20 Famous Brand Nicknames - Short and Simple! « Graphic Design Blog - An Ultimate Resource for Graphic Designers

20 Famous Brand Nicknames - Short and Simple!

17 Comments

Posted on Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

When someone gives you a nickname, it means they have an affinity towards you. Calling people by their pet names is something understandable, but how do you nickname non-living things? Well…we actually do that every day with our favorite brands. This exhibits the power of famous brands that hold immense value for their customers. Madonna’s famous song ‘American Pie’ made us memorize the nickname “Chevy” for GM’s Chevrolet car brand. From then onwards, the popular car brand was more recognized as Chevy.

Brands have also redesigned logos in order to adopt nicknames that surface through their initials. For example Kentucky Fried Chicken shortened their logo to ‘KFC’ in order to connect with their customers. These abbreviations become so popular and recognized that people just remember the initials. This is because customers find it easier to remember the contraction than the whole name. Following are the nicknames of famous brands:

	Brands	Nicknames
1	Chevrolet	Chevy
2	Coca Cola	Coke
3	Cadillac	Caddy
4	Pepsi Cola	Pepsi
5	Nordstrom’s	Nordies
6	Nickelodeon	Nick
7	Federal Express	FedEx
8	Budweiser	Bud
9	Stolichnaya	Stoli
10	McDonald’s sweet tea	Mickey D’s
11	American Telephone & Telegraph	AT&T
12	The Walt Disney Company	Disney
13	Mini Cooper	MINI
14	Home Box Office	HBO
15	America Online	AOL
16	Hewlett-Packard	HP
17	British Petroleum	BP
18	Kentucky Fried Chicken	KFC
19	Target	Tar-zhay
20	Bloomingdales	Bloomies

Do you think that nicknames have made brands lose their real identity? Or is it just love and affection from the brand fans?

17 Appreciated Responses

Theme weddings On January 19th, 2011 at 6:05 am

1

Just amazing like never before….

Thanks
Candice

Magento Themes On January 19th, 2011 at 6:14 am

2

The major reason that these short names were a success was that these are easier to remember than the original lengthy names.

Homero On January 19th, 2011 at 10:54 am

3

Cool list. Here in Chile we often shorten Stolichnaya as “Stolich”.

Just one thing… Madonna’s famous song ‘American Pie’??? That song was famous way before Madonna covered it, it’s a song by Don McLean from 1971.

Bye!

Fortunato On January 19th, 2011 at 11:27 am

4

Uh, Don McClean wrote “American Pie”. Get it right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Pie_(song)

Stephen Dickinson On January 19th, 2011 at 9:13 pm

5

I think people remember those brands because they are simple and clear. Logo is designed to represent the product. Yes, it should be meaningful, but, it should also be easy to memorize. Otherwise, how can we make sure it will be picked among various brands? Obviously, the above brands have found the secret.

marko On January 20th, 2011 at 2:40 pm

6

I find it interesting the post, it’s true when they say that the shorter the name is easier to remember, so much so that we ignore what is your real name

emanuel On January 23rd, 2011 at 8:11 am

7

most of these aren’t nicknames, they’re just abbreviations … this really doesn’t mean people have an affinity with these brands, it just means there too long …

Willo On January 26th, 2011 at 8:03 pm

8

Don McLean wrote “American Pie” looong before Madonna covered it, and Chevrolets were already known as Chevy’s long before that.

Willo On January 26th, 2011 at 8:06 pm

9

KFC did not shorten its name to connect with customers. As consumers were looking towards better food options, and as fast food was getting national attention for being exceedingly unhealthy, Kentucky Fried Chicken rebranded to “KFC” avoid having the word “fried” in their title. They made no bones about this when they did it, so to speak.

Jwizzle On January 27th, 2011 at 11:54 am

10

I don’t understand the McDonalds Sweet tea being Mickey D’s. I always thought that was the nickname for McDonalds in general.

And yeah Don McLean is the one who wrote and sung American Pie.

JPG HAWAII On January 27th, 2011 at 8:10 pm

11

Cool list. It’s always easy to remember short and clear ones.

We are JPG .
Our company is Graphic design company, we make business cards.

Check it out~!

Cindy Auligny On January 27th, 2011 at 10:34 pm

12

Let’s coke I mean, let’s Coca Cola lOl

Brian Flores SEO On February 1st, 2011 at 9:39 pm

13

American Telephone & Telegraph = AT&T! Who would have thunk! What about:

Old English = O.E.

ok ok ok, obnoxious.

What about:

Consumer Value Stores = CVS
Government Employees Insurance Company = GEICO!

Cheap SEO Services On February 10th, 2011 at 4:18 am

14

Really Interesting for me to know all the nicknames.. Few of them I know but really good information for me…

my lead system pro On February 11th, 2011 at 5:05 am

15

this really doesn’t mean people have an affinity with these brands, it just means there too long …

sandra mead On February 12th, 2011 at 3:50 am

16

No problem with nicknames. makes life more interesting. Just great logo’s

Graphic Design Houston On February 15th, 2011 at 6:09 pm

17

Great Post, If your customers come up with a nick name for you, as long as it is positive, it is probably a good thing. When it is negative, you definitely have a serious brand problem on your hands.