Midterms are fast approaching, and all the candidates have at least one thing in common: they have names, many you haven’t seen before. Can the branch of linguistics that deals with names, onomastics, help us predict election results? That is, do some candidates have advantages simply because of their name? Election research in California, North Dakota, Ohio, […]
Ten reasons there are so many “X and Y” brand names right now
“X and Y” brand names (brand names in the style of “___ and ___”) are everywhere. This construction has been around for a while—think Johnson & Johnson, Ben & Jerry’s, Abercrombie & Fitch—but lately you can’t stroll a mall or browse online without running into “and,” “+,” or “&,” particularly in apparel and food and […]
