The language of corporate names: Historical, social, and linguistic factors in the evolution of technology corporation naming practices

This dissertation will examine the way in which technology corporation names have evolved over the past century. Throughout U.S. business history, technology corporations were receiving descriptive names like General Electric (1892) and International Business Machines (1924) and eponymous names like Pitney Bowes (1920) and Hewlett-Packard (1939). When firms started being named with slangy irreverent monikers like FatBrain (1993) and Hawaiian names like Akamai (1999), it was apparent that a significant linguistic change was underway. The choice of technology corporation names in the late 20th century signals a fundamental shift in the way that the corporate community, and possibly a larger population of U.S. English language speakers, perceived and used language.; Considering the role that corporations play in the life of most Americans, very little research has been conducted on corporate language use and linguistic practices. This dissertation will focus on names, an understudied topic in a broader study of language in its own right. The United States corporate setting brings together communities of speakers from a variety of backgrounds with multiplicities of linguistic repertoires. I will attempt to shed light on language production---in the form of corporate names---within this cultural site. Likewise, the community of practice, a diverse linguistic network that exists among the corporate employees, customers, and a broader community consisting of those impacted by corporate language and linguistic practices will be closely examined. This cross disciplinary study relies on work that has been done in Linguistics, Anthropology, Sociology, Literary Studies, and Business Administration to explain patterns of onomastic change. Various factors are discussed including (1) increasingly crowded marketplaces; (2) trademarkability; (3) globalization; and (4) increased corporate intimacy with consumers. I will demonstrate that these changes were not random, not haphazard but involved a combination of socio-historical and linguistic factors that have interacted to bring about dramatic changes in corporate names.