If you're in the market for a unique baby name, and you love IKEA almost as much as your progeny-to-be, you might want to add the names Malm, Tarva, and Sommar to your list. That's right, IKEA-inspired baby names are a thing, according to a user writing on Baby Centre. While this might seem like it's taking IKEA worship too far, IKEA gives Scandinavian names to a lot of its furniture, so it's not the same as naming your child something like Retro Love Seat. "Naming your baby after IKEA furniture might seem ridiculous at first glance, but don’t dismiss the idea! IKEA is known for the charming Scandinavian names it gives its products and many work surprisingly well as baby names," the blog's author, LucyBC noted.
"Take a look at some name ideas I found in the IKEA catalogue — quite a few could work for a baby girl or a baby boy." Between lifestyle trends like lagom and hygge, Scandinavians seems to have found the recipe for happiness, so giving your child a Scandinavian name is actually a pretty boss idea. Maybe just don't tell them you named them after a ceiling fan like Randall did Tess on This Is Us. However, like the name Tess, some of these names actually are names, so they're totally appropriate, which means that your child never has to know they were named after an armchair.
Some of the suggested names include: Malm, Tarva, Stefan, Ivar, Tobias, Stig, Franklin, Ingo, Fredde, Sommar, Norna, Cilla, Malinda, Elly, Henrika, Johanne, Mata, and Mydal. You could also just name your baby Ikea, which according to Baby Centre, means "origin and popularity." There's also the variation Ikey, which means the same thing and was the 18,000th most popular name in 2017 — meaning that your kid is likely to be the only Ikey in their class. The name Sophia was the third most-popular girls' baby name in 2015, according to the Social Security Administration, though a lot of people are opting for the Nordic spelling Sofia, which is also the name of an IKEA product.
On the Baby Centre, people commented that because most IKEA products have names that are actually given to people, it's not totally bananas to choose one of these names for a human baby. So far, the most popular baby names of 2018 aren't IKEA products, but perhaps the trend will change in 2019. This year parents are naming their babies Emma, Olivia, Ava, Noah, Liam, and Logan, according to Baby Center (the U.S. version of the British Baby Centre). However, Emma is close to Emmie, which is an IKEA product. If you still think it's totally weird to name your child after a product, a lot more people are doing it than you might think. However, just because you can do it doesn't mean you should do it.
Marc Hauser, founder and managing director of Erfolgswelle, a Swiss company that charges clients to help them find the perfect baby name, tells the Telegraph that you really should stay away from naming your kid after a product or an established brand for the sake of the child.
"Avoid any words that already exist, but aren’t names. People will already have forged associations with these words, and these attitudes may not be conducive to success," he said. "For example, avoid brand names at all costs. Here at Erfolgswelle, we check all existing trademark directories to ensure that no baby ever wears a brand name." So, if you're going to name your baby after an IKEA product, choose a product that's an actual name as well as a low-cost, high quality home furnishing.
