Portfolio Highlights

A software company formed by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and programming whiz Justin Rosenstein was clearly not ordinary. It needed a name that stood out from the IT herd and transcended Silicon Valley startup tropes.

Tapping into a 10,000-year-old practice, Asana, the Sanskrit word conveying “yoga pose,” connected the founders’ love of yoga with the business world’s quest for focus, flow, and clarity. The result: a productivity platform enabling team members to manage complex projects smoothly with a category-defying name proven to stand the test of time.

After a decade of explosive growth, the company went public in 2020. It now serves customers in 190 countries at some of the best-known companies in the world (Google, Amazon, Uber, Spotify, Deloitte).

And Asana’s dedication to balance is not just a yoga pose—it’s made Inc.’s Best Workplaces list for four years in a row. Name-aste.

The margin for error was slim with these wireless fitness trackers. Successful names would have to be short enough to fit on the small devices, and match the snappiness of the mother brand. In addition, the names would need to fit within a larger portfolio of related products and still telegraph each product’s distinguishing features. For Fitbit’s entry-level device, Zip was in the zone, followed by One, which unifies data on exercise, calories burned, and sleep. Next came Flex, Fitbit’s first wristband, and finally Force, a fitness wristband to be reckoned with. All single syllable, all evocative, and all tied together by a common construction—a naming convention was born.

Volkswagen has some of the auto industry’s most iconic (and distinctive) cars and car names, from the Beetle to the Touareg. So we were excited when they called on us to name their sturdy 7-seat SUV, codenamed CrossBlue. Working with VW’s US, German and Chinese marketing teams, Catchword explored a broad range of messaging themes, and developed over 2500 name candidates. The global nature of the project meant we also carried out linguistic and cultural screening in 19 different languages, including Min Nan and Kejia Chinese. Atlas, the name VW decided to adopt, reinforces the vehicle’s size and strength and implies a titan among SUVs.

From the moment we heard about this online video service, it had us under its spell. The company needed a blockbuster name to capture the magic of this new way to watch: streaming video. Enabling users to instantly stream an enormous library of movies and television shows at home or on the go, Vudu ushered in a new type of at-home entertainment and the era of cord-cutting.

Vudu became the first on-demand service to offer HD movies for download, in 2009. The company was then acquired by Walmart, after the behemoth failed to master the streaming space with its own offering. In 2020, NBCUniversal subsidiary Fandango purchased the brand, which now offers more than 10,000 free movies and TV episodes to more than 100 million customers. With a whole lot of tech know-how, and a little bit of pixie dust, Vudu has charmed users and wholly reshaped how we view the at-home cinematic experience, making it little short of … well, voodoo.

In 2014, Elance and oDesk, the two largest online platforms for connecting clients and freelance workers, decided to merge to better provide international services with their combined resources. They realized they could maximize impact by developing a new, unified brand. They called on Catchword to develop a new name that would capture their vision and inspire their global community of millions of independent professionals and the businesses hiring them.

Upwork is as innovative and impactful as the company itself, which has grown to more than 10 million registered freelancers worldwide and been named the #1 freelance platform. The name positions Upwork as more than a gig marketplace, but a place that reimagines and elevates independent work, and where workers and businesses alike can up their game.

Long-time client Intel needed a name for its new line of high-end graphics cards, designed to compete with Nvidia and AMD offerings. The line delivers full-throttle gaming, immersive visuals, powerful multi-tasking, and seamless streaming, as ideal for engineers and artists as for professional gamers.

As a section of a circle, Arc elegantly conveys that these are components while also implying the geometry of design and the comprehensiveness of the solution. Like the trajectory of a project or game, an arc is the frictionless way to what’s next. The word is crisp yet lyrical, a springboard for rich imagery and copywriting.

Intel selected Arc not just for the cards but for its entire set of new graphics solutions (hardware, software, and services). The announcement in August 2021 generated huge industry buzz and highlighted another facet to the Arc metaphor: how, through gaming and creating, graphics “connects people across communities and cultures. Every game, gamer, and creator has a story, and every story has an Arc.”

The strategy consultants who started The Bridgespan Group took a cut in pay to do so; they truly wanted to make the world a better place. Bridge spoke to their desire to serve as a bridge connecting nonprofits to the private sector, while span referred to their flexibility and breadth of services. This simple naming solution also lent itself to a powerful logo and identity.

