What's In A Name?

Joseph Quick

It can be daring or beautiful. Inspiration can come from virtually any source: a person, an event, or an inanimate object. It can simply be a play on words. Its functions are numerous. It must 'grab' the consumer, while at the same time giving an accurate portrayal of what's inside. What, you ask, are we talking about? Why perfume names, of course!

The name of a perfume is more than just identification. It tries to convey a sense of the mysterious liquid that is trapped inside the bottle. Often, the scent of the fragrance is created around the name, which had been determined beforehand. The process of selecting a name today is unlike the past. There are regulations and procedures that must be adhered to. There are corporations in existence that make it their business to register names. They can then sell the names to the highest bidder. For example, when Mlle Carven created Ma Griffe, it was realized that Guerlain held the trademarks to La Griffe and La Griffe Douce. Jean Jacques Guerlain agreed to give the trademarks to Parfums Carven (a move that would likely not happen today). This is the reason that more and more perfumes are named after personalities such as fashion designers or celebrities.

Names have evolved over time, particularly the last 100 years. The first noteworthy changes in the way fragrances are named transpired around the time when synthetic notes were first being developed for use in fragrances. Until this time, perfumes were by and large single florals and were given names that were simple and described the product contained within, such as Bois de Rose, among others.

Chanel Nº5 was a radical change in all respects from other perfumes at the time. Prior to its release, names were centered almost exclusively on one of two themes: flowers or love. Enamored by the success of N°5, others quickly followed suit in. Trying to capitalize on the sensation created by Chanel, Molyneux launched a perfume called The Number Five, Alice Choquet created a scent called Le Double Cinq, and Henri Bendel named a fragrance Cinque Triple Cinque.

Jeanne Lanvin, who built a reputation of designing clothing for mothers and daughters, decided to create a fragrance for her own daughter's 30th birthday. The perfumer who created it wanted something diverse, a scent that would surpass even the flowers found in Grasse. In the end, it took two years and 62 ingredients to complete the project. It was dubbed Arpège because the composition of the ingredients fell into place like an arpeggio, which is a musical term for the playing of tones in rapid succession, rather than simultaneously.

Of course after the stock market crashed in 1929, the ever-ambitious Jean Patou launched 'the costliest perfume in the world.' Marketing disaster, right? Wrong. In spite of the depression, which left 12 million people jobless in the U.S. by 1932, Patou went ahead with the fragrance and named it Joy at a time when many people were looking for any reason to be joyous. He created the perfume to give people optimism and a bit of luxury, which was sorely lacking at the time. The perfume was an immeasurable success, and to this day, each bottle is still filled the same way: drop-by-drop.

Javier Serra, the founder of Dana Parfums was taking a saunter down a street in Nice when he passed a bookshop and his eye caught the cover of the new Sigmund Freud book, "Totem & Taboo." When translated into Spanish, taboo becomes tabu, which of course became the name of the house's first fragrance.

In 1932, Jacques Worth completed a tale that he began eight years earlier. In 1924, he launched Dans La Nuit. He followed that up with Vers le Jour in 1925, Sans Adieu in 1929, and finally Je Reviens in 1932. Put the names together and you have "In the night, just before dawn, because I can't bear to say goodbye, I'm coming back to you."

The Great Depression impoverished the United States and much of the world during the '30s. It took almost fifteen years for the United States to recover after drastic government intervention. Sometimes the fastest way to get the economy moving again is a war. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and within seven weeks had control of virtually all of Europe, including France. The German occupation of France forced many couture houses to close and many people had to flee the country. Paris was liberated in August 1944, and people were finally able to regain a semblance of their life back.
L'air du Temps was launched in 1948. The name can have many meanings, but the best description is that it was a response to the war. The name encourages you to live life to the fullest and take nothing for granted. The name has a feeling of freshness and vitality, which was desperately needed in Europe.

In 1955, Marcel Rochas died unexpectedly. His widow, Hélène Rochas was appointed the new president of Rochas. Five years later she launched Madame Rochas, which was the first perfume to be named after a living person.

In 1961, Hermès launched Calèche, a soft floral chypre. Throughout the years, many have tried to enter the perfume market. Fashion designers were successfully able to accomplish this by following the leads of Chanel, Poiret and Lanvin. Jewelers also entered into the mix, with Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. Glass manufacturers such as Lalique and Baccarat launched their own signature fragrances. Hermès, founded in 1837, was famous for their leather goods, first with saddles and harnesses, and later with clothing and accessories. Although others in the leather goods industry had tried to create perfumes, none were successful until Calèche. The name suits the perfume, as a calèche is a beautiful horse drawn carriage that was popular in the streets of Paris at the turn of the century.

Every so often someone comes along who revolutionizes his or her industry. François Coty and Coco Chanel were two of the earliest innovators, essentially creating modern perfumery. In the second half of the century, there has been one who has consistently surprised and awed us: Yves Saint Laurent. Opium was first conceived in 1972. It was decided that they would create a new oriental fragrance for women, a category that had been ignored for years. Yves Saint Laurent came up with the name after seeing models of the bottle, which was shaped like a Japanese inro. Saint Laurent immediately recognized what the bottle was shaped after and knew that inros were small boxes where samurai would keep their opium. He loved the name and the project went ahead without any hitches until the end. When planning for the launch of the fragrance began, the suits in America became wary of the name because of the fact that opium is an illegal drug. The name was kept and the product became an instant success. It was the power and influence of the Yves Saint Laurent name that legitimized the product and allowed it to be successful.

Much like there is a story behind each and every one of our names, perfumes often have a tale of their own to tell. The buying of fragrance names resembles the madness on today's Internet to register domains. In both cases, the most effective names are both simple, original, and appealing to the consumer in some way.