They Named It!

Why Brand Names Matter More Than You Think

Let me tell you something my kids taught me — completely by accident — that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about in terms of branding and business.

We have neighbours who keep rare, exotic chickens. A beautiful bird, a cross-breed you don’t see often around here. One day, one of those chickens somehow found its way over the fence and into our compound. We tried to coax it back. We tried guiding it toward the gate. The thing simply refused to move. It just walked around, pecking at the ground, completely unbothered, acting like it had been living with us all its life.

We didn’t stress too much about it. We figured we’d let the neighbour know and get it sorted. But then the kids came home from school.

That changed everything.

They spotted the chicken and immediately went into full excitement mode — chasing it gently, offering it water, watching it strut around. By the next morning, the chicken was still there. Day two, same thing. Day three, same. Our neighbour knew the bird had crossed over, but it seemed content to stay. And the kids? The kids had fully adopted it.

Then one evening, I overheard a conversation between my two children. One of them said something like, “Let’s go and see Arrey.” I stopped. I thought they were talking about going somewhere or seeing someone. I came out and asked what was happening, reminding them they weren’t going anywhere at that time of day. They laughed and said, “Dad, we’re not going anywhere. We’re going to see Arrey. The chicken.”

They had given the chicken a name.

Arrey. Not “the chicken.” Not “the bird from next door.” Not “that thing in the yard.” A proper name. A specific, chosen, deliberate name. And with that name came a whole new world. Suddenly the chicken had a personality in their conversations. It had a story. They could refer to it, remember it, talk about it to others, and feel a connection to it that no generic description could have created.

“Names don’t just label things — they give them life, identity, and a place in someone’s memory.”

How Children Understand What Brands Need to Learn

Here is what struck me the most: our neighbour raised those chickens. He feeds them, tends to them, and has had them for years. But as far as I know, none of them had individual names. They were chickens — a category, not individuals.

My children, in three days, gave one of those chickens an identity that neither the owner nor the bird’s original environment had provided. And from that moment, it wasn’t just a chicken. It was Arrey.

Children do this instinctively. They name their toys, their stuffed animals, their imaginary friends, even their fears. They name things so they can hold them, remember them, and make meaning out of them. I noticed that almost every toy in our home has a name. They don’t refer to “the red car” or “the big bear.” Each one has its own name, and in the world of their play and imagination, those names carry weight.

As adults in business, we sometimes forget this instinct. We get so focused on product specs, service descriptions, and category labels that we neglect the one thing that transforms a product from a commodity into a brand — the name.

Think about it. What’s more powerful: “a search engine” or “Google”? “A streaming service” or “Netflix”? “