Allergan engaged Catchword to name several new products, including a new formula for its Refresh line of eye drop products. This lubricant was specially developed to relieve the discomfort of dry, irritated eyes and prevent further irritation. Customers looking for relief from eye pain need to find the right product quickly. So its name should immediately communicate why this is the one. Relieva leaves no doubt.

Semtech, a leading supplier of high-performance semiconductors, engaged Catchword to develop a name for its portfolio of sensing products. These sensors detect human proximity to mobile devices in order to regulate power savings, auto on/off capabilities, gesture controls, and more.

The project involved exploration of a variety of creative avenues, including extending the naming convention of one of Semtech’s most successful brands, LoRa (short for “Long Range”), chipsets that connect sensors to the cloud. The chosen name, PerSe, is derived from “Personal Sensing” and is a short and memorable two-syllable intercapping—just like LoRa, enhancing naming consistency across Semtech.

In addition to selecting PerSe for the umbrella brand, Semtech adopted Catchword’s recommended strategy for naming products within the portfolio, assigning the three descriptive names Connect, Connect Pro, and Control. These terms quickly telegraph the products’ end-benefits, while allowing the PerSe portfolio brand to stand out and accrue the most equity.

Made with green coffee extract and fruit juices, Starbucks’ line of sparkling cold beverages packs a natural, revitalizing punch. The name Refreshers conveys that, without veering into the high-octane territory of energy drinks. And it’s inclusive enough to encompass handcrafted in-store beverages, sparkling canned product, and VIA instant packets. Try some and find out what all the buzz is about.

TikTok, the world’s preeminent video-focused social network, allows users to create short-form music and other videos. Always striving to amplify engagement and enhance creator capabilities, TikTok developed an augmented-reality platform to allow for the creation of custom “effects” (considerably more sophisticated than tools offered by Snap and Meta). And when they needed a name for the platform, well, they called on yours truly.

Effect House, the name Catchword created, Tik’d all the boxes. While perfectly telegraphic of an effects platform, the name strongly implies an online destination—a digital dwelling and repository for creators’ cool creations. Moreover, the name reinforces the company’s focus on community, with House strongly signaling a familial, cooperative, and supportive creative environment.

The Home Depot produces hundreds of new product styles every year from multiple in-house brands (Hampton Bay, TrafficMaster, and Home Decorators Collection to name a few). As the people most familiar with every new item, each product group independently handles naming, but with product turnover every season, there’s little time for creative name development or coordination with the dozens of other groups. How could the company ensure that these new item names weren’t already in use by The Home Depot or competitors, yet were evocative of the product style and, of course, easy to pronounce and spell? 

Catchword worked closely with THD to develop names for numerous business groups, including Flooring & Tile, Lighting & Fans, Vanities, and Patio Furniture that would give the group teams ample names to choose from, confident that they would not create any marketplace conflicts. We created and vetted long lists of personal and place names with tonalities that matched the group’s styles. 

Click here to see the names we’ve developed for The Home Depot that have already been adopted.

Specialty products manufacturer Advantage Midstream was helping clean up in the industrial sector by converting major pollution sources, including methane and industrial carbon dioxide, into pure, environmentally friendly everyday products such as mineral spirits, paints, and personal care products. But the company’s name didn’t express this tremendous contribution and the ethos behind it. Catchword was tapped to help rebrand with a new name. We worked closely with the client team to develop an ownable name that communicates all the company offers. ClearShift conveys not only the conversion of potentially harmful chemicals to cleaner products but the environmental shift in thinking behind everything the company does.

Boston Beer approached Catchword to develop a name for a new, easy-drinking but high quality beer focused on social occasions such as time spent with friends, parties, and unwinding. A lager/ale hybrid sourced entirely from American grown ingredients, the new beer is lightly golden with a subtle citrus tropical aroma that is both refreshing and smooth. However, the name needed to speak less to the flavor profile and more to the strong American heritage for which the Samuel Adams brand has always been known. The name needed to serve as a tribute to the American spirit and focus on inclusivity, hard work, perseverance, and grit. After an extensive creative ideation, and among other ideas, Catchword presented ’76, a crisp salute to 1776 and our nation’s year of independence. Ultimately, Boston Beer added “Sam” to the name to tie it very closely to the Samuel Adams brand.

