references/worked-examples.md
7.3 KB查看排版效果| 1 | # Worked examples |
| 2 | |
| 3 | Three hypothetical scenarios showing the skill applied end to end. All companies, founders |
| 4 | and details are invented for illustration. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | They deliberately cover three different outcomes: |
| 7 | |
| 8 | | | Scenario | Outcome | |
| 9 | |---|---|---| |
| 10 | | A | Persian childcare group | **Fixed** — name saved by changing its spelling | |
| 11 | | B | Swedish consultancy | **Passed** — with one condition | |
| 12 | | C | Iranian-American art startup | **Rejected** — and so were the first alternatives | |
| 13 | |
| 14 | --- |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ## Scenario A — a name that only breaks on paper |
| 17 | |
| 18 | **The brief.** Roya Sadeghi runs three childcare centres in Tehran under the name |
| 19 | **آنالی (Anali)** — a warm Azeri-origin girl's name. She has signed a partnership to open |
| 20 | two centres in Dubai and one in Doha within eighteen months, and needs a Latin-script |
| 21 | name for the international brand. The promise is safe, affectionate care for under-fives; |
| 22 | the feeling it needs is warmth, calm, and trust. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | **The checks.** |
| 25 | |
| 26 | | Check | Result | Detail | |
| 27 | |---|---|---| |
| 28 | | Meaning (origin) | Pass | Beautiful, warm, familiar in Iran | |
| 29 | | Meaning (target) | Pass | No adverse meaning in Arabic | |
| 30 | | Look-alike (English) | **Fail** | The first four letters of the Latin spelling form a crude English word — badly wrong for a children's brand | |
| 31 | | Pronunciation | Pass | Ah-NAH-lee; easy for Arabic and English speakers alike | |
| 32 | | Spelling | Pass | Straightforward once respelt | |
| 33 | | Distinctiveness | Caution | Arbitrary relative to childcare, so registrable — but it is a common given name, so the namespace is crowded and ownership is harder to defend | |
| 34 | | Sound | Strong pass | Soft /n/ and /l/, open vowels, light ending — close to ideal for childcare | |
| 35 | | Tone fit | Pass | Warm and family-oriented | |
| 36 | |
| 37 | **The insight.** The sound check and the look-alike check disagree — and that disagreement |
| 38 | is the finding. The name is excellent when spoken and fails only when written in Latin |
| 39 | script. The problem is orthographic, not phonetic. |
| 40 | |
| 41 | **The recommendation.** Do not abandon the name. Respell it. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | - **Annali** — identical pronunciation; the offending letter string disappears. |
| 44 | - **Anahli** — same effect using a medial *h*. |
| 45 | |
| 46 | Both preserve exactly what Iranian parents already say. Only if Roya wants a fresh start should she consider alternatives such as **Anara** (pomegranate — abundance, family) or **Mehrana** (from *mehr*, affection). |
| 47 | |
| 48 | **Lesson:** check spoken and written forms separately. A name can fail one and pass the other, and respelling is cheaper than rebranding. |
| 49 | |
| 50 | --- |
| 51 | |
| 52 | ## Scenario B — a good name with one unfinished job |
| 53 | |
| 54 | **The brief.** Erik Lindqvist and Sofia Ahmadi are launching a business consultancy in Stockholm named **Framia**, built on the Swedish *fram* ("forward"). They intend to serve the Nordics first, then the EU and the UK. The promise is expert guidance that moves a business forward; the feeling it needs is competence, stability, and momentum. |
| 55 | |
| 56 | **The checks.** |
| 57 | |
| 58 | | Check | Result | Detail | |
| 59 | |---|---|---| |
| 60 | | Meaning (origin) | Pass | Quietly on-message: forward motion | |
| 61 | | Meaning (target) | Pass | No adverse meaning in English or major EU languages | |
| 62 | | Look-alike | Pass | Low risk of being read as "frame" in full | |
| 63 | | Pronunciation | Pass | FRAH-mee-ah; easy across Europe | |
| 64 | | Spelling | Pass | No diacritics; survives in English | |
| 65 | | Distinctiveness | **Caution** | Legally *suggestive* — it hints without describing, which is a strong, registrable category. But the *-ia* ending is heavily used in Nordic company naming, so the namespace is crowded | |
