Amia
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BrightScale
Cooligy
Mayer Laboratories
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Obopay
TravelSmith
TRIA
TRUSTe
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Steelcase, a global leader in office furniture, needed a name for a new, moderately priced office chair. The name needed to be short and consistent with other Steelcase chair names: Leap, Think, and Move. Earlier naming attempts had been frustrated by trademark conflict and by linguistic objections from overseas dealers. After two rounds of “real-word” name development, I created a new list of lightly coined names that suggested the desired objectives: comfortable, flexible, customizable. Amia satisfied all criteria: coined from French ami (friend) and Spanish/Italian mia (mine), it communicates amiability and—because of the m consonant—nurturance. Its short, upbeat sound feels modern and bright.