Tech-enabled auto refinancing company MotoRefi had been helping drivers find better rates and reduce their monthly car payments since 2016. Using the company’s secure, online platform, and from the comfort of their own homes, consumers quickly, confidently, and easily refinanced their loans, including paying off old lenders and even retitling their vehicles, without ever needing to visit the DMV. The company leadership knew they could offer more ways for consumers to save, like comparing auto insurance plans, but its now overly specific name was holding it back. 

Caribou is delightfully unexpected, clearly standing out in an industry full of RateGurus and AutoWallets. Caribou conjures images of agile speed and graceful leaps, reinforcing the ideas of financial freedom and the independence gained from owning a car. And the name subtly recalls both car (visually) and care (aurally), underscoring its customer-centric approach. The final -bou sound is playful and friendly. And as a real English word used in a new way, it feels smart and contemporary.

Caribou took top honors at the 2022 Hermes Creative Competition, winning a platinum award for naming excellence.

Unlike competitors’ products, the technology offered by Netforts could target flaws in network security before they caused problems. The company wanted a new name (and exact dot-com domain) that played to this prescient proactivity.

In a category where company names evoke checkpoints, shields, warfare, and fortifications, FireEye—stemming from Eye of the Fire, an ancient Germanic rune that gave its goddess omniscience—pushes against expected cybersecurity motifs. A highly iconic name with an uncanny ability to evoke a bright yet eerie image and a deep connection to ancient lore, FireEye singes itself into memory.

The company has played a significant role in detecting high-profile vulnerabilities at Microsoft, Facebook, and other major corporations. As of 2020, FireEye had more than 10,000 customers across 103 countries, including more than 50% of the Forbes Global 2000.

Presbyopia is a progressive condition that reduces the eye’s ability to focus on near objects, and nearly every adult over the age of 40 experiences it. That’s 128 million Americans (nearly half the US adult population).

Allergan, a world leader in eye care, developed an eye drop solution to treat this condition. The daily prescription eye drop improves near and intermediate vision without impacting distance vision in as little as 15 minutes and lasts up to 6 hours.

Catchword worked closely with the Allergan team to develop Vuity, a name that instantly conveys the solution’s ability to improve viewing acuity. The name is easy to spell and say (no small feat in pharmaceutical naming) and works equally well for English-speaking and international audiences. In addition to recalling the word view, the name’s smoothly voiced opening “V” suggests velocity, an idea reinforced by the word’s brevity. The name packs three syllables into a small, quickly spoken package, underscoring the product’s ability to deliver significant, lasting results.

Vuity was awarded Gold for naming excellence in the 2022 Hermes Creative Competition.

SportsEngine, Inc., a division of NBC Sports Group, provides software solutions and mobile applications for 23,000 youth sports organizations and is used by 15 million athletes annually. The company needed a name for its all-in-one class-management software for studios providing such disciplines as gymnastics, dance, and martial arts. The new name needed to express the brand’s approachability and enthusiasm, and be instantly understood by studio owners, parents, and students. GoMotion makes it easy to manage activity classes, registration, payments, and more on the go.

Since its founding in 1943, the Tulsa Federal Credit Union has grown from six to 56,000 members, expanded its service to areas outside of Tulsa, and opened up membership to non-governmental employees. Needless to say, the organization had outgrown its name in just about every way and needed a new, more inclusive name to better reflect its expanded service area and membership profile.

WeStreet, the name Catchword created and recommended, provides much greater flexibility and underscores the organization’s focus on local ties, collective values, and financial harmony—business objectives it will maintain no matter how large it becomes or where it does business. Lastly, and conveniently, the word “Street” evokes the streets that make up our neighborhoods, our financial Main Streets, and the shared paths that we all travel in life.

Dunkin’ engaged Catchword to name several new food and drink menu items. The first was a flaky croissant with savory favorites like cheese and bacon baked right inside. Folks on the go don’t have time to guess what a menu item is, especially while rushing to work or school or looking for a satisfying snack. Croissant Stuffers immediately lets you know you’re in for some hot, savory goodness. Dunkin’ rolled out the sandwich in select markets in the South in late 2019, and we hear the Chicken, Bacon & Cheese is the fan favorite. 

