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Posted by NaOH 20 hours ago

How does IKEA come up with names for its products?(www.ikea.com)
403 points | 276 commentspage 4
mcintyre1994 8 hours ago|
Sofas → Swedish place names

Bookshelves → men's names

For Swedes it must be weird to be able to find a product named after yourself and your place!

I’d have guessed they used names that Swedes were less likely to identify with than names of places and people.

eru 7 hours ago|
> For Swedes it must be weird to be able to find a product named after yourself and your place!

Plenty of people named Billy in the English speaking world, too.

samdbmg 18 hours ago||
If you ever find yourself in southern Sweden (or Copenhagen and fancy a train ride across a cool bridge) the IKEA museum at Älmhult is well worth a visit: https://ikeamuseum.com/en/
te0006 17 hours ago|
I was there three days ago, can comfirm. And if you want to stay overnight, you _of course_ sleep in the neighbouring IKEA Hotel! And if you check-in to the hotel first, you‘ll get a voucher for free entrance to the museum. Did I mention that an absolutely excellent breakfast is included in the very reasonable room rate? And in case you visit the museum in the near future, they currently have a special (temporary) exhibition about IKEA's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, who was a very creative but also exceptionally socially and environmentally responsible entrepreneur. Nice contrast to today's appalling tech billionaires.
neom 16 hours ago|||
For future person who also thinks...wait...IKEA has a hotel...?? Indeed:

https://www.ikeahotell.com/en/about-us/

https://www.fastcompany.com/91529069/what-its-like-to-stay-i...

British lad giving a review/tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trcUc9ILYqI

fph 7 hours ago|||
But, in common with today's tech billionaires, ties to the Nazis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingvar_Kamprad#Fascist_involve...
MarceliusK 9 hours ago||
I always assumed the names were mostly random Swedish words picked for the vibe. The fact that there's a taxonomy behind them makes it much funnier somehow
Alien1Being 1 hour ago||
"Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad's Nazi ties 'went deeper'"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14661582

stillpointlab 16 hours ago||
One of my go-to dad jokes is to see Ikea furniture at someone's house and ask "Is that a möstliglü [table|cabinet|etc]?"
unwind 8 hours ago|
I'm firmly in camp dad joke, but since Ü is a German letter that is not part of the Swedish alphabet, may I suggest you learn how to say RÄKSMÖRGÅS and update the joke?

The patched version might even work on some Swedish-speakers if you nail the pronounciation! :)

attila-lendvai 1 hour ago||
no, no, no... i don't even want to know! :)
Xirdus 20 hours ago||
> preferably contain the letters Å, Ä or Ö

I always thought it's just a natural consequence of using Swedish language, turns out it's on purpose!

nine_k 19 hours ago|
Swedish does naturally use a lot of letters with umlauts (e.g. a common plural suffix -är), so a noun with a special letter is usually not hard to come by, and looks more Swedish (than, say, Dutch or English, which are sort of cousin languages).
wowczarek 18 hours ago||
Ever since I heard this song, it now always plays in my head whenever IKEA comes up - have a listen while reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4si8w8WMFc

(Rob Paravonian - Particle Board) - of Dr. Demento, etc., fame.

bberkgaut 7 hours ago||
I learned (some) Swedish at age of 35 and it was quite a moment when IKEA product names became meaningful to me. Plate PLATE, fun!

Pretty much like when as a kid I learned enough of English to realize all those songs around actually have lyrics, pretty dumb sometimes

bigupthewhole 7 hours ago|
My first memory of being angry with not knowing English was when we were trying to read the pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh cards and I clearly remember it being gibberish. Otherwise it's difficult to remember what it was like to not know a skill before you learned it, at least it is for me.
jonplackett 18 hours ago|
My Swedish friend told me they make the more expensive things to sound more Swedish and the cheaper stuff to sound Norwegian.

Any speakers of either language able to confirm or deny?

ano-ther 18 hours ago|
This article from 2018 claims the same (and that Danish sounding names are rugs and floormats): https://www.worldnomads.com/in-the-news/the-hidden-message-i...
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