Re:How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
by rtkwe on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @03:00PM
(#49350883)
Perhaps even the source of that rule.
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Re:How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
by dhosek on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @03:34PM
(#49351394)
Pax is another one that violates the rule that someone pointed out lower. Also Malm is a surname which is another violation of the rule (one of the characters in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was named, if I recall correctly, Stefan Malm). I remember reading the books with my then-wife and she said it was like reading an IKEA catalog. I thought she was referring to the character/place names, but it turned out that the second book had a long section where the titular girl furnishes an apartment from IKEA and—that chapter was exactly like reading an IKEA catalog.
Re:How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
by jagaerglad on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @04:18PM
(#49352059)
Although "Malm" is a common surname, it's a word first and a name second if that makes sense
The same way "Brown" is common surname in English but mostly makes you think of the color first
Re:How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
by BambooleanLogic on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @04:36PM
(#49352329)
When it comes to names like "MALM", it's likely incidental.
"Malm" is a a noun with several meanings, most notably "metal ore", but also some (more archaic) meanings like "area with sandy soil" or "city outskirts".
The fact that "Malm" also happens to be a surname is secondary; Swedish has a lot of surnames that are simply ordinary nouns or adjectives. A completely literal "No surnames, ever" rule would probably be quite a bit too restrictive. I suspect that the actual internal rule is "No names that are primarily (or solely) surnames", or something to that effect.
Re:How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
by AndrewKemendo on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @05:29PM
(#49352971)
Malm was released in the 1980s:
https://techvibeblog.com/what-is-ikea-malm-made-of/
Girl with the dragon tattoo was released in 2005
Re:How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
by tazjin on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @07:39PM
(#49354500)
Currently 6833 people in Sweden have the last name "Malm", and some large fraction of them were born before 2005 (could not be bothered to check how many, sorry!).
Re:How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
by thorbutt on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @10:34PM
(#49355910)
I believe you, but that site reeks of LLM generated SEO junk
Re:How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
by AndrewKemendo on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @10:56PM
(#49356076)
You’ve let your biases affect your analysis
Re:How does IKEA come up with names for its products?
by orthoxerox on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @04:18AM
(#49358594)
If I remember correctly, the second book was published posthumously, and my guess is the editor's hands were tied.