Take the Chinese: This is the person who absolutely does not care about naming. For example, “soft baking wax” relates to a silicone mold for muffins. Gloves have something like “Lingnan Huien Nian Be Gloves” written on them – and nothing, they buy it. In Russia, the fantasy of the owners of the service is thrown from the pretentious “Angelique” and “Miscellaneous” to the ridiculous “Crane World” and “Diaper Universe”. What to do, how to find the golden meaning in the Russian naming world?
The cultural capital is hot. Based on years of experience, I know that the most complex names come with Petersburgers. Cafe participation “Holy journey for a pregnant spy”, cafe-laundry “Stirka 40”, restaurant “Likes to eat”, old bookstore “Raskolnikov”, clothing store “Soap Squirrel” … Not bad, if only Remembered and this task naming whether it is or not? But much more often we meet the hairdressers “Natalie”, “Amaranth” or “He and She”, “Maria Metal Group”, LLC “Beautiful Design Will Be”, cafe “Sosison” or plumbing store “TolchOK”. “. Maybe in the ’90s some of this looked elegant, some of it funny, but now this kind of creativity causes an annoying surprise: “Shhhh again?”.
In the 20s of the 21st century, the names began to appeal to more luxury or diminished, from “Yaroslavskaya shell factory” to “Yobidoyobi” (oh, nesin, nesin, “Saturday” in Japanese). But some still hire professionals and call them “Vitek”, “Oggi”, “Kanzler”, “Zolla” – these fake foreign names of Russian brands quite successfully sell Russian quality. Moreover, it seems to consumers that it is higher than the neighboring “Marusy” and “Seventh Pockets”: it is already hammered in our heads that Russian is worse. And only a few brands managed to defend their “Russianness”: for example, “Uncle Vanya”, which appeared as a response to Uncle Ben. But what prevents our manufacturers and sellers from taking the side of “correct” naming and cleaning the walls of homes and websites from the paradoxical “XXL-Girls” and the banal “Belarusian Cuisine”?
There are four obstacles.
Business owners fall into one of four extremes that warrant the laughter of others. The first is imperial ambitions: for example, the “Kingdom of the Curtains” or the “Empire of the Baths”. As a small-town, provincial, important and successful businessman, I see in this pity the desire to appear. The second extreme, daughters and sons, or self-sustaining passion: Ivan and Dusya instant noodles, Krasavchik Ruslan underwear store, VasiLissa yogurt. Third, as you might guess, a passion for cosmopolitanism and poor knowledge of English: the Favorit car dealership (instead of Favorite) or the German OBUV. And already, you can feel in your spine that the obuv was not made in Hamburg, but at best in Shanghai. And finally, the fourth extreme is Rusophilism. Restaurant “Mokosh-matushka”, advertising agency “Sama Ra”, speech therapy school “Az Glagol”. Visitors fear and rightly fear that they will be greeted with runes, Belobog propaganda, and beet puree.
Again, from my experience working with idiomarketing, I will say that the difficulties in naming Russian are closely tied to what the customer sincerely believes: he sells the body. Yeah, it worked in the days when a bare ass or a hot girl licking a lollipop was selling cars and vacuums. Why? Yes, because back then the buyers were mostly men and this ad was aimed at them. But tell me, when a female gardener said, “Pine as a gift!” What are the chances of getting a sapling for its advertisement? or vacuum cleaner “Suck for a penny”? At the very least – he will smile skeptically at the most – he will go to an opponent. That is why – due to the lack of understanding of the principles of naming, insufficient knowledge of the Russian language and its roots – Russian brands are badly remembered not only abroad, but also in Russia. Ex-Soviet ones like “Red Moscow”, “Alenka” and “Stolichnaya”?
But everything is not so bad: between the darkness of scary and ridiculous words, the young shoot of a successful nomenclature appears.
“Halasho” is a Chinese restaurant, “Mig” for painkillers, “Paws and tails” shell factory, “Yunost” street style clothing brand, “Good honey”, “My native place” … In general, the Russian naming now has lightness and brightness. patriotism, humor decreased, foreign words decreased, and most importantly, brands began to acquire a “past”, stories about why these brands should be in someone’s life.
Even if it’s called oatmeal, language is a living history.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.
Source: Gazeta
