Naming Project of Our Most Valued One

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In my column, I want to put emphasize on “naming” in regard of my personal interest and by the power vested in me by my position at Markam :)

I would like to continue talking about naming with a special name that entered our lives 3 months ago.

My husband and I made our decision after a long naming project that lasted for months.

First, we created the strategy, as it is done in all the naming projects.

We defined the positioning and the message.

A happy, positive, energetic, loving girl.

A Phillips.  It was already a brand :) (with double “l”) !

The mother is Turkish, the Father is American.  It should include something from both cultures.

Even though she will be born at the end of the summer, it should reflect the happiness and the positive energy of the summer.

What should be considered? What should be excluded? What are Do’s and Don’ts? What were the limits?

First of all, she should have 2 names, one Turkish, one English.  She should choose the one she prefers when she grows up.  People should use which ever they want, whichever is easier.

But the names should be pronounced easily and recalled easily in both languages.  They should not include Turkish letters. For example “ç,ğ” could cause trouble.  Especially while filling out forms, on the computer they would be problematic.  That’s why we eliminated some names that I love such as “Doğa, Yağmur”.  Also “ı” is a difficult letter to pronounce in English.  We eliminated names including “ı” as well.  We also eliminated names that my husband has trouble pronouncing also since Turkish people laugh when foreigners pronounce words wrong, not to make fun, just because it amuses them.  In the same way, we didn’t choose English names including “th” since I still have problems pronouncing it correctly.

It shouldn’t be too long. Two syllables are enough. We preferred that since she will have 2 names, otherwise she would take a long time to write her names.

Then we started imagining our baby.  You can define your product’s character. You can create it and equip it according to your strategy.  You can’t do that for your baby, but at least we hoped she would be positive, energetic, happy and free.  We had to find a name that reflects this character.  It should be related to nature also. We hoped so!

We put all of these in front of us and we started to think, to research and to derive.
We liked some names, one of us liked, one of us didn’t for various reasons.  For example I like Tuana a lot. But my husband doesn’t like its sound in English. He likes names like Aleyda, İlayda, Aleyna, on which I am not keen.

Then we thought of “nature” names a lot.

And then, one day, we found what we were looking for: Summer Damla!
Our Summer Drop.

It sounded really nice to us. It had a very good meaning.

Summer is an easy word for most people in Turkey.  It is easy to pronounce, easy to remember.  It is short.
Damla is an easy word for Americans.

We had made our decision, but still, we wanted to pre-test it.  We asked my parents-in-law to write down the letters and then read it to us over the phone.  They pronounced Damla very well.  Damla passed the test successfully.

After the birth, the lovely “Markam team” my creative brand consultant, brand strategist, brand manager friends from Markam, brought a very precious gift to the hospital.  They had made a very nice project for our name.  They had made a branding project for our most valuable thing and they took a picture of it. I want to thank one more time for this lovely project  the “Markam family”.

Hoping that Summer Damla will always be a loved, appreciated, successful girl who appreciates the name we have given her, in all her life…