HOW TO SPEAK ‘IKEAN’
Nåmes decöded
Ikea is not just Fyndig with ya — there’s actually a method behind the Swedish furniture chain’s hard-topronounce names.
The nomenclature for the assemble-at-home items originates from Scandinavian influences — like flowers, bodies of water and animals — and follows corporate guidelines.
For example, rugs — like the Ådum, Silkeborg and Stockholm — are named after cities in Denmark and Sweden, while bedding — like the Häxört duvet set that shares its name with an herb in the primrose family — take their monikers from flowers and plants, the Quartz news site reports.
Likewise, in Swedish, a smörboll is a variation of the word for pretty yellow flower, but at Ikea, it’s a notso-attractive dotted bedspread.
Scandinavian islands also get some love, with Ikea naming its outdoor furniture, like the Äpplarö and Västerön, after them.
Like other couches, the Dagstorp is named after a Swedish place — and it’s as Viking as it sounds. The pleather chaise’s namesake is the site where the Dagstorp Runestone, a Viking-age me- morial, was found in 1910.
Children’s products are named after mammals, birds and adjectives, names for bathroom items come from Swedish bodies of water and kitchen accessories are derived from fish, mushrooms and adjectives.
Oumbärlig, a line of pots and pans, means indispensable, and Fyndig, a series of kitchen cabinets, translates to inventive or ingenious.
Bookcases are named after professions or boys’ names, with the best-selling Billy bookshelf taken from Ikea employee Billy Likjedhal.
There are some exceptions to the name game.
Ikea took things literally when it called its new bicycle Sladda, or skid in Swedish. And it used the word krossa, meaning to crush or grind, to label its spice mill.
Other Ikea goodies have more practical denotations.
Take the cube-shaped Fyrkantig candles. The name translates to “square.”
Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, who was dyslexic, devised the unique naming system.
The name Ikea is actually an acronym formed from Kamprad’s first and last initials followed by the first letters of his family’s farm, called Elmtaryd, and his native village of Agunnaryd.