{"id":1567,"date":"2017-06-01T13:32:21","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T18:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2022-04-11T03:29:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T08:29:16","slug":"6-cultural-naming-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Cultural Naming Fails"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Large corporations usually invest a significant amount of time and resources into creating the perfect name for their products. With all the effort that goes into finding an evocative name that describes the product, it makes sense why companies may be loath to change the name when expanding abroad.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unfortunately, as many companies have found, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.Atom.com\/Name-Ideas\">name idea<\/a> that sounds appealing and catchy in their native language may be memorable in a completely different way in other languages. Here are six companies who learned the hard way that they should always consult a translator before selling their products internationally:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>1. Kraft Foods<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Kraft Foods created a snack spinoff company, they settled on the name Mondelez for their new branch. Despite holding multiple focus groups in 28 languages and running the names by translators, they still managed to make an embarrassing mistake in one market to which they intended to expand. When pronounced in Russian, the word Mondelez sounds very similar to the Russian word for a sex act. <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<h2><strong>2. IKEA<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Swedish furniture manufacturing giant IKEA is known for their creative product names. With thousands of designs, all with unique names, it\u2019s inevitable that they would make a cultural slip at some point. The company made that mistake in 2005 when releasing a children\u2019s workstation. Naming the product \u00a0\u201cspeedy\u201d in Swedish sat fine with Swedish consumers, but the company quickly discovered that English-speaking customers weren\u2019t interested in buying a workstation called \u201cFartfull\u201d.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<h2><strong>3. Ford<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Ford executives decided to take their four-door sedan, the Ford Pinto, international, they had good sales in most South American countries. \u00a0However, there was one notable exception &#8211; Brazil. As it turns out, Brazilians were not clamoring to purchase a car that means \u201cmale genitals\u201d in Portuguese.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>4. Mazda<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In another blunder by a car manufacturer, Mazda found themselves marketing something slightly different than their three-door hatchback in Spanish. The Mazda Laputa, named after a fictional flying island in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gulliver\u2019s Travels<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, translated to something less wholesome in Spanish \u2013 \u201cla puta\u201d means \u201cthe whore\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>5.\u00a0Nokia<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nokia\u2019s low-cost smartphone, the Lumia, was marketed and sold to countries across the globe. However, the company made one major blunder &#8211; they didn\u2019t check how the name translated in other languages. While the name \u201clumia\u201d sounds enticing in English, Spanish speakers got an entirely different meaning from the name &#8211; \u201clumia\u201d is Spanish slang for a lady of the night. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>6. Schwan\u2019s Food<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The food manufacturer decided to name its beef and bean burrito a Burrada when selling the product internationally. Unfortunately, the product didn\u2019t sell well in Spanish-speaking countries. While there could have been many things that contributed to low sales, the fact that the word \u201cburrada\u201d means either \u201ca stupid act of nonsense\u201d or \u201ca drove of donkeys\u201d in Spanish may have been the deciding factor. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>These six companies\u2019 snafus offer an important lesson to other companies looking to expand their products across borders: check your translations. On the bright side, at least consumers got a good laugh when they shopped for a new car or browsed the grocery store!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Need a name? Browse through Atom&#8217;s curated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.Atom.com\/premium-domains-for-sale\">domains for sale<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Large corporations usually invest a significant amount of time and resources into creating the perfect name for their products. With all the effort that goes into finding an evocative name that describes the product, it makes sense why companies may be loath to change the name when expanding abroad. Unfortunately, as many companies have found, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":1580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[833],"tags":[439],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>6 Cultural Naming Fails - Atom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"6 Cultural Naming Fails - Atom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Large corporations usually invest a significant amount of time and resources into creating the perfect name for their products. With all the effort that goes into finding an evocative name that describes the product, it makes sense why companies may be loath to change the name when expanding abroad. Unfortunately, as many companies have found, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Atom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/atomdotcom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-01T18:32:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-11T08:29:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1276\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lotte Reford\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@atomhq\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@atomhq\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lotte Reford\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lotte Reford\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/792a6d69bb4c14dc8d29d4e18809f51d\"},\"headline\":\"6 Cultural Naming Fails\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-01T18:32:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-11T08:29:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/\"},\"wordCount\":527,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Naming Failures\"],\"articleSection\":[\"How to Create and Find a Business Name\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/\",\"name\":\"6 Cultural Naming Fails - Atom\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-01T18:32:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-11T08:29:16+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg\",\"width\":1276,\"height\":700},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"6 Cultural Naming Fails\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Atom\",\"description\":\"Insights from 50,000+ Domain, Naming and Branding Projects\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"Atom.com\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Atom\",\"alternateName\":\"Atom.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Atom-03.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Atom-03.png\",\"width\":766,\"height\":226,\"caption\":\"Atom\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/atomdotcom\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/atomhq\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/atomdotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@atomdotcom\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/workwithatom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/792a6d69bb4c14dc8d29d4e18809f51d\",\"name\":\"Lotte Reford\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a795365e1b285e59286d0cbaa51d3a75?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a795365e1b285e59286d0cbaa51d3a75?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lotte Reford\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/author\/lotte-reford\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"6 Cultural Naming Fails - Atom","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"6 Cultural Naming Fails - Atom","og_description":"Large corporations usually invest a significant amount of time and resources into creating the perfect name for their products. With all the effort that goes into finding an evocative name that describes the product, it makes sense why companies may be loath to change the name when expanding abroad. Unfortunately, as many companies have found, [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/","og_site_name":"Atom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/atomdotcom","article_published_time":"2017-06-01T18:32:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-11T08:29:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1276,"height":700,"url":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lotte Reford","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@atomhq","twitter_site":"@atomhq","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lotte Reford"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/"},"author":{"name":"Lotte Reford","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/792a6d69bb4c14dc8d29d4e18809f51d"},"headline":"6 Cultural Naming Fails","datePublished":"2017-06-01T18:32:21+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-11T08:29:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/"},"wordCount":527,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg","keywords":["Naming Failures"],"articleSection":["How to Create and Find a Business Name"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/","url":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/","name":"6 Cultural Naming Fails - Atom","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-06-01T18:32:21+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-11T08:29:16+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/SH_NamingMistraslations_Validation-e1496342584513.jpeg","width":1276,"height":700},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/6-cultural-naming-fails\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"6 Cultural Naming Fails"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/","name":"Atom","description":"Insights from 50,000+ Domain, Naming and Branding Projects","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Atom.com","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Atom","alternateName":"Atom.com","url":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Atom-03.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Atom-03.png","width":766,"height":226,"caption":"Atom"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/atomdotcom","https:\/\/x.com\/atomhq","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/atomdotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@atomdotcom","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/workwithatom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/792a6d69bb4c14dc8d29d4e18809f51d","name":"Lotte Reford","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a795365e1b285e59286d0cbaa51d3a75?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a795365e1b285e59286d0cbaa51d3a75?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lotte Reford"},"url":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/author\/lotte-reford\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1567"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5088,"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1567\/revisions\/5088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}