Essay · ~8 min read

11 Brand Names That Don't Translate Well in Foreign Languages

Sam Greenspan · 11 Points Free Beginner

Nothing makes the cultural-check lesson stick like real names that backfired, and this piece walks through documented ones (Audi's e-tron, Hulu, Waterpik) where the meaning in another language was the whole problem. For an Indian founder naming for a market with dozens of languages, it is a useful nudge to say the shortlist out loud to people outside your own bubble. Read it as cautionary examples, not a rule that every name must be globally spotless.

• Even large companies with global operations shipped names that mean something crude or off-putting in another language, so nobody is too big to skip the check.
• Say your shortlist aloud to speakers of the languages your customers actually use before you print anything.
• A name is not just how it reads in English: sound, spelling, and local slang all decide how it lands.