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Comment by tverbeure | Hacker News Reader

> Every possible product name is carefully checked to avoid undesirable meanings in other languages, political or religious affiliations and fit into our global profile.

I love the JERKER desk that I bought 26 years ago, so I assume this rule must be younger than that.

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I was at IKEA once when they first came to America and there was a chair that was called the "assengråbben" or something like that.

I heard a guy nearby telling the person with him "must be for the interns".

There is a lamp called Fartyg

Don't forget the children's workbench: FARTFULL

meaning speedy

As a Swede, my first reaction was "what's wrong with calling it 'ship'?"

Took me several seconds to get it.

Perhaps even the source of that rule.

Pax is another one that violates the rule that someone pointed out lower. Also Malm is a surname which is another violation of the rule (one of the characters in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was named, if I recall correctly, Stefan Malm). I remember reading the books with my then-wife and she said it was like reading an IKEA catalog. I thought she was referring to the character/place names, but it turned out that the second book had a long section where the titular girl furnishes an apartment from IKEA and—that chapter was exactly like reading an IKEA catalog.

Although "Malm" is a common surname, it's a word first and a name second if that makes sense

The same way "Brown" is common surname in English but mostly makes you think of the color first

When it comes to names like "MALM", it's likely incidental.

"Malm" is a a noun with several meanings, most notably "metal ore", but also some (more archaic) meanings like "area with sandy soil" or "city outskirts".

The fact that "Malm" also happens to be a surname is secondary; Swedish has a lot of surnames that are simply ordinary nouns or adjectives. A completely literal "No surnames, ever" rule would probably be quite a bit too restrictive. I suspect that the actual internal rule is "No names that are primarily (or solely) surnames", or something to that effect.

Malm was released in the 1980s: https://techvibeblog.com/what-is-ikea-malm-made-of/

Girl with the dragon tattoo was released in 2005

Currently 6833 people in Sweden have the last name "Malm", and some large fraction of them were born before 2005 (could not be bothered to check how many, sorry!).

I believe you, but that site reeks of LLM generated SEO junk

You’ve let your biases affect your analysis

If I remember correctly, the second book was published posthumously, and my guess is the editor's hands were tied.

You know the saying... a "Do not step on the grass" sign only shows up after people start frequently stepping on the grass...

Yes, they also sold a toilet brush named "VIREN". In Germany this is the plural of virus. And some year ago Danes complained IKEA named carpets and runner after danish towns but never something "better".

Chevy "no va" https://www.thoughtco.com/chevy-nova-that-wouldnt-go-3078090

You also have the Mitsubishi Pajero. Feel free to find the derogatory term in the wiki.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Pajero

Similar trivia with a Swedish connection: the original name of the Honda Fit/Jazz was Honda Fitta, but then they found out it's the Swedish word for "cunt" so that was a no-go.

They even had the slogan all drawn up;

Fitta: Small on the outside, Big on the inside!

They should just have gone with it , staring everyone, who brought it up, down.

Article is missing the urban legend about "Bite the wax tadpole"

An excellent desk, by the way. I still have mine (the old heavy duty model)!

I'm happy to say I'm in the circle of jer...Um...So do I, one of the best home purchases I've ever made!

I'm a Swede and I knew a guy named Jerker growing up. I always wondered if his parents gave him that name to mess with him. In Swedish "j" is pronounced as the English "y", so I think they could have at least spelled it as Yerker.

That's my name. When I asked my parents about it, they just said they liked it and didn't really think about any possible negative sides.

Introducing yourself to English speakers can be interesting... often times people won't catch the name when pronounced the Swedish way, so you end up quickly clarifying it by using the English pronunciation. Sometimes a hand gesture is needed.

Hello my name is Jer ... Jerry!

Holy crap that's my desk too, bought about 24 years ago. It's been a great desk. Gray frame with black work area/shelves.

I guess at the time the name was funny too but I had forgotten it.

I didn’t even know the name for the longest time. It’s only when I wanted to buy some extensions that I realized the cult status of that model, and that’s not (just) because of the name. It’s a truly great design and a shame that it was discontinued many years ago.

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