A leader in 3D printing, Shapeways has evolved from B2C solutions to enterprise-level B2B 3D manufacturing. Catchword was engaged to develop a name for its end-to-end digital manufacturing platform that addresses every phase of the process—from ordering and pricing to fulfillment and distribution. While the platform provides numerous performance benefits, it was digitizing and automating that stood out as the most important end-benefits.

OTTO, the name Catchword developed, is a homonym for “auto” and strongly alludes to the platform’s key benefit, automation. And because it’s a personification, the name evokes a manufacturing coordinator or facilitator to help expedite and support the process. The compact palindrome is also visually striking, consisting of just two letters and four characters, with bookended Os that underscore the platform’s full range of capabilities.

The Attain by Aetna app is a first-of-its-kind health experience designed in collaboration with Apple. It combines a member’s health history with their Apple Watch® activity to provide personalized goals, achievable actions, and big rewards—like an Apple Watch or gift cards from popular retailers. The name Attain, which is conveniently alliterative with Aetna, possesses a slightly techy tonality and speaks to reaching and realizing health goals.

Transform Award Winner – Best Naming Strategy

Tech giant Hitachi saw a tremendous opportunity to create value for customers by merging existing subsidiaries into a new business dedicated to data-driven solutions. The new company would combine the expertise of Hitachi Data Systems (data center infrastructure), Hitachi Insights Group (internet of things), and Pentaho (analytics). Although Hitachi had a history of descriptive naming, Catchword recommended a suggestive name to signal a departure from the past. Vantara recalls the advantage offered to customers, as well as the company’s unique vantage point on data. Since its launch in 2017, the company has seen exceptional growth, with more than 80% of Fortune Global 100s turning to Vantara solutions.

Historically, Ply Gem has led the industry with its Mastic, Variform, and Performance Collection vinyl siding product lines. Looking to make waves in the composite siding space, the company approached Catchword to help name its breakthrough weather-resistant composite siding product line. Whereas most existing composite siding products use PVC, Ply Gem’s composite product is a mixture of sand and urethane, which provides countless benefits over traditional composite products, such as being all-season/weather appropriate and super light and easy to install. Elements, the name Catchword developed for the brand, alludes to both the product’s ability to withstand the elements (rain, heat, snow) and its composite nature—that is, one composed of multiple elements. In addition, the name suggests easy, simple (elemental to install), and essential.

Not so long ago, potato chips were always on a first-name basis with the deep fryer: a delicious but greasy and caloric affair. But in 2006—pop!—along came a new snack brand, offering consumers a healthy and tasty alternative: potatoes and corn heated in a pressurized chamber and quickly released to “pop” them out.

Catchword assisted partner branding agency Addis in developing the name Popchips, perfectly capturing the excitement and distinctiveness of this category-popping product. Since then, the company has won numerous food awards and was rated by Forbes as one of America’s top 20 most promising companies in 2011, with high-profile investor-endorsers such as Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry, and Sean Combs. In 2019, the company was acquired by leading private-equity firm VMG Partners as the foundation for its new Velocity Snack Brands.

First-of-its-kind, Popchips ushered in a pack of popped-chip products, from Poppables to PopCorners, reflecting and facilitating America’s move toward “better-for-you” eating and evolving our favorite snack.

Juniper Networks, a top provider of networking products and services, has many products. We help them make sure they can communicate clearly about these products to internal and external audiences. Over its nearly 25 years, Juniper has acquired (and continues to acquire) smaller companies, each with their own products and customers. And all these great products were named at different times by different people with different vocabulary and a different approach to naming. Catchword provides ongoing naming strategy and architecture consultation to help ensure that folks from Sales, Marketing, the Product Team, and every other department use names and descriptors logically, consistently, and in a way that customers can easily understand and that fits the Juniper brand now, and in the future. 

Agari was founded by the thought leaders behind Cisco’s IronPort solution and co-founders of the DMARC standard for email authentication. Using predictive AI informed by global intelligence from about 2 trillion emails annually, the company protects organizations against phishing, account takeover, and other advanced email threats. Agari, meaning “rise” and “advance” in Japanese, suggests technical advances and the start of a bright new day in cybersecurity.

