content trailblazer Vudu worked its magic on the industry and was acquired by Walmart a few years later. And maybe it’s because many of us are parents at Catchword, but you gotta love how Crazy 8 evokes the spirit of your favorite miniature maniac.
AUGUST 27 | FIRST (OF MANY) CATCHWORD QUOTES IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
2008
Palm Prē. Asana.
The name of Palm’s prescient new phone kept things short and sweet. Asana, all focus and flow, has become a top productivity platform (PC Magazine Editor’s Choice) as well as a model for company culture.
MAY 5 | CATCHWORD CELEBRATES 10 YEARS WITH EPIC LAS VEGAS RETREAT
X2
2009
Sprize (for Gap)
Though short-lived, this rewards program that credited customers with post-purchase price drops was truly a surprising prize.
JUNE | CATCHWORD PUBLISHES 1ST EDITION OF ITS NAMING GUIDE
2010
Freeslate
The new approach of this biotech company, later acquired by Unchained Labs, gave scientists greater freedom. (Ah, coined compounds: the unsung workhorse of naming. We’ll sing it to the world—Catchword wants you, needs you, and, yes, loves you.)
JULY 8 | CATCHWORD LAUNCHES ONLINE NAMING GAME POPNAMER
2011
Deem
Deem, the name for an incisive Commerce-as-a-Service provider, anticipated the rise of the REWN—real English word name—a fave brand name style among the “age of the authentic” millennial generation.
2012
Starbucks Refreshers
Green coffee extract and fruit juice in a sparkling bevvy. The name and the product are straightforward, satisfying, and cool. (We know Refreshers have been on the market for some time, but we still get a little thrill when we see them on the shelf.)
2013
2014
Keysight
Spinoffs are a common reason companies need names. Keysight, a testing and measurement company, was a spinoff squared (a spinoff from Agilent, which was a spinoff from HP).
OCTOBER | CATCHWORD PUBLISHES JUST NAME IT! REVISED EDITION OF ITS NAMING GUIDE
2015
Optane (for Intel)
We always strive to provide the most creative, strategic names we can, but when a client tells you the technology will revolutionize computer memory, the pressure’s really on. And Intel delivered. Optane dramatically increased speed, endurance, and responsiveness without compromising capacity. It was crowned soon after release and remained king for nearly seven years.
2016
Mochidoki
Mochi is ice cream wrapped in rice-flour pastry. Very tasty—both this line of mochi from Gordon Desserts and the name we created for it. LIA agreed and chose Mochidoki as a 2016 winner for verbal identity in the debut year of this category.
NOVEMBER | Catchword judges the London International Awards (LIA)
AWARD HIGHLIGHTS
LIA award for Mochidoki
2017
Habitat. Corning Valor. Hitachi Vantara.
In Habitat Soundscaping, Plantronics/Poly combines open office energy with a garden’s calm focus. Corning Valor pharma glass reduces contamination and provides 30x more protection than conventional vials. Vantara brings Hitachi’s IoT, cloud, big data, and analytics solutions under one roof.
AWARD HIGHLIGHTS
Clutch #1 for Naming worldwide
2018
Soluna
Blockchain mining requires huge amounts of energy. Soluna offers the natural solution: all-in-one computer processing and energy production using its own sustainable sources.
MAY 5 | Catchword 20th Anniversary
AWARD HIGHLIGHTS
Transform Award for Soluna
Clutch #1 for Naming (2nd year)
2019
Attain by Aetna. Ursa. GoMotion.
The Attain by Aetna app helps members attain health and fitness objectives. Ursa music service fosters deeper connection between artist and audience. GoMotion from SportsEngine (part of NBC Sports) enables mobile management of activity classes.
AWARD HIGHLIGHTS
MarCom Awards Gold for Ursa
Clutch #1 for Naming (3rd year)
Clutch #1 for Branding (1st year)
2020
Snap’d. WomenLift.
Cheez-It Snap’d is as munchably delicious as you’d expect. WomenLift Health from Stanford promotes women health leaders worldwide.
OCTOBER | The Catchword Accelerator—
ultra-premium brandable dot-com domains
AWARD HIGHLIGHTS
MarCom Awards Gold
Clutch #1 for Naming (4th year)
Clutch #1 for Branding (2nd year)
2021
Vuity. Intel Arc.
AWARD HIGHLIGHTS
MarCom Awards Gold
Clutch #1 for Naming (5th year)
Clutch #1 for Branding (3rd year)
Clutch Global 1000 #1 (of 150k agencies)
2022
SameSky. Denim.
SameSky Health promotes health equity by removing cultural barriers. Denim provides fintech solutions that keep freight moving.
AWARD HIGHLIGHTS
MarCom Awards Platinum
Hermes Awards Platinum
MUSE Creative Awards Gold
Clutch #1 for naming (6th year)
Clutch #3 for branding (4th year in top 3)
Clutch Global 1000 (5th year)
2023
TikTok In the Mix & LawReady
TikTok In the Mix is a first-of-its-kind live global music event from the social media giant, featuring performances by genre-defining artists and emerging talent. LawReady is a new initiative from the Law School Admission Council that helps remove barriers to the legal profession.
MAY 5 | 25th anniversary with breathtaking retreat in Sedona
AUGUST | Catchword judges C2A
AWARD HIGHLIGHTS
MarCom Awards Gold (Logo Design)
MUSE Awards Gold (Corp ID Redesign)
Hermes Awards Gold (Naming)
Clutch #1 for Naming (7th year)
Clutch Global 1000 (6th year)
