For a long while there were many General Oil, General Steel, General Motors, General Electric, General Mills, and probably more; we don’t really see this format being used anymore. Why is this?
Why do we never see companies named “General _____” anymore?
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General Motors and Frneral Electric are still major (no pun intended) actuve companies today. "General Oil" didn’t exist, I guess you mean Standard Oil?
Anyway… trends be trends. Why are top hats not a thing anymore? Trends come and trends go.
General Mills and General Dynamics are still alive and well, in addition to General Motors and General Electric as an earlier commenter notes. The business that retained the GE name after Old GE split into three separate companies is GE’s aerospace division.
Also, you’re probably familiar with the products of ConAgra (consolidated agriculture), the modern incarnation of Nebraska Consolidated Mills. Used to be a lot of companies with the word "consolidated."
There is also the Italian insurance giant Generali and the French banking giant Société Générale (literally General Company).
They’ve all been demoted to Colonels and Lieutenants.
The trend is toward clever, memorable, and evocative names.
Everything is already trade marked. You have to be a little bit original to name a company nowadays.
Cause now the General just gets you a great low rate you can get online.
You mean besides dollar general, general motors, general electric, and general atomics?
Because they’ve all been promoted . They are now Colonels. ☺️😌
Acme is also not popular anymore.
Well, generally, the names are already taken.
It feels to me like “general” is a dated term. The meaning and connotations don’t feel very special or contemporary.
The “general store” from the Waltons and Little House on the Prairie evoke these stale, dusty, old-fashioned associations. Most brands today probably don’t want to be have those kinds of attributes.
You want an X or Z in your product name nowadays.
There is literally a insurance company called the general
If i’m to take a stab at this in a growing world ‘general’ sounds good because it implies versitility.
As technologies mature specific solutions show their value over general ones. Your grandad would have looked for some oil that did everything. Put it in the car but will this also work for gate hinges? You probably want the one specific to the application because more advanced technology is fussier.
The appeal of a word will change over time. I imagine ‘plus’ and ‘max’ will decrease in popularity too, possibly as people look to sustainability?
Super is getting a bit passé already imho.
in 10 yrs there willbe no -ly business names
I just saw an old tractor trailer that had “General Gerber Construction” painted on the side of it.
Man, what a baby…
Im going to name my company General Fuckery just for you
General Fusion is fairly new. Invest now!
They’ll probably get sued by general.