FoxNext / Fogbank Entertainment created an interactive, role-playing video game series, where every choice you make transforms your story, and turned to Catchword to name the series and three of its lead titles. For the series, we recommended Storyscape, which suggests the expansive, immersive nature of each narrative adventure. For the story of an ancient city of power-hungry factions, magic, and secrets, we recommended Eternal City, which evokes continuous play and a mystic, age-old metropolis. For the romantic comedy in which you chuck it all and start over with a new city, new job, and new lovers, we recommended Life 2.0. The sci-fi epic survival story needed a name that conveyed the desperate hope of post-apocalyptic humanity on the Edge of Extinction.

Fresh Mex chain Chipotle wanted to offer customers a new vegetarian filling for its burritos, tacos, and more. A savory combination of marinated tofu and chilies, this meat-free option would be muy sabroso. Catchword consulted with Chipotle on the new ingredient name and developed many hundreds of name options.

Christopher Michael Brands engaged Catchword to develop names for several of its new delicious adult beverages. The first was a hard soda made with a proprietary vodka, classically filtered with activated charcoal, mixed with carbonated water, fruit zest, and just enough cane sugar (only 1 gram) to wake up a smile. With no preservatives, artificial colors, or artificial sweeteners, this refresher is as light (only 100 calories!), fresh, and natural as a summer breeze. Beach St. is making waves. 

Momentive, a global leader in quartz and silicone materials, tapped Catchword to name its new line of sustainable, derived natural ingredients. These materials would create the next generation of beauty products for planet-conscious consumers while improving performance, efficiency, application, and sensory appeal across a wide range of beauty industry categories. Harmony Derived Naturals by Momentive clearly expresses the balance and beauty of nature as well as the line’s ability to blend perfectly with a variety of products, and customers.

Corning has engaged Catchword to name numerous technologies and businesses, including Fibrance, an innovative light-diffusing fiber that you can bend, curve, and wrap around almost anything, while maintaining bright, beautiful, and uniform light. It enables decorative lighting to be designed or embedded into tight or small places where other bulky lighting elements cannot fit. Fibrance, a coining of fiber and vibrance, quickly telegraphs the product’s key attributes and benefits.

Unlike most of the leading blended iced coffee drinks, Peet’s Coffee’s new line would be hand-made with freshly brewed East African roasts. The company had spent a year conducting research and optimizing recipes, and Catchword set out to develop a name with equal rigor (though quite a bit faster). Peet’s and Catchword agreed the name should convey the premium quality, flavor, and exhilaration of these icy refreshments, as well as Peet’s unique personality and unwavering commitment to freshness. The name Javiva was made to order. Long live freshly brewed java!

The Javiva line launched in March 2015 to rave reviews. And by June of 2015, the beverage had outperformed Peet’s previous blended drink by 67 percent in sales.

Wells Fargo’s launch of this secure online storage service was a big deal, and the product name needed to have impact. It also needed to be reasonably transparent. So how did we infuse this vault-like product (not the sexiest of images) with some life? vSafe (for virtual safe) was not only descriptive; it also sounded like “be safe.” A fitting rallying cry.

What do you call a super-creamy, super-premium ice cream with unique flavor combinations and a yum factor almost beyond description? That was the question put to us by Dreyer’s when we were tasked with naming their decadent new line of ice creams. Many names later, Dreyer’s had their answer. And ice cream lovers had their dream come true. We just wish the project had lasted long enough for some extended, um, field research.

When Agilent spun off its electronic test and measurement division into an independent company, they needed a name that would showcase the new company’s solution-driven approach. Keysight spoke to a key benefit: solutions that unlock the critical insights needed to understand the changing technology landscape and solve thorny engineering problems when designing and manufacturing electronic products and systems. And the name’s authoritative, no-nonsense tone suggests a company that helps you cut to the heart of the matter and get the job done. Fast.

Spalding had invented an in-ball micro pump that kept balls inflated without changing their weight or balance. (How cool is that?) Rather than naming each type of sports ball, we suggested creating an ingredient brand name for the technology. After Infusion’s introduction, Spalding’s market share doubled and unit sales of Infusion balls topped one million in the first year alone. We were as pumped as Spalding.

Messaging directions and stylistic preferences are of course critical to developing a name for any product, but when it comes to foods and beverages there’s nothing more helpful than actually experiencing the new comestibles. And, when Catchword first sampled Gordon Dessert’s new line of mochi (a delectable combination of premium ice cream and other tasty ingredients wrapped in sticky rice dough), we knew we were naming a truly category re-defining confectionary. A play on okey-dokey, Mochidoki makes use of the product descriptor in a fun and playful way, all while recalling the product’s Asian roots and sounding bite-sized and delicious.

