Oops. Did you know that there are consultancies whose job is to check that the proposed name for a product isn't insulting or embarrassing in a different language? This is why.
This doesn't surprises me. Yet, what follows, still happens. I mean, why ?
As a parallel, apparently 'Fitta' is Swedish slang for... an organ I do not have (clue: I'm male, and I'm only missing my tonsils and a few teeth). Honda tried to sell a car in Sweden under that name. It didn't help that they used taglines such as 'Small on the outside, big on the inside' and 'Use it for your daily pleasure'.
After reading that I had to clean all the coffee that sprouted of my nose and spread all over my keyboard. Still trying to catch my breath back.
And I swear I've red some similar stuff related to a) the same organ and b) Korean or Japanese language, but I can't find it now. Will check.
I found these little gems...
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31168/11-product-names-mean-unfortunate-things-other-languages
It is highly recommended to consider other languages when you want to name a product. Otherwise, you will be a laughing stock to people who know a thing or two about other languages; especially to
thelanguagenerds.com
These classic brand marketing blunders show that globalization isn't always as easy it seems.
www.inc.com
Answer (1 of 12): Götzen is a German hardware store entered into the Turkish market in 1995. While götzen doesn’t have a specific meaning in Turkish, the first syllable is literally “ass” (as in nether regions) and in its entirety the word sounds like “you are an ass”, especially in combination ...
www.quora.com
Trusted by industry professionals globally, our TrademarkNow platform offers reliable and mature AI-powered end-to-end trademark solutions.
www.trademarknow.com
In today’s global economy brand names and adverts are translated into many languages, sometimes with unintended, damaging or hilarious results.
gulfbusiness.com
Sega is also the name of a danse from La Réunion island, related to Zouk.
Well here is three (no, FIVE) very unfortunate examples of cars being ill-named, as as French language is concerned.
Audi
E-tron
Renault
Koleos
Citroen
C4
E-tron is the french polite word for *poo* or *dong* (shit would translate as "caca" or "merde").
Koleos sounds like "collé au" which means "
glued to (something)"
I use to joke "
Koleos' lip =
collé au slip =
glued to the underwear "
It also means "testicles" in Greek. Can you believe that ?
Balls !
And C4, well, isn't that an explosive ? And thus a bit unfortunate a name, for a car ?
I use to joke that the Citroen C4 sells very well in Corsica and Basque country... (hint: to terrorists there: ETA and FLNC. It's lame, I know...)
Toyota MR2 = merde (just like Audi E-tron !)
And Mitsubishi Pajero = wanker / liar