The Ikea Naming Scheme

Ever wondered about the Ikea furniture and decor naming scheme? I have two Billy bookcases, for example. Why Billy? I also have a couple of chairs that I’m sure have equally strange names. Oh, and I am the owner of a Jokkmokk kitchen set.

After a bit of searching, I came across this naming scheme that apparently appeared once upon a time in an un-cited article and was later confirmed by the Wikipedians.

Items in and for the bathroom are named for Scandinavian lakes, rivers, and bays.

Kitchens and kitchen items are named for grammatical terms, while kitchen accessories are either labeled with foreign words or are named after spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, or fruit.

Chairs and desks have male names, materials and curtains have female names, lamps and lighting accessories are named for terms in music, chemistry, meteorology, and measures, as well as seasons, months, and days.

Sheets, bed covers, and cushions are named after flowers, plants, precious stones, and words associated with sleep and comfort.

Children’s goods are labeled with adjectives or the names of animals and birds.

Cornices and other accessories for curtains are named using mathematical and geometrical terms.

Frames and clocks are referred to with expressions, although some still have Swedish names of places.

So why the odd naming conventions? Company founder Ingvar Kamprad, who is dyslexic, found that naming the furniture with proper names and words, rather than a product code, made the names easier to remember.

Funny, I always thought that Ikea names were rather like Häagen-Dazs — foreign sounding, but ultimately meaningless. But no, my Jokkmokk is named for a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden and Billy is a masculine name in that same country!