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IKEA names products by category using Swedish words because founder struggled with numbers
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Illustration only Photo by FatBox Media on Unsplash
IKEA's product naming system assigns Swedish words to product categories (sofas get place names, bookshelves get men's names, children's products get animal names) because founder Ingvar Kamprad had difficulty remembering numbers.
The system illustrates how a structured taxonomy can scale to 2,000-3,000 new product names annually while maintaining brand identity across markets. For engineers building internationalized systems, the cross-language screening process and the split between branded Swedish names and local-language descriptive names offer a practical model for handling naming at global scale.
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IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad started naming products because he had difficulty remembering numbers.
Product names must be real Swedish words of 4-12 letters, preferably containing Å, Ä, or Ö, and cannot be trademarked or surnames.
Names are categorized by product type: sofas receive Swedish place names, bookshelves receive men's names, and children's products receive animal and nature names.
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