Hello, I’m Sola, a designer.
Today, I’d like to talk about the “naming” (the origins of the names) of SOLAHANPU products. Starting with our flagship product, the slim and compact wallet “Tenuis,” to the multifunctional shoulder bag “Baksteen,” and our other products—there are quite a few with unique names, aren’t there?
Here, I’ll list the names of the main products I’ve worked on so far, along with their meanings.
Tenuis: Latin for “thin, slender, sparse”
Baksteen: Dutch for “brick”
Tynd: Danish for“thin.”
Volare: Italian for “to fly, to take flight.”
Litt: Norwegian for “a little, a bit.”
Minim: Romanian for “minimum.”
Storio: Welsh for “storage.”
And so, as you can see, we’ve named the products we’ve created using words from languages around the world.
In the current trend of minimalist wallets and lightweight bags—such as smartphone shoulder bags, waist pouches, sacoche bags, and chain wallets—you might find many products with straightforward English names.
At SOLA, while we embrace a diverse range of names from around the world, we do take care to ensure that when these names are rendered in katakana in Japan, they aren’t too complex, hard to remember, or difficult to pronounce. No matter how positive the meaning of a word may be, we avoid names that are cumbersome to use.
At the same time, we hope that the meaning and sound of the words will naturally evoke the product’s features, compactness, and functionality.
Two Names I’m Particularly Fond Of
We’ve come up with many names over the years, but the two that stand out most to me are “Tenuis” and “Baksteen.”
I’m quite proud—albeit a bit self-indulgently—that the product image and the names matched so perfectly.
Especially with “Tenuis” (Latin for “thin”), I even get the impression that the name has taken on a life of its own online, transcending the brand name (laughs). I’m delighted that users naturally refer to them as the “Tenuis zipper type” and “Tenuis flap type.”
I also think “Baksteen” (Dutch for “brick”), the name of our multifunctional shoulder bag, fits perfectly with its solid, angular, square shape.
Naming a product is like breathing life into each and every one of them.
I hope that by giving them unique names—rather than simply calling them “thin wallets” or “mini shoulder bags”—you’ll grow even a little attached to them and use them for a long time. With that wish in mind, I’m thinking about names for our next products even today.
Related Article: Wallets: 44 million yen in expectations. The journey of the Tenuis Zipper Type, which became the pinnacle of thin, compact wallets
