# Worked examples

Three hypothetical scenarios showing the skill applied end to end. All companies, founders
and details are invented for illustration.

They deliberately cover three different outcomes:

| | Scenario | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| A | Persian childcare group | **Fixed** — name saved by changing its spelling |
| B | Swedish consultancy | **Passed** — with one condition |
| C | Iranian-American art startup | **Rejected** — and so were the first alternatives |

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## Scenario A — a name that only breaks on paper

**The brief.** Roya Sadeghi runs three childcare centres in Tehran under the name
**آنالی (Anali)** — a warm Azeri-origin girl's name. She has signed a partnership to open
two centres in Dubai and one in Doha within eighteen months, and needs a Latin-script
name for the international brand. The promise is safe, affectionate care for under-fives;
the feeling it needs is warmth, calm, and trust.

**The checks.**

| Check | Result | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning (origin) | Pass | Beautiful, warm, familiar in Iran |
| Meaning (target) | Pass | No adverse meaning in Arabic |
| Look-alike (English) | **Fail** | The first four letters of the Latin spelling form a crude English word — badly wrong for a children's brand |
| Pronunciation | Pass | Ah-NAH-lee; easy for Arabic and English speakers alike |
| Spelling | Pass | Straightforward once respelt |
| Distinctiveness | Caution | Arbitrary relative to childcare, so registrable — but it is a common given name, so the namespace is crowded and ownership is harder to defend |
| Sound | Strong pass | Soft /n/ and /l/, open vowels, light ending — close to ideal for childcare |
| Tone fit | Pass | Warm and family-oriented |

**The insight.** The sound check and the look-alike check disagree — and that disagreement
is the finding. The name is excellent when spoken and fails only when written in Latin
script. The problem is orthographic, not phonetic.

**The recommendation.** Do not abandon the name. Respell it.

- **Annali** — identical pronunciation; the offending letter string disappears.
- **Anahli** — same effect using a medial *h*.

Both preserve exactly what Iranian parents already say. Only if Roya wants a fresh start should she consider alternatives such as **Anara** (pomegranate — abundance, family) or **Mehrana** (from *mehr*, affection).

**Lesson:** check spoken and written forms separately. A name can fail one and pass the other, and respelling is cheaper than rebranding.

---

## Scenario B — a good name with one unfinished job

**The brief.** Erik Lindqvist and Sofia Ahmadi are launching a business consultancy in Stockholm named **Framia**, built on the Swedish *fram* ("forward"). They intend to serve the Nordics first, then the EU and the UK. The promise is expert guidance that moves a business forward; the feeling it needs is competence, stability, and momentum.

**The checks.**

| Check | Result | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning (origin) | Pass | Quietly on-message: forward motion |
| Meaning (target) | Pass | No adverse meaning in English or major EU languages |
| Look-alike | Pass | Low risk of being read as "frame" in full |
| Pronunciation | Pass | FRAH-mee-ah; easy across Europe |
| Spelling | Pass | No diacritics; survives in English |
| Distinctiveness | **Caution** | Legally *suggestive* — it hints without describing, which is a strong, registrable category. But the *-ia* ending is heavily used in Nordic company naming, so the namespace is crowded |
| Sound | Pass | The opening /fr/ cluster carries energy and motion; the medial /m/ softens it — a good match for advisory work |
| Tone fit | Pass | Professional without being cold |

**The insight.** The distinctiveness check reframes the risk. The earlier concern was a vague resemblance to an unrelated brand. The sharper finding is that the legal category is strong while the competitive namespace is crowded — a different problem with a different fix.

**The recommendation.** Proceed with Framia, conditional on a trademark search in Class 35 (business consultancy services) across Sweden, the EU, and the UK before any money goes into the brand. That search is not a precaution here; it is the deciding step.

**Lesson:** "no bad meanings" is not the same as "available." A name can be linguistically clean and legally strong and still be blocked by someone who registered first.

---

## Scenario C — two independent failures, and alternatives that failed too

**The brief.** Sara and Kaveh Mostafavi, Iranian-American siblings in Los Angeles, are founding a company that authenticates Persian paintings and miniatures, combining expert appraisers with AI trained to detect forgeries. Their working name is **نگار (Negar)** — Persian for painting, design, and motif. The promise is telling genuine works from fakes; the feeling it needs is authority, precision, and connoisseurship.

**The checks.**

| Check | Result | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning (origin) | Pass | *Painting* — beautifully apt for the field |
| Look-alike (English) | **Fail** | The Latin spelling sits uncomfortably close to a severe English racial slur — unacceptable for a US-based brand |
| Distinctiveness | **Fail** | A second, independent problem: for a company whose subject *is* painting, the name is **descriptive** — weak and hard to register even in Iran |
| Sound | Pass | Phonetically fine, but moot once the spelling fails |

**The insight.** The first pass found one problem. The distinctiveness check found a second, unrelated one. Even in a world where the English association did not exist, this name would be legally weak in its home market.

**The alternatives also had to be re-examined — and most failed.**

| Earlier suggestion | Revised verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Honar | Downgraded | Persian for *art* — fully descriptive for an art company; weak in Iran |
| Asil / Aseel | Downgraded | Means *authentic* — for an authentication business this literally describes the service. Weak in both Persian and Arabic |
| Minia | Rejected | The *mini-* prefix reads as small and cheap in English, and the front vowel is light — the opposite of the authority the brand needs |

**The revised recommendation.**

- **Gohar** — jewel; intrinsic worth and true essence. *Suggestive*, not descriptive: it gestures at authenticity without naming it. The hard /g/ and back vowel carry weight and authority, and *jawhar* is positive in Arabic too.
- **Zarrin** — golden; a quiet nod to the gold illumination of Persian miniatures. Suggestive, rich, and safe in English.
- **Simorgh** — *not recommended despite being the strongest on distinctiveness.* The mythological bird is fully arbitrary relative to art authentication, which is ideal in principle. But Simorgh is also the name of an Iranian space-launch and missile programme. For a US-based company, that association and the polluted search results are a real commercial risk.

**Two finalists: Gohar and Zarrin.**

**Lesson:** an on-the-nose name is not a good name. A word meaning "authentic" for an authentication company sounds perfect and is legally close to worthless. Aim for names that gesture rather than announce — and re-run the checks on your own suggestions, not just on the founder's.
