The name game

In the wee hours of the night, before I am able to fall asleep, I find myself wondering the most random thing imaginable. For instance, do you ever wonder how they come up with names for candies? Do candy companies hire linguists to establish what connotations certain phonemes have to better ensure their made up names are evocative of the flavors their candy is supposed to taste like?

How did someone decide that “Skittles” sound fruity? To me, it sounds like a disease (“Grandpa came home from the war with a bad case of Skittles”). There has to be a process behind naming products, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine what the conversation would be like. I always think of the Poplars episode of “Futurama.”

Thoughts like this plague my thoughts when my mind drifts in its midnight lull. Without self-aggrandizing, I can’t conceive of someone taking candy names so seriously, I mean having heated discussions about them. It’s not that think it is easy to conceive a name that carries the connotation you want. I imagine it is incredibly difficult. The right name can sell a product.

I just can’t ever envision a scenario where I would care. Moreover, I can’t imagine the kind of person that would care. Then again, I guess the market decides success when it comes to product sales. It’s easy for me to sale that this name game is silly, but I do hate when commercials refer to cake as “moist.” Yuck.

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