Ikea Comes Up With ‘Name Bank’ To Help Parents As Norway Sees Baby Boom During Covid Pandemic

Since 1948, Ikea has given names, and not product numbers, to its furniture. The brand now wants people to use its experience to find unique names for their babies.

Representational image of an Ikea store.

Source : Getty

Norway has seen a baby boom during the Covid pandemic, and the increase has reportedly created “a challenge in finding unique names”. Coming to the rescue of parents, Swedish retailer Ikea, which is famous for the distinctive names it gives to its products, has used the brand’s experience to build a “name bank” to help them choose a name for the newborns. 

Since 1948, Ikea has given names, and not product numbers, to its furniture. Ikea Norway’s ‘name bank’ has more than 800 listings available on its website, and these names are drawn from the ones Ikea gave to its furniture.

In a statement posted on the website, Ikea Norway said: “After all these years, (Ikea) has built up a large ‘catalog’ to pick from.” 

Ikea usually names its products after Swedish towns, lakes etc, but also uses names that have been traditionally used for humans.

56,060 Babies Born In 2021 

Sharing its idea behind the ‘name bank’, the Norway branch of the retailer said while they saw “both a shortage of raw materials and challenges with delivery times” during the Covid-19 pandemic in Norway, “there is at least no shortage of children” in the Scandinavian country.

According to a report by news agency Associated Press, Norway registered 56,060 births last year, which is 3,081 more than the figure recorded in 2020.

Ikea Norway said this increase has created “a challenge in finding unique names”.

According to the statement posted on the branch’s website, Norway named 33 children ‘Ivar’ in 2020, while ‘Emma’ is on top of the list with 13,000 people given the name. 

The statement says Ikea has “given names to products for more than 70 years” and hence its ‘name bank’ is there “if you are completely stuck, or just want some inspiration” to find the “dream name” for babies.