Canon was developing a ground-breaking line of high-speed, Wi-Fi–enabled inkjet business printers for small offices that could handle printing from PCs, smartphones, tablets, and cloud services. Maxify says it all: Maximum access, maximum convenience, maximum Wi-Fi.

Ahold’s U.S. supermarkets (including Giant Food and Stop & Shop) sold more than 500 natural and organic products ranging from chips and salsa to pasta sauce and peanut butter. They challenged us to create a distinctive name that would quickly communicate the health benefits and general deliciousness of the entire line. Ultimately, we landed on a name that let nature do all the heavy lifting.

Anoto needed a name for its amazing smartpen, which could capture anything written by hand, as well as perform calculations, record audio, translate words, play music, and cook dinner. (Okay, everything but the dinner part.) The new name had to embrace all of these features, convey a next-generation writing implement, and also work as a company name. Livescribe hit the mark.

Director Vicki Abeles wanted to ignite a national conversation with her documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren, and their steep cost. She asked us to create a title and tagline that would get people talking. Sounding overly preachy or tragic would be a turnoff; the key was to suggest a gripping story. Our solution, Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture, got attention. The New York Times dubbed the film “a must-see,” and screenings around the country helped launch a grassroots movement.

This health insurance start-up told us that they knew what was wrong with healthcare and how to fix it. By using data models, applications, and operations software, Clover seeks to realign the insurers, patients, and providers into a more efficient system that leads to better health outcomes for the most vulnerable individuals, specifically elderly and lower-income populations. The name Clover conveys the harmony and simplicity of a fully aligned healthcare system. We feel lucky to have found it for them.

AknaDx had developed a simple blood test to predict a pregnant woman’s risk of giving birth prematurely, creating an affordable, non-invasive diagnostic for expectant mothers. But the techy name AknaDx lacked the warmth and humanity of the company’s reason for being—namely, removing uncertainty so mothers-to-be and their families can focus on the wonders of pregnancy. A coining of miracle and mira, Latin for “wonderful,” and vie, French for “life,” the compact coining Mirvie suggests the wonder and miracle of life.

Boston-based VC firm IDG Ventures wanted a more casual and compelling name that reflected their core competency: partnering with entrepreneurs to build exceptional companies. After generating 3,000+ names, we landed on Flybridge. The name refers to the area above a ship’s pilothouse with a duplicate set of steering controls. It spoke to the company’s commitment to helping to guide their portfolio firms in a complementary way.

Over the years, McDonald’s has engaged Catchword on a variety of naming related initiatives. From McCafé naming strategy and architecture development to dressing up a burger with just the right name. On this occasion, one of Catchword’s names was selected for the Golden Arches’ new grilled chicken sandwich: a perfectly seasoned and seared fillet lovingly prepared with a light vinaigrette and combined with McDonald’s new hand-crafted roll. A culinary work of art(isan).

Most folks may be unaware that Clorox has sold healthcare products directly to hospitals for years. When this expertise inspired a top quality line of caregiving products available directly to consumers for use at home, the company wanted a name that spoke to nurturing and healing but also carried the gravitas of serious, hospital-grade service. That’s when Clorox CareConcepts was born—a gentle yet trustworthy name conveying the quality care of hospitals, now available at home.

Gymboree hired Catchword to help launch their new retail stores and fun line of kids’ clothes. The new name had to appeal to kids and their parents AND be available as an exact .com. After going through umpteen domain name searches (actually, the number was a lot higher) and domain name brokering, we landed on a brand name and URL that’s fun for the whole family. Crazy 8 fits every kind of kid, 8 days a week, even your own little wild card. In 2019, after 12 years with Gymboree, the brand was acquired by Children’s Place.

While consumers have many options for streaming music nowadays, most subscription-based services are focused solely on delivering as much music as possible, and provide little opportunity for artists and fans to interact in truly meaningful ways. Ursa, the name Catchword developed for an exciting new music engagement “ecosystem,” speaks to a constellation of streaming services and connecting in countless ways (features, music, people, etc.). It also recalls the major and minor scales (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor), and evokes an otherworldly music streaming platform.