| 66 | | Sound | Pass | The opening /fr/ cluster carries energy and motion; the medial /m/ softens it — a good match for advisory work | |
| 67 | | Tone fit | Pass | Professional without being cold | |
| 68 | |
| 69 | **The insight.** The distinctiveness check reframes the risk. The earlier concern was a vague resemblance to an unrelated brand. The sharper finding is that the legal category is strong while the competitive namespace is crowded — a different problem with a different fix. |
| 70 | |
| 71 | **The recommendation.** Proceed with Framia, conditional on a trademark search in Class 35 (business consultancy services) across Sweden, the EU, and the UK before any money goes into the brand. That search is not a precaution here; it is the deciding step. |
| 72 | |
| 73 | **Lesson:** "no bad meanings" is not the same as "available." A name can be linguistically clean and legally strong and still be blocked by someone who registered first. |
| 74 | |
| 75 | --- |
| 76 | |
| 77 | ## Scenario C — two independent failures, and alternatives that failed too |
| 78 | |
| 79 | **The brief.** Sara and Kaveh Mostafavi, Iranian-American siblings in Los Angeles, are founding a company that authenticates Persian paintings and miniatures, combining expert appraisers with AI trained to detect forgeries. Their working name is **نگار (Negar)** — Persian for painting, design, and motif. The promise is telling genuine works from fakes; the feeling it needs is authority, precision, and connoisseurship. |
| 80 | |
| 81 | **The checks.** |
| 82 | |
| 83 | | Check | Result | Detail | |
| 84 | |---|---|---| |
| 85 | | Meaning (origin) | Pass | *Painting* — beautifully apt for the field | |
| 86 | | Look-alike (English) | **Fail** | The Latin spelling sits uncomfortably close to a severe English racial slur — unacceptable for a US-based brand | |
| 87 | | Distinctiveness | **Fail** | A second, independent problem: for a company whose subject *is* painting, the name is **descriptive** — weak and hard to register even in Iran | |
| 88 | | Sound | Pass | Phonetically fine, but moot once the spelling fails | |
| 89 | |
| 90 | **The insight.** The first pass found one problem. The distinctiveness check found a second, unrelated one. Even in a world where the English association did not exist, this name would be legally weak in its home market. |
| 91 | |
| 92 | **The alternatives also had to be re-examined — and most failed.** |
| 93 | |
| 94 | | Earlier suggestion | Revised verdict | Why | |
| 95 | |---|---|---| |
| 96 | | Honar | Downgraded | Persian for *art* — fully descriptive for an art company; weak in Iran | |
| 97 | | Asil / Aseel | Downgraded | Means *authentic* — for an authentication business this literally describes the service. Weak in both Persian and Arabic | |
| 98 | | Minia | Rejected | The *mini-* prefix reads as small and cheap in English, and the front vowel is light — the opposite of the authority the brand needs | |
| 99 | |
| 100 | **The revised recommendation.** |
| 101 | |
| 102 | - **Gohar** — jewel; intrinsic worth and true essence. *Suggestive*, not descriptive: it gestures at authenticity without naming it. The hard /g/ and back vowel carry weight and authority, and *jawhar* is positive in Arabic too. |
| 103 | - **Zarrin** — golden; a quiet nod to the gold illumination of Persian miniatures. Suggestive, rich, and safe in English. |
| 104 | - **Simorgh** — *not recommended despite being the strongest on distinctiveness.* The mythological bird is fully arbitrary relative to art authentication, which is ideal in principle. But Simorgh is also the name of an Iranian space-launch and missile programme. For a US-based company, that association and the polluted search results are a real commercial risk. |
| 105 | |
| 106 | **Two finalists: Gohar and Zarrin.** |
| 107 | |
| 108 | **Lesson:** an on-the-nose name is not a good name. A word meaning "authentic" for an authentication company sounds perfect and is legally close to worthless. Aim for names that gesture rather than announce — and re-run the checks on your own suggestions, not just on the founder's. |
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