By now we all know to say nye-kee when referring to Nike, but back in the 1980s it wasn鈥檛 unusual to hear friends mention they鈥檇 bought a pair of Nikes鈥攁s in bikes. Fast-forward to 2012, and it seems almost trendy for companies in the outdoor industry to create names so eclectic their own employees struggle with the pronunciation.
鈥淚f we didn鈥檛 make [our name] difficult to figure out, we wouldn鈥檛 be having this conversation,鈥 chuckled Mark Galbraith of Nau, which sounds like 苍辞飞鈥not nah as in nautical. 鈥淚t鈥檚 three letters, we could find a web domain, it wasn鈥檛 trademarked and Northern Arizona University didn鈥檛 have a problem with us using it. Plus, Nau means 鈥榳elcome鈥 in Maori, and we thought it would be great to have a name that said 鈥榳elcome to my whatever.鈥欌 The pronunciation of Nau as now is a bonus, he added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a subtle reminder that our product is current and fresh.鈥
Picking names that mean something in another language is certainly popular. Teva (teh-vuh, not tee-vah) means nature in Hebrew. Elsewhere, companies create wholly new words from phonetic colloquialisms. Pronounced jewel, Juil 鈥渕eans absolutely nothing,鈥 according to a salesperson at the booth.
Hang around Mammut and you鈥檒l hear MA-moot with the emphasis on the first syllable, maybe even mam-mit (like 鈥渄amn it鈥). Both are wrong. The true pronunciation of the word that means wooly mammoth is ma-MOOT, with the emphasis on the second syllable.
Herewith, a list of the most commonly garbled outdoor names along with their correct phonetic pronunciation.
Vibram 鈥 vee-bram
Teva 鈥 teh-vah
Cushe 鈥 kush-ee
Guyot 鈥 ghee鈥搊h
Katadyn 鈥 肠补迟鈥揳鈥揹颈苍别
Naish 鈥 nash
Naot鈥 苍补测鈥搊补迟
Deuter鈥 doy-ter
Asolo 鈥 oz-low
Primaloft 鈥 pree-ma-loft
Millet 鈥 mee鈥yay
Fjallraven 鈥 蹿别别鈥揳濒鈥搑补测鈥捣别苍
Leki听鈥 lay-key
Outdoor Research: No more acronym
For years, we knew the Seattle apparel and accessory leader as OR. No longer. Outdoor Research wants everyone know that the company is more than two initials and definitely not a souvenir from the O.R. trade show. 鈥淥R doesn鈥檛 stand for much outside of our core users,鈥 said PR representative Dave Simpson. 鈥淲e鈥檙e using the whole name now so there鈥檚 no confusion.鈥 The rebranding means clothes for 2013 will sport both the traditional OR logo as well as the full company name.