Purigen Bio approached Catchword to develop a name for its unique, and truly revolutionary, automated approach to prepping and purifying biological samples. The technology, Isotachophoresis (ITP), uses an electric current to not only separate the target molecules from the rest of the sample, but concentrate and focus them as well. The new name, Ionic, speaks to the process by which the technology moves the target molecules to an isolated location between the two sets of electrolytes, into what the company refers to as the ITP zone. Catchword also developed the company’s new tagline “Pure & Simple.” to highlight both the enhanced biological output and the system’s ease of use.

The Silicon Valley office of venture capital firm Weiss, Peck & Greer wanted a company name with less of a stodgy, law-firm tonality. Ideally, the name would sound “science-y” and suggest a fast-moving company that kept pace with Silicon Valley. The board was our toughest crowd initially, but they rallied around Lightspeed. The name differentiated them and put them light years ahead of the pack.

When Kellogg’s approached Catchword to name an exciting new type of Cheez-It, we immediately requested samples. You know, for creative inspiration.

The new snack had all the crispiness and 100% real cheese of the original Cheez-It baked cracker but with a new curvy form factor and even more satisfying crunch. These irresistible bites were just as munchable, bingeable, and delicious as we expected.

After we developed more than 1,600 names for the product, Kellogg’s adopted Snap’d, underscoring a crunchy, crispy mouthfeel and establishing a new and distinctive name style for the Cheez-It brand.

Not long after Snap’d debuted, Kellogg’s came back to us to help name another extension of the Cheez-It line: a puffed, melt-in-your-mouth cracker perfect for snacking anytime. Given the success of the Snap’d name, and its distinctive construction, the “dropped-e-apostrophe-d” seemed a logical naming convention for new Cheez-It products—but we explored hundreds of alternatives just in case. In the end, Kellogg’s adopted Puff’d, which we heartily approved of.

Both snacks have been huge hits with multiple new flavors (try Scorchin’ Hot Cheddar if you want a serious pickmeup), and Snap’d is now available internationally.

We can’t wait to see the next snack from this stalwart American brand (Cheez-It celebrated its 100th year in 2021)!

Catchword was engaged to name a new vacation club offering champagne-bucket list travel experiences in the world’s most beautiful and sought-after destinations. Given the global reach, Catchword explored vocabulary that would be familiar to high-end, international customers, including the word quintessence (derived from quinta essentia— the “fifth essence,” or aether—which in medieval Europe was considered superior to earth, air, fire, and water). Catchword recommended Quintess for this quintessence of luxury hospitality. From its Q beginning to its soft, smooth finish, the name is as distinctly elegant as the company’s ultra-premium accommodations. 

EEI came to Catchword searching for a name for the new company whose platform not only connects financial data and the real world, but breaks down data barriers to create a universal standard. A term out of nautical history and mythology from many cultures, the Ninth Wave is a single, massive wave that is the last of a series of incrementally larger waves. The name naturally conveys the flow, integration, and power of the company’s new platform to sweep away obstructive complexity while avoiding the obvious “fin” and “tech” references of so many players in this sector.

Though an open-office plan has its merits, quite often it can be stressful and distracting. Plantronics (now Poly) developed a solution: an innovative soundscaping platform that combines nature-inspired audio and visuals and responsive software to transform offices into peaceful spaces of focus and collaboration.

The multi-sensory, immersive “biophilic” experience—waterfall sculptures, sound design, digital windows and skylights, and virtual landscapes—lent itself to a name suggestive of an organic environment. Habitat was a natural. Readily connecting to the outdoors and alluding to comfort and home, Habitat asks us to reimagine our work environments as places fostering both productivity and well-being.

The system was among the first to offer biophilic design for offices and was adopted by forward-thinking brands such as Hewlett-Packard and customer data platform leader Segment.

Meeting the FDA’s myriad requirements for pharmaceutical naming (while retaining a milligram of marketing appeal) is always tough. That’s why most pharmaceutical names resemble Slavic gods (like Ipabog or Krsnik). For Merck’s shingles vaccine, we loved Zostavax (from vaccine and herpes zoster, the name for shingles). It was meaningful, easy to say, and—hold on to your pill fob—had only one set of adjacent consonants.

