IKEA’s new catalog is all about baby names

ikea baby names

Now you can pick up baby names at IKEA.

The IKEA catalog has inspired countless baby nurseries and kids rooms. Now, IKEA hopes to inspire you to name your baby after their furniture with their new Baby Naming catalog.

“Finding the name of the child can be both difficult and fun,” it says on IKEA Norway website. “We at IKEA have given names to products for more than 70 years. So, if you are completely stuck, or just want some inspiration – here you will find over 800 boy names and girl names.”

In the naming portal, you’ll find name interesting names, from popular names like Ivar to rarer names like Moalie. Meanings of the names are also supplied along with the year IKEA used the name.

What makes IKEA the expert at naming things?

IKEA’s naming team names up to 2000-3000 products a year and takes inspiration from traditional children’s names, as well as the names of cities, lakes, mountains and towns in Scandinavia.

For example, the KALLAX shelf is named after an actual place in the Swedish Lapland, just outside the town of Luleå. Kallax the town, not the furniture, holds an annual fermented herring party where the world congregates to savor its famous, very smelly fermented herring. So, perhaps not name your future kid, Kallax?

Personally, that was how I landed on a pseudonym when I started IKEAhackers. I flipped through the IKEA catalog and found Jules, the chair and thought, that’s me!

IKEA catalog with Baby Names

ikea baby names catalog

According to their press release, 2021 saw over 3,000 more children born in Norway compared to the year before. An increase of over five percent. Parents may find it challenging to come up with unique baby names. And that’s where the naming directory comes in.

The catalog is in alphabetical order. You can search through it via the preferred starting letter. It also has a category which uses the Norwegian alphabet “å,” “æ” or “ø”, if you want uniquely Swedish names.

Running through the baby names, you’ll come across some popular names like Emily, mixed with more Scandinavian ones like Ylva. It’s also fun seeing the products associated with the names and their meanings.

Have fun picking out names and retelling the story to your child, years later, how he or she was named after an IKEA lamp. (That’s you, Daphne!)