The secret behind IKEA’s furniture names: Here’s what their product names mean

IKEA, in addition to being one of the most successful furniture stores in the world, has become a cultural phenomenon. Beyond its shelves or coat racks, many customers are fascinated by its meatballs, its unique way of organizing its stores, or the names found in its catalogs.

Although Swedish is a language little known outside its borders, the company decided not to translate the names of its furniture, keeping the same names in nearly 500 stores worldwide.

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Why are IKEA’s product names in Swedish?

The obvious answer is that IKEA’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad, was Swedish. However, like other global brands that adapt their product names for different countries, IKEA could have chosen to translate its product names. For example, McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese is called Le Royale with Cheese in France, as Tarantino famously pointed out.

Yet Kamprad decided to keep the original Swedish names for his products, even though they can be difficult for foreigners to understand or pronounce. This decision stems from his pride in the naming system he created, which originated from necessity. Due to his dyslexia, Kamprad struggled to remember the sequence of numbers typically used for item IDs. IKEA uses the same names in all countries to streamline inventories.

How are IKEA product names chosen?

The names of IKEA furniture aren’t selected using random Swedish words. The more than 12,000 products follow an internal logic when it comes to naming.

One of the most important departments at IKEA is the product-naming team. These teams select names from a database of Swedish terms, following a system based on the type of product.

For example, outdoor furniture is named after Scandinavian islands. Sheets, pillowcases, and blankets are named after flowers and plants and rugs are named after cities in Sweden and Denmark (Ådum, Stockholm, Silkeborg, etc.).

Here are some of the naming conventions used for different types of IKEA furniture:

• Bathroom articles: Names of Swedish lakes and bodies of water.
• Bed textiles: Flowers and plants.
• Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian place names.
• Bookcases: Professions, Scandinavian boy’s names.
• Bowls, vases, candle and candle holders: Swedish place names, adjectives, spices, herbs, fruits and berries.
• Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: Swedish slang expressions, Swedish place names.
• Children’s products: Mammals, birds, adjectives.
• Desks, chairs and swivel chairs: Scandinavian boy’s names.
• Fabrics, curtains: Scandinavian girl’s names.
• Garden furniture: Scandinavian islands.
• Kitchen accessories: Fish, mushrooms and adjectives.
• Lighting: Units of measurement, seasons, months, days, shipping and nautical terms, Swedish place names.
• Rugs: Danish place names.
• Sofas, armchairs, chairs and dining tables: Swedish place names.

This database is periodically reviewed to ensure there are no names that might be offensive or inappropriate in other languages. However, there have been a few oversights in this regard, such as the ceiling lamp “Fartyg” or the children’s workbench “Fartfull.”

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*This article was written in Spanish and translated with the help of AI.

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