Blockchain mining needs huge amounts of energy, which has led to an increase in damaging fossil fuel consumption. Soluna seeks to solve this problem by creating the first blockchain company powered by its own private sustainable energy sources. A coinage of sol and luna (“sun” and “moon” in Latin), Soluna evokes human aspiration at its most fundamental—looking up at the great light in the sky. The name recalls “solution” as well as “una” (one), suggesting the company’s all-in-one energy production and computer processing solution. Soluna has been recognized with both a Transform Award and a Hermes Creative Award for Excellence in Brand Naming.

There are few brands more iconic than Converse’s Chuck Taylor All Star. So, Catchword was of course honored to be engaged to help develop a strategy for naming the company’s historic update of the sneaker line. From Chuck– and All Star­–specific naming strategies to feature and end-benefit based, we explored every possible creative solution. The approach that made the most sense? The one as classic as the shoe itself: a simple, numeric modifier that kept the focus on the epic Chuck name and still strongly suggested an evolution of the brand.

Eaux Vives wanted a name for their bottled water that suggested purity and stood out from their French and Italian competitors. We went straight to the water’s source for inspiration: a stream filtered by a glacial esker in the northern reaches of Quebec. The coined Eska sounds crisp and refreshing, and also vaguely Scandinavian (with all the cool associations that implies).

Healthline needed a new name for its Healthcare Information Technology group, which allows clinicians to extract simple, accurate insights from messy, free-form data—and thereby give patients the best possible care. Catchword developed the name Talix, coined from italics, to convey this idea of emphasizing and drawing attention to what’s important, and unlocking the power of unstructured data.

Roku, a leading streaming device company, knew it was time to move away from its numeric product naming system as it prepared to launch new offerings. In order to ensure consumers found the device that fit their needs and to support continued portfolio expansion, Roku came to Catchword for help developing family names that signaled the right level of tech and entertainment.

Allergan needed a name for its line of saline and silicone gel implants designed for breast enhancement, augmentation, and reconstruction. These products were designed to more closely resemble the breast’s natural look and feel, with a tear-drop shape and varying levels of firmness. Catchword provided the exact .com domain Natrelle to perfectly express this brand.

Take Care Employer Solutions (a Walgreens subsidiary) and CHS Health Services, two of the largest worksite healthcare providers merged to create the leading worksite health provider, with approximately 500 health centers and more than 200 clients nationwide, including Google, Time Warner, and General Electric. Working with senior leadership and board members of both companies, Catchword developed the name Premise Health, which alludes to on-premises healthcare facilities and management, as well as a company setting the stage for a real impact on employee population health.

When Safeway needed a name for its top-of-the-line beef, Addis Creson (a branding agency and frequent partner of ours) brought us in to help out. We liked the understated confidence and quiet authority of Rancher’s Reserve for this premium house brand. And its alliteration and propulsive rhythm made it very easy on the tongue. Not unlike the beef in question.

Plantronics (now Poly) needed a name for its new mobile phone station designed for the mobile-first professional, with support for Microsoft Teams, chat, and online meetings. Elara, the name of a moon of Jupiter, suggests exploration as well as connection. This on-desk solution helps you launch your day’s activities and keeps your contacts in orbit with enhanced smartphone capabilities.

Over the years, Catchword has had the pleasure of partnering with Corning to name many innovative products, including Fibrance, the highly flexible, light-diffusing fiber (vibrance of color and light + fiber + radiance). When Corning decided to spin-off a new company to develop smart, integrated products and solutions using Fibrance, they asked us to create something that complements the product name while conveying the elegant versatility of this new light technology. Versalume was the clear choice.

A secret: private label products are generally just as good as the name brands. In fact, you could say they’re equal. The supermarket chain Lucky/Albertsons needed to brand their line of over-the-counter health and beauty products, from shampoo to eye drops to vitamins. Our solution was Equaline: equal parts savvy shopper and high-quality product line.

Turns out brains need workouts, too. This company came to us with a line of computer games, developed by pioneering neuroscientists, for those in need of brain fitness—basically anyone over 40. The company name had to work for consumers and brain experts alike. Posit (meaning “to put forward for study”) had a scientific feel, and was also rather positive. In the years since, PositScience created BrainHQ, one of only two brain training programs to be scientifically proven efficient by multiple studies.