You've spent weeks designing a beautiful new feature. The interactions are smooth. The layout is clean. The engineering team built it perfectly. And then someone in a meeting says, "Let's just call it 'New Dashboard v2.'"

Ouch.

Here's the thing: the name of a feature or product isn't just a label. It's a tiny piece of marketing that works for you every single time someone hears it, reads it, or says it out loud. Getting it right can be the difference between something people are excited about and something people forget.

A Name Can Make Something Feel Worth Paying For

Let's start with Apple. In 2025, Apple announced a big redesign of their software look and feel. They could have called it "New UI Design" or "Visual Update 2025." Instead, they called it Liquid Glass.

Say those two words out loud. Liquid Glass.

Now picture what that makes you think of. Something shiny. Smooth. Premium. Almost alive. It sounds like it belongs in a high-end product — which is exactly where Apple wants to be.

The actual change? They made buttons and panels look more transparent and glossy. That's it. But the name makes it feel like a technology breakthrough. It creates a feeling, and feelings drive decisions. When people feel like they're getting something special, they're more likely to buy, upgrade, or talk about it with friends.

This is the power of a name.

"8 Minute Abs" and the Science of the Promise

Now let's go somewhere totally different: a fitness VHS tape from the 1990s called 8 Minute Abs. (You may have seen it referenced in the movie There's Something About Mary.)

The product was a simple abs workout. Nothing magical. But the name did something very smart — it made a specific, believable promise right in the title.

Not "Get Abs Someday." Not "Abs Workout Program." It said: 8 minutes. Abs. Done.

That name removed every excuse a customer might have. "I don't have time"? You have 8 minutes. The name answered the biggest objection before the customer even asked it.

For digital product designers, this is a huge lesson. Features that have names with a built-in benefit — not just a description — are features that sell themselves.

The Ice Cream From Nowhere (That Came From the Bronx)

Here is the wildest naming story in all of business.

In the 1960s, a man named Reuben Mattus was making ice cream in the Bronx, New York. Good ice cream. But the market was crowded, and he wanted his product to feel different — more premium, more special, worth a higher price.

So he made up a name. Completely from scratch. A name that sounds European, with fancy accents over the letters, evoking cozy Scandinavian villages and old-world craftsmanship.

That name was Häagen-Dazs.

Here's the thing: those words mean absolutely nothing. Not in Danish. Not in Swedish. Not in any language on Earth. The umlauts — those two little dots over the "a" — don't even exist in Scandinavian alphabets. Reuben made the whole thing up because he knew that the feeling of a name matters more than what it literally means.

He was selling the same ice cream. Same product, same ingredients. But with that name on the carton, it felt like something you'd discover in a small European shop, not a factory in New York. People paid more for it. They sought it out. They felt good buying it.

Today, Häagen-Dazs is one of the most recognized premium ice cream brands on the planet — built almost entirely on a made-up word designed to make you feel something.

That's not a trick. That's just understanding how people work.

The Three Things a Great Product Name Does

When you're naming a feature in your next design project, a great name does at least one of these three things. The best names do all three.

1. It creates a feeling "Liquid Glass" makes you feel like you're holding the future. What feeling do you want your feature to give people? Speed? Safety? Creativity? The name should hint at that.

2. It makes a promise "8 Minute Abs" tells you exactly what you're getting and when. Your feature's name doesn't have to be that literal, but it should give a sense of what life looks like after using it.

3. It's easy to remember and repeat The best names are short, a little unexpected, and easy to say. If someone can't remember what your feature is called after hearing it once, the name isn't doing its job. Word of mouth is free marketing — but only if people can remember what to say.

Why This Matters for Digital Product Designers

The products and features you build every day live or die by this same idea. Here are some digital examples you almost certainly know — and the plain, boring thing they actually are underneath the name.

Spotify Wrapped is just your yearly listening statistics. A data report. Spotify could have called it "Your 2024 Listening Summary" and people would have glanced at it and moved on. Instead, they called it Wrapped — like a gift. Like something that has been put together especially for you. Every December, millions of people share their Wrapped results on social media without Spotify spending a single dollar asking them to. The name did that.

Snapchat Stories is just a list of photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. That's all. But calling it Stories gave it a narrative shape. It told users: this isn't a random dump of photos, it's a story you're telling about your day. The name was so good that Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp all copied it — not the feature, but the actual word. The name became the standard for an entire format.

Apple's Retina Display is a high-resolution screen. Technically, it just packs more pixels into the same space. Apple could have called it "High Resolution Display" or "Pixel-Dense Screen." Instead, they named it after the human eye itself — your retina. The implication: this screen is so sharp that your own biology can't tell the difference. It sounds less like a spec and more like a biological upgrade. People paid more for it because of that name.

Google Photos Memories is an algorithm that groups your old photos by date and shows them to you again. It is, at its core, an automated slideshow. But call it Memories and suddenly it feels personal. It feels emotional. People don't turn off Memories — they look forward to them. The name changed the entire relationship between the user and what is essentially a piece of code running in the background.

These are not small products made by small teams. These are some of the most-used features on the planet, and in every case, a thoughtful name made them feel like something more than what they technically were.

As a digital product designer, you are making these kinds of decisions all the time. What is this feature called? How do people talk about it? When someone recommends your product to a friend, what word do they use?

That word is a design decision. Treat it like one.

A Quick Exercise to Try

Next time you're working on a feature, try this before you go into visual design mode:

1. Write down what the feature does in plain, boring language.

2. Write down how you want the user to feel when they use it.

3. Write down the biggest problem it solves.

Now look at those three things and try to write a name that touches at least two of them. It doesn't have to be perfect. But the exercise will change how you think about what you're building — and that will show up in your design.

The Bottom Line

Names are not decoration. They are strategy.

Apple didn't call it a "visual update" because they know that names shape perception, and perception shapes value. The 6 Minute Abs tape didn't sell millions of copies because of revolutionary fitness science — it sold because the name spoke directly to a tired, busy person who just wanted a clear promise.

As a digital product designer, you are in the business of making things that people use, love, and tell others about. A great name is one of the cheapest, most powerful tools you have.

Use it on purpose.

Thanks for reading. Now go rename something.